Marwan Koukash and Martin Vickers both attended a meeting at Swinton Legion last night infront of a packed (approx 250) audience. Here's a summary provided to me by a friend who attended.

Marwan's plan is to build a 3,000 capacity stadium on the former St Ambrose Barlow site with him taking over complete ownership of the club. There would be a partnership formed between both Salford and Swinton (makes sense) which would give the Lions access to our players, backroom staff and facilities.

He also confirmed his intention to host an additional friendly vs Swinton with all proceedings going to the Lions as a good will gesture for their assistance in our hour a need. A touch which many of us suggested earlier in the close season, bizzarely the friendly probably wont be played until late February.

The reason for building Swinton their own stadium was because he believes it's crucial that every club owns it's home ground, purely because of the revenue generated on match days needs to go to clubs as oppossed to other stadium owners, as at Barton.

Ultimately though all this depends on the relevant support from the City Council. Koukash is expecting a response/answer within the next 7 days and although his plans include NO funding from the Council, their support regarding planning and sale of the land will be critical. Due to the education nature of the site previously consent would be required from Central Government via the Secretary of State prior to obtaining full planning permissiong. This gives an estimated time frame for delivery as 2 years. They did consider the Agecroft site but felt it didnt scope for development.

1,600 people signed the petition which I posted on here too which Koukash acknowledged and said support is there for the development.

In the meantime, Swinton would continue to play some games at the Leigh Sports Village but also when Salford were due a home game preferably on a Sunday there could be double headers. He also promised to invest in their squad as he has done at Salford.

There was also a "plan B" discussion after Marwan's talk which regarded the Swinton Lions Trust and their back up plan to owning the club should Marwan's plans not come to fruition.

There's an article in today's MEN about it all too www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/ ... ns-6521770

Marwan Koukash and Martin Vickers both attended a meeting at Swinton Legion last night infront of a packed (approx 250) audience. Here's a summary provided to me by a friend who attended.

Marwan's plan is to build a 3,000 capacity stadium on the former St Ambrose Barlow site with him taking over complete ownership of the club. There would be a partnership formed between both Salford and Swinton (makes sense) which would give the Lions access to our players, backroom staff and facilities.

He also confirmed his intention to host an additional friendly vs Swinton with all proceedings going to the Lions as a good will gesture for their assistance in our hour a need. A touch which many of us suggested earlier in the close season, bizzarely the friendly probably wont be played until late February.

The reason for building Swinton their own stadium was because he believes it's crucial that every club owns it's home ground, purely because of the revenue generated on match days needs to go to clubs as oppossed to other stadium owners, as at Barton.

Ultimately though all this depends on the relevant support from the City Council. Koukash is expecting a response/answer within the next 7 days and although his plans include NO funding from the Council, their support regarding planning and sale of the land will be critical. Due to the education nature of the site previously consent would be required from Central Government via the Secretary of State prior to obtaining full planning permissiong. This gives an estimated time frame for delivery as 2 years. They did consider the Agecroft site but felt it didnt scope for development.

1,600 people signed the petition which I posted on here too which Koukash acknowledged and said support is there for the development.

In the meantime, Swinton would continue to play some games at the Leigh Sports Village but also when Salford were due a home game preferably on a Sunday there could be double headers. He also promised to invest in their squad as he has done at Salford.

There was also a "plan B" discussion after Marwan's talk which regarded the Swinton Lions Trust and their back up plan to owning the club should Marwan's plans not come to fruition.

There's an article in today's MEN about it all too www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/ ... ns-6521770