financialtimes been owned. LMAO.

Maybe I am mistaken

but I was under the impression, from lots of posts on these forums and other media, that when the new stadium was built the crowds would increase significantly from those at the Willows.

This had nothing to do with how good/bad the team was

it was stated as it was going to happen as a matter of course.

That seems to have been disproved.

I don't know the Manchester/Salford area all that well but looking a certain site which shows overhead piccies of areas there doesn't seem to be a great deal of housing in the local vicinity.

Therefore the assumption is then, as the ground was being planned, they new there were good public transport links, good access and parking for all those who drove, and easy walk up facilities for the few locals. This did happen didn't it?

Give me Cougar Park any day!

The lower figure includes all games William yours just the premiership with all the deals they throw in, having been a few times but never paid as kids got freebies

I see you’ve chosen to only use Sale’s Premiership games to arrive at your figure and comparing Salford’s 2013 attendances to them isn’t a true reflection, given our turbulent troubles off field last year. Our 2012 average was higher than Sale’s is this season, our 2014 average will be too.

On another matter even the most die hard Sale fans are questioning the attendance figures announced at games, with many believing the actual crowd to be much less. I don’t see what benefit the Sharks would get from announcing a higher number apart from the obvious avoidance of embarrassment

Cash turnstiles aren't that hard to administer, particularly if you've got the necessary coins/notes for change to hand. And it's more convenient than queuing up twice, once to buy a ticket and once to get through the turnstile. So entry to the ground is actually quicker. Scanning the tickets doesn't always work first time, too. I was stood a few times waiting for the G4S robot on the turnstiles having two or three goes on scanning my card.

I agree it is more convenient, but only marginally. I just dont agree cash turnstiles are required at our stadium or any other stadium in Super League. The number of complaints I've seen regarding this is minimal, as it isnt too hard to pre-purchase, pre-order, pre-print a ticket or buy on the day.

I know from our friendly vs Leigh last week that they werent operating a cash turnstile, so I pre ordered and collected from reception with no fuss.

Salford fans sniping at Salford fans. I've seen it all now.

With all due respect, attendance comparisons ought be as close to a like-for-like comparison as possible in order to provide a truer reflection. In this particular case, that would be a straight comparison between Sale's Aviva Premiership home attendances and Salford's Super League home attendances which shows that Sale's attendances are double the size of Salford's.

It's clear that home attendances at Sale's cup games are (in most cases) only half of what they get for their Aviva Premiership fixtures. I'm quite sure that if there were enough Salford Challenge Cup home attendances to include in their figures, their overall attendance average would also nosedive even further than they already are since it's common knowledge that Challenge Cup attendances across the board are significantly lower than regular season Super League attendances.

When I was posting the SL attendance stats last season which highlighted Salford's 2013 home attendances (in spite of all the cheap deals on tickets) hovering around 45% down on 2012, several Salford apologists questioned the 2012 attendance figures claiming they were far lower than the attendance figures officially reported.

Not always so simple, particularly if someone doesn't know they're going until last minute. People have been known to end up queuing for 20, 30 even 40 minutes since the stadium opened. That was getting there in plenty of time, too. The need for the staff to take every last detail off someone before giving them a ticket didn't help. A cash turnstile is much simpler, much more convenient and a lot easier to handle. But, we're stuck with what we've got, at least whilst G4S are involved, so there's no point going round in circles over this.



Arf.



Well, there were usually 2 or 3 attendance figures given in various quarters for each of our home games, with questions asked about which were actually the genuine ones. Certain comments from Koukash and the new regime of staff suggest the lower ones were nearer the mark. Something which all those who'd been stood in the ground laughing at our announced attendances could heartily agree with.

Nowt to do with being an apologist, more pointing out that the previous incumbents of our club did everything they could to make it look like the stadium was working fine for us.