Quote ="SaleSlim"You obviously missed the bit about us making NO MATCH DAY REVENUE (except ticket sales) and having lost income from the likes of the Variety Centre and Vault Bar, which were an integral income stream at The Willows. You also missed the part about alienating fans by moving out of the heart of the city. Apart from Saints (who have a successful team and a lot larger fan base) I can't think of any other SL club whose ground is in a more fan-unfriendly spot. I forgot to mention the continual excuses from away fans saying they can't get to the AJ Bell as it's situated somewhere just outside the Arctic Circle (and subsequent further loss in income)
Cas & Wakey may still be in dilapidated grounds but at least they're taking in a decent amount of revenue and actually own their grounds. We were bullied into moving with threats of expulsion yet 8 years after we played our final game at The Willows Cas & Wakey are still part of the SL set-up.
Don't get me wrong, considering they're from the "dark side"
I actually have a lot of time for both clubs, there just appears to be a set of double standards in relation to how the whole stadium shenanigans have been handled.'"
Salford weren’t bullied into selling their stadium to pay off debts. That’s entirely on them and no-one else.
I have sympathy with the current owners predicament as with Wakefield and Cas. But Salford lost the right to choose their own destiny when they decided to distort the league and consistently spend more money than they brought in. Well they bet that right anyway, and it didn’t pay off.
The same is true with Cas and Wakefield who have both spent miniscule amounts of money on their stadiums over the last 60+ years and again distorted the league by spending more on players than they could actually afford.
They are not the only clubs of course, plenty of clubs did and Cas, Wakefield and Salford have perhaps been amongst the “unlucky” ones. But it was still within their power to maintain their stadiums and they didn’t.
That is not the fault of the current owners and so the sport should do what it can to help get better, sustainable, profitable facilities for the clubs but let’s not forget why the clubs are in this position in the first place, and it’s got sod all to do with the RFL or a local council or anyone else.
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