Whilst it was a grim night in February 2012, Salford only managed to attract 5424 to their first game at the new stadium, almost half the 10146 that attended their last game at The Willows - so never a good starting point.

Also, didn't you have a moneybags person as well? how did that end up?

Looking back a bit, Salford's average attendances upto 2012, at The Willows were nearer to 4000, so an assumption of doubling that purely down to a new location seemed wildly optimistic.

i seem to recall thinking at the time, being disappointed that they didn't get teh last season influx, lapsed fans coming back for one last look,

Warrington were lucky with their stadium.
The luxury of political help - is he now Lord Hoyle,the former Labour politician,plus the Tesco link.
Salford were unlucky,2008/9 the banking crash.
Some councils want stadia - some don't.

Perhaps Super League will reject clubs,like Wigan who have to share stadia owned by an outside sport.
Or clubs like Leigh,who don't own the Sports Village.
Newcastle won't get into Super League,nor York,as their stadia owned by Union and soccer clubs,respectively.

IIRC I don't recall much "luck & luxury" in Wires rough & rocky journey to a new stadium.

I do recall 7-10 yrs of planning & financial wranglings and uncertainty of whether the club had a viable future.

Hull's average went from 7k in the final season at the Boulevard to 11.5k in the first season at the KC. But a big factor is we had a lot of fans who had drifted away during our dreary 90s where we played on division2, struggled financially and became the Sharks etc we also improved on the field around that time and winning the Cup in 2005 and then reaching a Grand Final in 2006 probably converted those 'new' fans into lifetime ones.

Salford have been in the doldrums for years and sadly due to Covid the boost from their afinals appearances has been muted, and a lot of the team have moved on rather than containing to build.

You are right that location is a big factor, luckily in Hull we moved to pretty much a centre spot between The Boulevard and Boothferry Park to suit both fanbases with good train and bus links. Moving to an out of town retail park hasn't been good for many teams in Football. Fans are hard to win back when they have got out of a habit, and for some being able to wander from the Pub, or meet their mate at a bus stop etc is part of the day out.

Indeed, as i say, Winwick road link to the motorway is fantastic (apart from the traffic) and having central a stones throw away as well is a massive help.

All the town centre parking as well.

One thing that does get forgotten about, is removing Bridge Foot aka spaghetti junction from the traffic equation, coming from the north it was virtually impossible to miss if you were heading to wilderspool.

I think you missed the irony of my post.

Yeah I was there. It was about minus 5 IIRC.

And let's be honest half of those who turned uo at The Willows for the Catalans game did it to say I was there (exactly as they did at the Grand Final). I'm under no illusion we get small crowds.

BTW, you and Mr DogPlop are conveniently missing the point that we were forced out of the Willows by Super League who said the ground wasn't up to scratch but have since allowed Wakey and Cas to remain in their ultra modern abodes. Those s are every bit as much to blame for the shambles.

Edit: To clarify I'm referring to those s as in SL and not Wakey or Cas.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing and perhaps you should have held your ground (pun intended) and redeveloped the Willows. The 8k average attendance to support your move to the new ground was a club figure as I understand it and was always a big ask.

A triumvirate of you Cas and Wakey would be better placed to resist the mandate of new ground requirements if you worked that ticket together

Btw the previous poster saying that some local authorities should support stadiums like we Wire were lucky well yes we are but Salford's stadium is owned jointly by Salford City Council and came at a cost. The location although not as central as the Willows is there such a thing in Salford, wasn't a big surprise either I just think that you the supporters were victims of a combination of desperation and pipedreams