I'm basing my thought on what happened with Manchester Storm*. Early on the crowds flocked to see them hammer teams - the crowds had no preconceptions and didn't really know anything about the quality (or lack of) of teams like Bracknell, Ayr, Telford & Blackburn, they just wanted to be entertained by seeing their team win, and win well. How that would translate to an atmosphere for an RL game with a decent sized crowd of newbies is unknown. The atmospere for such a game at Barton would be dire, and that's partly due to us existing fans knowing that it's no big deal to be able to steamroller lower opposition, but the newbies don't have that same world-weariness about them. You get it at Barton sometimes when the kids in the East Stand who are in for some schools/juniors activity are clearly getting more excited about what's going on on the pitch than many in the South Stand.


* And yes, let Manchester Storm also serve as a warning to those thinking that Manchester is the sporting promised land.




Oddly I can't find that answer online despite being sure I remember articles with Wilkinson and John Merry showing the "anchor tenant" agreement being signed. What I do remember is that when they announced that Sale were coming on board, Sale had a longer lease - Sale's is 25 years, so I'm guessing ours may be 15 (I seem to remember something about 5-year break/review clause).

Anybody who attended the St Thomas church meeting Dec 2012, may recall Wilkinson confiding Salford had been courted by Richard Leese in the late 1990's as a tenant for Maine rd.
The implication was the threat to leave the city led to a closer involvement with the club and ultimately to the rented stadium we are wallowing in today and the demolition of our ancestral home.
one wonders how our fortunes would have fared had Wilkinson actually carried out the threat, secondly if the Dr threatened a similar action I doubt whether the council would or could stand in his way considering the ' monetary machinations ' of their past financial backing.
Facing facts, to 95% of the current population has zero interest in the club or the sport , when the club is mentioned along civic lines it's as a money draining parasite, responsible for a white elephant stadium.
It's not a scenario I would support , if financially it was felt playing outside the city would prove advantageous, ( or lose less money ) , but it has precedent , Broughton Rangers - to Belle Vue Rangers.

As other people have mentioned , it ramps up the pressure for the team to be successful and pull in bigger attendances next season , use it or lose it ?

Maybe you should turn off your computer and go outside, then. I know a few people from in and around Droylsden. They're all aware of both the sport and our club.



I'm not suggesting otherwise. That's half my argument. The attraction has to be there, more than an invitation, in my experience. The attraction isn't there if the team's no good.



The whole "Red Devilution" thing in the build up to that was a marketing campaign, come and see the new era and all that. I know people who came to that game on the back of it who haven't been back since. As it is, I don't blame the club for trying something new and, believe it or not, I'm not dead set against it, although I'm not 100% keen on the idea. I just don't think it's the promised land people think it is.



I'm basing it on Mancunians I know from watching other sports, who always look out for Salford's results, always ask me about everything and show a keen interest in the club. Mention that they should come to a game and have a look and suddenly the excuses start, or it's a flat out case of "naah, can't be d, maybe if they start doing well." I'm not denying there's people out there who don't know about the club or the stadium (I've been told FC United's new ground next to the motorway looks impressive a couple of times...) but from experience I wouldn't say it's the majority. The majority either won't come unless the team does well, or is in a big, important game, or would rather watch Wigan/Saints/Warrington. That's the big hurdle we need to get over.



As I've already said, I'm not dead set against it and I can see why it's being done. And you know what? It could be a success and attract a load of new supporters who flock to the City of Salford Stadium on a regular basis. But it could just as easily attract people who go along for the novelty value with no interest in coming to another game or even just fall flat. That's the risk you take, though, I guess.

GT you make far more sense when posting under this alias.

Possibly, but I'm still not convinced. Watching a team run 50+ points past the opposition might appeal to kids - giving the team a kind of invincible super hero vibe - but I'm not sure it would work for the more discerning punter. I suspect the attraction of something new and American would have been a factor in drawing people to watch the Storm, whereas RL doesn't have that, and I'm not sure serving up a 'lambs to the slaughter' event would be as attractive.

