Agree and I know all about the Vichy stuff as well but that was 70 years ago and there are now many people under 50 who just want to watch entertaining RL. This is what Salford at last are trying to do and its the `floaters` we need to attract to come through the turnstiles otherwise we just wont survive.

DT

'Whole business of sport is a money eating machine'

Presenter makes point of Salford putting plenty of money and effort in stadium development and that its good Salford can benefit financially from this.

Re fixture scheduling: DT 'It should sort itself out - fixture list is published and whoever plays at stadium need to work around that'

Clubs are looking to work together in Marketing, Media, Sports Science and Football development.

Presenter: Are we looking at a harlequins type deal 2 clubs merging? DT: No, both clubs will remain seperate but we will try to engage in a working partnership to reduce costs and improve both clubs, but who knows what could happen five years down the line, its like politics, things can change quickly.

Thats it in summary.

Probably the most angry ive ever seen you EB dont snap at Av it he is on ickle

Serious point i do agree with your point that we as a club need to look at attracting spectators from outside our own city and expand into the Greater manchester area i do feel we need to try and reconnect with the people of salford tho i understand that cost of billboards / posters are very expensive but im sure there are ways for free we can go to the people of the city and say "we are your team, we represent your city, we are the beakon of light you can be proud of" somthing that we will need to do more now we have a rival team in our area.

There is talk of a new junior devils supporters club being set up on the official facebook page and I do feel that our new devil mascot will help generate interest in the local schools if / when our develeopment team visits as long as it has a personality and the club market it as an individual like ronny the rhino not just a bloke in a suit

It worries me too but it was more a never say never comment if anything. As for marketing, I'd like to see the club invest in a small portable stand/stall with screens, heavily branded with the Reds logo and Super League logo. I'd have the screens showing match highlights (of victories obviously) and a couple of players in attendance, maybe a couple of good looking girls to draw people in too. I'd have it out in the week prior to a game, in locations like The Lowry/MediaCity, Trafford Centre, Market Street, Pendleton, Swinton, Eccles - anywhere with a decent footfall basically. Have the players giving out Reds branded mini-balls to kids, a competition and giving out taster tickets, taking people's contact details in return for a ticket. Monitor the tickets that are used, and in the couple of days after the game, call the attendee's up, get feedback and if its positive, offer them say a 3 game ticket for £20 or so.

I know it'd be expensive initially but I really do think that something like this could help to raise awareness of our club and hopefully attract new fans. I'm not so sure that the cluib has tried anything like this before? It'd be a step forward from batch emailing free match tickets out for sure!

MikeGC, why not come over to the union thread? There's another Sale Sharks fan on there and I assure you the reception will be warmer than the one afforded to you by mitie mouse.

I know MikeGC - I post on the Sale forum as J Moon, Mike - Hello!

It really is sad what impact a load of bile from Stockport fans has had on people. I feared this day, Salford fans latching on to whatever rubbish they'd heard in the office. I'm not going into politics. I'm not a massive fan of Brian Kennedy if I'm honest. I don't agree with the way some of the Stockport dealings were handled, but they were in a position to fend for themselves in the end which is what they wanted and they f*cked it up.

You really couldn't meet a nicer bunch of fans than the Sale lot. Even the Stockport fans over on the Yellow Board admit that. Yet one of two idiots on here seem to have taken Mike's very genuine welcoming message as patronising. The majority on here seem to talk sense, even if it's not necessarily something I agree with. Most of it is well informed and people are entitled to their opinions.

I'm personally hoping it's a load of keyboard warriors, as I went to Salford vs Leeds with my Sale hat on and didn't get any stick. I spoke to a few people who were all nice enough with me and didn't even comment on it.

I hate that we're seen as a club who want to take over and dominate everything. We're a mid table team who average just less than 8,000 people. We're not Manchester City, trying to poach everything we can get, turning Hyde FC into their feeder club and rebranding them and changing their home kit to blue. The key word is in this thread title - co-tenancy. Where does it say we're going to come and wipe Salford out? Sure, Steve Diamond has a big gob on him and has talked about trying to become this Northern super club. That's just marketing though. It sells, it brings headlines, it's working to be fair. The papers and internet have been full of talk about Sale in the past 2 weeks.

I think you all need to realise the position most Sale fans are in. We're Rugby traditionalists too. We don't see the vision the club has a lot of the time. Most of us like being little old Sale. We don't want a name change, we don't want to be seen as trying to poach players from Salford's youth system like some people seem to have interpreted Steve Diamond's comments. We only have one chant and that's "SAY-ULL", none of us really like the Sharks branding idea, none of us are egotistical toffs who couldn't give a cr@p about Salford and hope you go bust or anything. A good fraction of our fans have already been to watch a Salford game. Some are talking about the idea of a joint season ticket and saying they'd watch both.

Most of us didn't want this move. Not in a disrespectful way to Salford. You're a great club with a great history. More the logistics. We didn't want to move to a ground in the middle of nowhere with hardly any public transport links, pubs nearby, playing on Friday nights when traffic is a nightmare. But we're here now. It's a modern facility that surely Salford cannot expect to function on their own. I'm sure most of you have the brains to realise from day one you weren't gonna keep it as your own forever. It's still called The Salford City Stadium, it's still your stadium too. Sure, live a pipe dream, convince yourselves Swinton or Uniteds Reserves would have been better. But it wouldn't. 2 Rugby teams playing 12 months of the year on it will bring in great income.

