And that is where my concern lies. Hopefully the coucil wouldn't allow this to happen, but that is he inherent concern I have. I can live with them sharing a stadium, but I fear for us being at Kennedy's mercy.

I think Mr Kennedy has learned the hard way from buying a stadium and infuriating the other tenants. He's become extremely unpopular in Stockport and I think this is one of the main reasons Sale are looking to move.



Like I said the Council and Peel will not want this to fail. Is it worth trying to really maximise early profits for the sake of the longer term potential?

Even the alternative is that Kennedy buys the stadium, leaves the rent the same but then takes all the income from the catering and hospitality etc (though will Salford see much of that anyway?)

I agree with you. I book a pitch at the Soccerdome every week, the price does not go down if someone else uses the pitch when I'm not there. As a succesful business, Peel would be mental to lower our rates because Kennedy's lot are there.

We're over a barrell, we're moving in, rates agreed (I assume) etc. If anything, the negotiation upper hand when it comes to rates, hospitality profit share etc belongs to Kennedy.

i would love to know what deal salford get from staidum.

For example, what proportion of ticket sales/drinks/corporate etc we get to keep.

Also, how much the rent is and how this compares to the costs of running the willows.

Surely, whatever we're paying at COS, MUST be less than the willows else it wouldnt be benficial moving.


The one thing that worries me about sale moving in, is that it could be known as 'sales stadium' whereas we want it to be known as salfords ground/......hence attracting more people to come and watch us...not sale. hopefully our markting team can pull their finger out and get a good campaign going in our first year in staidum

It goes way beyond just charging a team to play there. The more activity at the stadium the more profit will be made from naming rights, advertising and providing food & drink. Sale won't want to come and pay full rent as a sole tenant would, they'll have weighed it up and worked out a shared rent is more attractive to them.

Do you honestly think he gives a shiny one about how he's upset people in Stockport because I don't for one minute. The reason he's looking to move, from what I can gather, is purely financial - he wants more revenue from corporate "clients" and he can't get this at Stockport. Simple.

I agree the Sale would use these factors to get a lower "rent" and probably a higher share of profit from other concessions and hospitality.

However, how would this benefit Salford (which is all I'm bothered about). I may be wrong, but I'd assume that all rates, profit sharing etc has been signed off by all parties and I'm also assuming that this is for a set period of time.

Salford Council will put our interests first.
If Sale want to play at the new stadium they will come in as commercial tenants and why not?
The split of revenue and/or costs of operating at Irlam are a matter for the Board.
The new ground is the only show in town,the only option to stay in Super League.
Just lie back and enjoy it and let others worry about the numbers.
Wakefield are here on Friday and their supporters would give their right arms for what we have,shared ground or not.

Yes I do. BK has had nothing but personal abuse from Stockport County fans for years. Fans even wear offensive T shirts and take offensive banners to Edgeley Park. Stockport County fans hate him and he knows it. He has tried several times to appease them without any success. Why try and appease these people if he doesn't give a shiny?



Just to explain my understanding of how I think it works. The hospitality packages are sold by the club. They will offer a package at say £100 her head for Ticket, match programme advert, 3 course meal. and a parking for say every 4. The Stadium Managements catering contractor will then charge the club say £20 a head for the meal and this is how they make their money. It it then obviously up to the club to sell as many hospitality packages as possible to make more money. Consider though that the club will have extra capacity of 750 to sell rather than say 200 at present. The Catering contractors will not solely rely on rugby matches alone, they will have their own sales team selling out the room(s) for functions, business conferences 52 weeks a year. A club will also have it's own matchday sponsors for things such as matchballs, match sponsor etc.

Concessions such as stadium kiosks I think are different and all the profit will go to the catering contractors.

Not sure why.