As far as I'm aware, the stadium cost £26 million, so the city's share was the £13 million.

I think the problem is that for the city to sell up, it would have to recover that outlay or the letters page in the Advertiser would go ballistic, but, given that the stadium makes a loss, why would anyone pay that much for it? And it isn't really benefitting the local community. Salford Red Devils is a private business. Would you be happy to see the city build a £13 million superstore and then sell it to Tesco for less than that? It's the same situation. In the long run, the presence of that stadium or that superstore may bring some limited regeneration to the area, but at the cost of giving a huge amount of council tax payers money to a private business, which doesn't look good.

Salford Council might be making a loss from the actual stadium, but they'll more than recoup this through sales and rental income from the surrounding land and future retail/leisure facilities.

A point to be wary of if the plan is to start to draw support from East Manchester. For 10 years I worked on/with projects related to the regeneration of the area, many based around job creation, training and increasing people's skills and employability. Broadly speaking it was an ongoing struggle to get people to go out of the area (for job interviews, training courses etc) because for a few generations there was lots of industry and most people in the area worked close to where they live. Projects would find people in Beswick saying that they couldn't/wouldn't travel to Higher Openshaw, let alone places like Trafford Park and Wythenshawe where there were big industrial estate with jobs.

It's over 5 years since I was working with these projects, and Metrolink has probably opened it up a bit to the wider area, but I think that if Salford want to attract new support from Manchester, then East Manchester might not give the richest pickings (but there's not really any other stadiums to play at).

So that makes it ok then?

Err exactly where does Salford fit into this, everywhere I read you are the Red Devils, I admire this cos the round ball boys stole this name from
You.

Why would the club think taking a game 2 or 3 miles away would attract new supporters? The people of Manchester are well aware of Salford and where they play so if they were interested in watching a match they’d be here already ...another indication that they see the future of the club away from the city of Salford and with a different name!! Lets face it the absence of Salford from any of the merchandise is just the beginning

Please do us all a favour and stop 'supporting' Salford now. You've threatened it numerous times. Amazingly, the Club will survive without your negativity. A real supporter would not only voice their fears about aspects of the Club, but would also offer counter-arguments. They would pass comment on a number of Club related subjects and try and be balanced, at least with explanation, about a whole range of topics.

What you do, is occasionally turn up on here to drum home one particular point. Regardless of the thread. You offer no evidence for your point of view just opinion based on nothing but what's inside your head. You don't comment on anything else much, and certainly don't comment positively on nearly anything. My question to you is, why bother being a supporter? The clue is in the word 'Supporter'. What you are is a Salford 'detractor'.

Do yourself a favour, buck your ideas up and join in properly.

We seem to have more people per square mile than other clubs like this dont we?

Moan about this and then about that.

In reality they should pinch themselves and realise that we have some superb players lined up next year and instead of being negative - BRING a mate to the next match.

Well of course it does. Unless you're one of those feeble-minded Garridoids who think local authorities should be responsible for nothing more than emptying the bins, and should just stand idly by while investment and jobs flow down to the South-East, you'll recognise that those local authorities need to generate jobs and investment in whatever way they can. As businesses spring up around the stadium, it should, eventually, start to pay for itself.

In addition, a successful Salford team (or two Salford teams - Salford Red Devils and Salford Blue Lions - how good does [ithat[/i sound?) can be used to promote the city. I know you rarely stray too far from the Swinton Vasey district of Salford, but you might be aware that Warrington were using their rugby club to promote the town on the Underground (it's a kind of train system that runs through tunnels in London) a few years ago. The stadium is an investment in that future.

Err, the club is called Salford Red Devils. The 'Red Devils' part is a nickname; an affectionate name people use in place of the actual name. For example, Swinton aren't always referred to as 'Swinton', but often by one of their nicknames: 'The Lions' or 'that other club in Salford'.