Personally I hope it works but after going through 37 pages I'm a bit disappointed at the reception we're getting. I really don't know what you think we are. Have a problem with Kennedy and how he's dealt with things in the past - sure, that's up to you. Even have a problem with Cheshire Sports, should you know the ins and outs of things. But Sale and its fans have never done anybody any harm. There's pages further down where some are taking the p!ss and calling us middle class, blah blah, the usual boring Union insults. If that's what you think of us then surely we're nothing to worry about? We're not Millwall. We just want this to work and for nobody to get shafted in the process.

To answer the question about where our fans come from, my answer would be:

Me personally, I'm from Baguley in Wythenshawe. There's quite a few who live round here and in other parts of South Manchester. A lot still come from Sale but the majority have an SK postcode as research has found out. This points to the fact that the move to Stockport worked and the reason why so many of us don't want to leave. Don't get worried by that, that's not to say the majority will have a Salford postcode in 10 years time. After all the locals aren't gonna want to watch kick and clap and no tries are they? There's also a big percentage of fans from Macclesfield, Stoke, Crewe, Sandbach and other local areas, along with people from all over the show.

One thing you notice at Sale is the variation in fans. You see jerseys from every local Rugby club from Carlisle right through to South Cheshire. This in itself explains why a lot of us hate this idea of rebranding to become a super club. We already have a massive catchment area. Changing the name to something stupid isn't going to suddenly make people from Bolton go "oh hang on, I like Sharks, I watched a documentary on them last week. There's a Rugby team called Sharks down the road at The Salford City Stadium, lets go and watch them". They're warped if they think that's going to happen. I've seen plenty of Rugby League fans at our games too. Come along sometime, you might even get to see a try.

My passionate hatred of the English RFU and its culture is steadfast. I enthusiastically applaud any assault on it. However, I in no way support any abuse the Sale fans have copped on here. I fully appreciate why they love their sport. Hopefully they can see why so many RL fans have such distain for RU as an organisation.

I'm also disappointed with the abuse these Sale fans have been subjected and would like to assure them that these views are not representative of the majority of our fans, who are an open minded, tolerant bunch.

I'd have preferred Salford to have had at least a year or two to establish this as OUR home and I too have a sense of foreboding when I read the comments from Stockport fans or some of the quotes attributed to Diamond.

BUT the move is upon us and trying to stereotype our fans as a bunch of knuckle dragging flat-earthers is not going to change things.

I'm fully aware of the history between the two codes - having experienced it first hand whilst being involved in rugby league development - but the relevance here is fleeting.

It's incumbent on both clubs - and by association both sets of fans - to make this work. Both clubs need to grow, both clubs need to increase their support - as a pair of cooperating enterprises the success of one does not have to come at the expense of the other. However, any Sale fans visiting this forum could be excused for reading some of the bile being spouted on here and thinking 'I'll give this a miss!"

I'd like to assure the majority of these ordinary fans that these are the views of an embittered minority - many fans give this forum a wide berth these days as the tone is decidedly negative.

Speaking from a personal point of view - as a *sports* fan - as long as the Sharks management behave themselves and resist the urge to turn into predators, I'll happily get to a few of the bigger games, and I'd like to think a fair few of the Sharks fans will be open minded enough to give our club a go.

Sport is all about bringing people of all backgrounds together; this is an opportunity for both clubs to broaden their demographic and geographic footprints. Let's not let narrow minded prejudice turn what could be a great opportunity into a source of conflict.

:1en578xt] "I'm also disappointed with the abuse these Sale fans have been subjected and would like to assure them that these views are not representative of the majority of our fans, who are an open minded, tolerant bunch.

I'd have preferred Salford to have had at least a year or two to establish this as OUR home and I too have a sense of foreboding when I read the comments from Stockport fans or some of the quotes attributed to Diamond.

BUT the move is upon us and trying to stereotype our fans as a bunch of knuckle dragging flat-earthers is not going to change things.

I'm fully aware of the history between the two codes - having experienced it first hand whilst being involved in rugby league development - but the relevance here is fleeting.

It's incumbent on both clubs - and by association both sets of fans - to make this work. Both clubs need to grow, both clubs need to increase their support - as a pair of cooperating enterprises the success of one does not have to come at the expense of the other. However, any Sale fans visiting this forum could be excused for reading some of the bile being spouted on here and thinking 'I'll give this a miss!"

I'd like to assure the majority of these ordinary fans that these are the views of an embittered minority - many fans give this forum a wide berth these days as the tone is decidedly negative.

Speaking from a personal point of view - as a *sports* fan - as long as the Sharks management behave themselves and resist the urge to turn into predators, I'll happily get to a few of the bigger games, and I'd like to think a fair few of the Sharks fans will be open minded enough to give our club a go.

Sport is all about bringing people of all backgrounds together; this is an opportunity for both clubs to broaden their demographic and geographic footprints. Let's not let narrow minded prejudice turn what could be a great opportunity into a source of conflict.

Top '"

Excellent post from Wayward Fan.

Whilst I did pick up on a couple of MikeGC's comments I have no wish to join in any abuse of Sale fans. All along my view is that the ground share is a done deal and it is now up to both clubs, and both sets of fans, to make the best of things.
There ARE opportunities to market the sports at the stadium in a joint fashion and save money - just buying advertising space and mentioning BOTH codes, BOTH clubs and BOTH fixtures in a single advert would obviously be half the cost of two adverts!
Running a joint club shop, sharing staff costs, sharing IT costs can all help.

Regardless of historical enmity between RL & RU the fact is you cannot change the past - only the future.

Well said. Personally, the first thing I hope the two clubs work together on is increasing the branding both inside (heritage/identity) and in the vicinity of (raising profile/visibility) of the ground.

At long last the voice of reason.

His post not abit [icontrite[/i for you?