Lot of 'ifs' there though isn't there?

And your point is anyway?

I think the issue is, most people in East Manchester probably don't even know that Salford Red Devils exist. With the idea being that once they do, they'll realise Barton isn't a million miles away.

I don't think it's a kick in the teeth at all, we'd all travel as far as Barrow, Whitehaven, Hemel and London if we were drawn there in the CC so what's the difference in going 10 miles across Manchester?

It's a typical Salford fan attitude of "it wont work" and "I doubt we'll attract any new spectators doing this", doing nothing and staying at Barton hardly did anything for our 2,630 attendance vs Widnes (with a good following from the Vikings) this season did it?

i don't see what the problem is at the end of the day were not exactly filling the Aj Bell stadium. So to promote Salford were trying something different and being proactive. Afterall last season we managed around 2500 v Widnes and most of them were probably Widnes fans!

We might as well play Wigan at Wigan, we'd have just as much of winning the game there then in Manchester at least at home there's always some hope. Home advantage shouldn't be underestimated. Anyway no matter what we say, he'll do what he piggin well wants.

You're missing the point.

It's an idea to try and catch a few new fans to drag them back to Barton. You could drive ten miles in each direction from Barton and there will be people that have never heard of us. That's pretty criminal, even if most of them never come. To want it to fail says a lot about the mentality of some Salford fans.

Just to play Devil’s advocate: there is already precedent for this. Salford took a match to Old Trafford in the 1950s with the hope of drawing a big crowd, but it ended up being a disappointment with terrible wet weather thought to have affected the attendance.

However, I can’t say that this doesn’t make me feel a little uneasy.

Another way of looking at it would be to say that it stands a team in good stead in the CC if they can play at neutral grounds.

You see? There's plenty of ways you could look at it negatively or positively.

I would agree with those sentiments if we were still at the Willows, however I don’t think we have any home advantage at Barton at all. We haven’t made it a fortress in the slightest since we moved in, in fact how many times have we turned over any of the “top” sides at home since we’ve played there?

And if we take games on the road then it never will get chance to become a fortress.

At the ned of day everyone has their own opinions, I just don't agree with it. With the lack of anything Salford anywhere on the playing shirt, merchandise, the website always refers to us a Red Devils and now talk of taking a game to Manchester! I’m slightly concerned about the docs intentions that’s, maybe I’m being cynical, but with him you just never know.

You see, I know its aimed at geting fans which they have to be praised for. The reality is though the best way to get fans until we have a winning team is to promote in Salford itself. At the minute, we're failing to advertise well and properly near our own stadium.

Also, the idea that we have to go to the East Manchester to play as no one there knows we even exist is extremely laughable and short-sighted. It was only 6 MONTHS ago that the whole competition played there for Magic Weekend. The Magic weekend also had more publicity around the city from the RFL than we could ever achieve as a club. And, with this in mind, our attendances hardly picked up after Magic and that should be a precursor for why this will be a failure sadly.

With last years top 8 entering the cup a round later this year, our most attractive tie would be against a bottom 4 SL side, with us more likely to be drawn against a championship opponent.

The Red Devils vs Dewsbury at the Ethiad Campus. Can't see this one packing them in.

As i've said, if playing in East Manchester was suddenly going to miraculously boost our attendances it would have done so after Magic weekend when the city had (although not loads) more publicity than our club could manage.

It wont work, its a nice gimmick and a nice way of the administration saying "at least we tried" but the writing is on the wall, sadly.

Catalans at home, at the Nou Camp. Can we count this towards our attendance figures?

A big danger is, if it goes ahead and the Manchester stadium is a FULL house
Will he then seriously relocate ?

Where would it be though, overkill using either of the big football grounds, I suspect the smaller venue at the Eastlands complex or the new lower tier football ground I've heard something about.

We can hardly blame the Doc for wanting to try something different, if we were filling Barton week in week out he'd not need to go looking for new fans, but we aren't so he does.

simply really.