The Ambrose Barlow stadium?

Not familiar with that?

If you've read any of my other posts regarding Koukash and Swinton you'll see I am behind the Doctor building Swinton a new stadium. Nothing major, maybe 5,000 capacity with room for expansion around the four corners. It needs to be a community facility though, perhaps shared by Salford City FC and there needs to be pitches available for Folly Lane ARLFC at least (other local clubs too if they wished), there also needs to be learning facilities on site for those seeking re-employment etc (see Hull KR's new North Stand development for further information).

You're going to have to accept moving into Barton for a little first though, as any ideas like the above wont happen for a good few years.

My guess if he does buy Swinton and they are too play at Barton then he'll try and get them playing before our homes games, would increase the crowd and allow for a larger audience to see semi professional games. This would also male it cheaper to promote both clubs and allow for a better chance of selling sponsorship/corporate packages for two games.

Can't see anyone looking to build a different stadium as surely having a 2nd team owned by the Doc using the facilities would add credence to his attempts to buy the stadium outright. Can see the building of further facilities on site or the area surrounding becoming more necessary, as someone else says possibly looking at some form of educational facility onsite would be a good idea especially if a local uni became involved and used the facilities for some form of sports science facility.

One issue I see with this is do Swinton not have a contract to use Leigh and if so how long does that have too run?

Just been on the Swinton Forum site, to see what the Swinton fans make of the possible buy out.
Not a thing, the last post on any subject was on October 23rd

cannot believe it, Remember this time last year how we felt and what our message boardewas like

Why would we want the Doctor at Leigh?We already have a better Stadium than yours , as you say we have a good catchment area , 2 or the best Amatuer teams in the area , a if we were in SL our crowds wouls be similar to Salfords .

At the moment we have a very good young Coach , and a very open Forward thinking BOD would are committed to putting cash into our club , we have more Sponsers coming through , so why would we need Salford ?Answer ?We wouldn't .Charlie knows .

they post on total rl not here.

I agree, although not with the stadium, lol ( i like ours better) Leigh are better on their own IMO, hopefully the new BOD can keeping them going in the right direction.
Like you say the player pool in Leigh is great although I can see Salford scouting the area along with Wigan in the future,but although probably not as a SL club they will continue to flourish for years to come.

A lot of very interesting opinions here and a few I could dispel right away having been privy to a number of meetings concerning Swinton. It is right however that these are not discussed on here just yet.
One poster makes the point about MK only looking to buy Swinton if there was a profit angle, well in fairness he would never have looked at Salford, Oldham or Swinton if this was the case. Rugby League clubs bar a couple in this country just do not make large profitable returns. MK is an investor ( investing currently on the refurbishment of a hotel in Liverpool) so you have to look at the wider picture.
The local council will never help Swinton or any other sporting club in the area and sadly that is down to the previous help afforded Salford, therefore the only way Swinton will get back into the town is with a long term investor.

Many Lions fans didn't like the link with Warrington and they are entitled to have their opinion but personally clubs in the lower divisions have to cut their cloth accordingly and it meant a better quality of player being made available at little or no cost. This ridiculous phrase feeder club has been around for years as rightly pointed out by another poster, better players will always want to chance their arm in the top league and most Championship players move on at the end of a season anyway as the are on year only contracts. If it happens and Koucash does buy into Swinton then personally so long as we keep our own identity, pairing with Salford is no different to pairing with Warrington.I do however think that the RL should ensure the numbers are kept to a fair amount, it is interesting to see teams in the Championship who dispelled a link up are no taking up the option.

My Pal Michegan Red ( will someone please tell him to get me unblocked as he was shaking my hand last Saturday) has a very valid point in terms of Swinton using Barton, I fully agree that the match day experience could well take the format of the Lions playing before the SL game, a major stumbling block however may well be the contract Sale signed in respect of pitch usage.
Time will tell if this is going to happen but for me,like Salford were this time last year, we have no real option.

I am very sorry about Swinton's problems. A great history. My dad told me about epic games. Salford v Swinton I remember going to the Saints v Wakefield game at Station Rd in the 60's a packed house, a great venue gone forever. We should not allow this club to die.

So now we have a real justifiable reason for the blue seats at the AJ Bell.

It was said during the stadium tour on Sunday that if MK bought Swinton he intends to build them a stadium, not have them play at Barton.

I can't see a new stadium happening at all,despite what was said on the tour.
I may be proved wrong ,but it can't make financial sense and ,behind the bluster,he has a shrewd business brain.

Makes absolute sense if Koukash wants Swinton to succed. Plus the City needs a community stadium, the one we unfortunatly play in didnt deliver at all in that respect as far as I am concerned. It wouldnt cost him much either, potential total build cost of £4-5million with most of which paid for through grants and partnerships.

That may be true but MK isn't responsible for or interested in what the City needs.
If it can be sorted through grants and partnerships,it doesn't need him presumably .
The bit that we need to realise is that he hasn't achieved the success he's had by flashing £4 or £5 million here there and everywhere.
It's cost him a couple of million so far,I think he said,so he's hardly going to spend twice that on a community stadium.
I'd love him to but surely we need to face reality.
As I've said earlier,his only interest in Swinton would be to enhance the Salford project.