You are a true fan Bostwick.

Any knockers haven't a clue.

What is a "true" fan?

one who supports the club not just for silverware

We have always struggled with money, even under wiky (chairman before Koukash). The SAS meeting was horrible, we needed to raise 600,000 in 6 weeks then koukash stepped in. Think the council have helped us out a lot paying our rent for the ground (when that stops i will worry). Thing that annoys me was the likes of koukash, saying hes leaving because the fans wasnt backing him (many reason why the fans didn't back him) As for crowds, we have proven in semi final cup games and bank holidays that we can have a good crowd, success bring crowd in not a good run of games. Also marketing at salford apart from this year have been terrible

That’s a load of rubbish. Look at cas. Not had any success nor will they with a smaller catchment area than Salford yet still have much higher crowds

Salford's ground is in an awful location that is not very well accessible by public transport from Manchester city centre. There is a bus but it takes the best part of an hour, and it doesn't run every ten minutes either. Not great if you want to make it back for a train home after a Friday night game. That might not affect Sale much as I imagine most of their fans live outside the immediate area and travel to games by car, so being near a motorway junction is better for them. Salford fans will see it as more of a hassle though as the ground is no longer in the heart of their community like the Willows was. Also if you're travelling to games from another part of the Manchester area, or you're an away fan getting off a train in the city centre, you just had to get on a tram to Weaste before. It's now a lot less convenient to get to by any mode other than by car, and as such I imagine plenty just decide not to bother.

I agree with your point DM as far as it not being part of the community, but, what is good for Sale is also good for Salford Fans travelling from other parts parts of the Manchester area and Away Fans so it doesn't quite stack up. Although yes the vast majority of Sale home fans will be travelling

BTW the grounds are about 5 miles apart and there is plenty of connectivity between Weaste and Peel Green even if you had to go via the old ground to get to the new one. I don't get that many Salford Fans will be starting their journeys in Manchester City Centre or historically relied upon a tram from Piccadilly to Weaste it certainly wasn't around for the most part of their history.

Salford's fan base IMO or lack of it is due to the make up of Salford as a city, it's spread out and not really one community, there is a great appetite for Association Football, they've had little to shout about since the early 70's and even then crowds weren't in 5 figures, I think the last game ever at the Willows attracted 10,000 but week to week the club relies upon a hard core of less than a third of that number. It's a tough sell and yes the ground could be in a better location and they've lost some fans in the moving process but the thing that would get people taking about and attending RL in Salford is success.

They could double their numbers and if they ever got to Wembley then they'd take plenty for a day out the trick being able to retain some of those fans

£27 on match today today, the big boys are in town. Hiking up the price fot a big following, way to go to get people through the door, whats that all about.

Fair point, I probably fell into the trap of stereotyping RU match goers as more upper/middle class types less likely to be travelling to games by public transport. Sale fans that do travel by that method won't like the location either! Speaking as someone who has never driven in my life and is never likely to, I see Salford's ground as miles away when it's actually the closest Super League ground to where I live. Getting to a home game in Warrington by train is quicker from Manchester than getting to Salford. That doesn't do them any favours does it?

No it isn't ideally located, although I'm just off to my local pub in Monton (Eccles) for a quick beer with some Eccles based Salford Fans pre match and it's probably 50/50 them getting to either ground, all be it the other is now gone.

Where I think the game let Salford down was the threat of SL status based in some part on the quality of your ground. Salford were in a mess, the new ground offer came along at the right time as it suited a variety of none RL agendas I don't think that the Salford plan ever stacked up projected numbers wise very optimistic and the uplift that we had from Wilderspool to the HJ couldn't be repeated as the AJ Bell was pretty much rejected day 1 and the die was cast.

The rest is history and it's not over yet I know this Forum isn't an indicator of Salford's fan base but two (in my case ex pat) Wire fans discussing Salford's predicament probably says something about their plight

Salford fans post on another forum so actually it says nothing at all.

Our move from Wilderspool to the HJ revitalised us as a club because as well as being a nice shiny new ground, it was also perfectly located right on the edge of the town centre, just five minutes walk from a train station that connects to the town's small local stations, the two major cities either side of us, and Yorkshire for a large number of away fans. Also within that proximity are the town's bus station and the main shopping centre. Wilderspool was actually tucked away, but there can't be anyone in Warrington who doesn't know where the HJ is, even if they've never been inside it. Salford would have had to go to the Quays for a similar level of exposure, and I acknowledge that was probably completely impossible financially. I do remember there being loads of talk of us moving to various locations on the very fringes of Warrington before we secured the HJ site, and I thought at the time it would be the death of the club if it happened. Die hards would go to wherever it was, but more casual fans would drift away. Luckily we got the ideal spot in the end, but Salford emphatically didn't. It might be as close to Eccles as the Willows is, but it's much further from the likes of Ordsall and Broughton, and I think the lack of a train or tram stop within a few minutes walk is very prohibitive. They're stuck with it now though unfortunately.

Why don't Salford fans go to the ground by car, perhaps by carpool?

They can share with the Catalan and Toulouse away followers then cant they.

It's all relative to how you perceive it, as an away fan, yes it takes longer to get out of stadium carpark but then it's like half a mile and back in motorway, used to take longer to get back on motorway from he willows but back to the car and away quicker, overall it evens it self out. And as I live 25 miles away from headingley and 3 Rl clubs are closer to home for me I just see driving to any game home and away as just part of the game day. If Cas ever get the new stadium I will use the short rail journey, but can walk from my parents house to Cas ground anyway. I can probably see why home fans get a bit miffed if public transportation to the stadium is poor, but surely the entire Salford fan base was not 800m radius from the willows and people still had to drive before, surely for a number of fans the stadium is now closer.