Fact is, it's a different sport. It's a crap one to be fair, but a different one. I have the Union v League debate all the time at work, and every time I wonder why once the debate has finished. People don't argue between tennis and badminton.... where the princliples are the same but the sports are very different... so why do we ? I'm sure I would take in a game or two if they were based there.... It's not like I would give up league to watch it... and I don't think anybody else would.... and I bet I wouldn't be the only one to go to games there either.... If they moved Man City reserves in I'd watch some of their games too... despite being a United fan... So I'm not sure where the crime is.

It's a stadium that is being built in Salford... by the council... so they would be shooting themselves in the foot to be promoting a club without the Salford name. Course they will want people to watch Sale there.... but it's in their interests as a City to have Salford as the primary tennants and promote our games.

Salford needn't worry about anyone moving into Barton as joint tennants.Aslong as the club retains control of the purse strings and sets it's own budgets it will either stand or fall by what it does.I would think more of a concern is to get the product on the pitch correct rather than worring about the effects Sale Sharks may or may not have.
They will just be another tennant paying a level of rent set by the owners of the stadium, I can't understand why Salford never chose the option of remaining at the Willows which as I have said many times is a proper Rugby ground, yes tired at the moment but that is down to lack of investment over the years by various administrations but what would it have looked like had a couple of millionm been spent on it which I would have the club could have afforded thereby remaining master of their own destiny.

I also must say that the playing surface currently is second to non it was in fantastic condition when I was at Swintons game last Friday it will be such a shame to see yet another historic ground go they way many others have.

am enjoying the debate and as i said earlier got a foot in both camps. It has been mentioned in the thread about mr kennedy and wouldnt trust the fella as far as i could throw him. Stockport havent helped themselves by having supporters trust inplace who were very amateurish in a professional environment. Sale moved in and the rest is history my football team is non league for 1st time in over 100years. Dont want my rugby team to suffer from his meddling.

Only time will tell .... I am of the opinion this is the worse case scenario potentially for the Reds....didn't Sir John invite this Kennedy clown along for preliminary talks when the original Stadium plan was first mooted?...I believe he wanted to run the show then ...so what would be different now with Salford in a weaker position?...Unfortunately it is out of Salford's control... sharing with another Rugby team albeit from the other code also damages the prospect of attracting new fans ....if some guy wants to take his son along to a game for the 1st time in the new stadium ....he will now have a choice which kinda defeats the object of one of the benefits of the move

Can't be d reading through every post, but I'd bet that at least one person has mentioned something along the lines of they work with a Stockport fan and Sale are the devil. Am I correct?

If that's the case, then don't let one person sway your opinion.

Always enjoyed going to Stockport as it's down the road from Wythenshawe, but I've had about enough of it now. Their fans are very one dimensional, and although they have indeed been f*cked over along the way (not necessarily saying Sale have done it to them, though Kennedy isn't my favourite person either) - they can't do anything but blame anybody else. At the end of the day, they weren't blaming us 3 years ago this week when they got promoted to League 1, were they? A lot has happened to them and it's not black and white, but we don't dictate what they do on the pitch

The sad thing is that a load of their fans just can't see past the powers that be doing things they don't like and decide take it out on Sale's fans. Some of the stories about before and after a Sale home game are reminiscent of 1970's Football matches. They don't happen very often but there are verbal and sometimes physical attacks by idiots.

I still have some respect for Stockport County as a Football club and I'd hate to see them disappear completely. But in terms of the relationship between the 2 clubs it has run it's course

I personally look forward to a ground share with Salford. But you're all fairly intelligent people, I'm sure. So don't let a couple of people scare you off because they think Kennedy will want to make the ground his and make you 2nd class citizens. Your chairman has been quite vocal since the development of the ground about the hard work you've put into it and not wanting that to be taken over by somebody - and quite right.

We're not a bad bunch and we're only on the doorstep. We're both competing with a couple of small teams called United and City, don't know if you've heard of them - so IF it does happen I think we all need to stick together.

Be nice to have a modern ground with great facilities - and not to mention standing areas!