It has plus and minus points.

It means that Sale will no longer be lording it up as the self-titled main tenant and the shop will go back to being ours. On the other hand, costs, rent etc will rise for us. I'm no business man, so have no idea if it would be a good thing for Marwan in his hunt for ownership. I daresay it gives him more leverage because if he threatens to move away, as he's hinted at, they'd be left with no tenants.

It all seems like empty threats to me. The commercial impact on them would be huge, as has been said they signed a 25 year lease and sold the naming rights to the stadium too.

There was a report in the Comic in the last week or so saying that Sale were (quite rightly) livid about the traffic light system on the approach to the ground. Might have been last weekend where they had a European game and had assurances that the lights would be taken down and the road fully re opened but someone 'forgot' to do so.

Can see that it would give the Doc the whip hand in his efforts to buy the stadium but would he want to buy it still? having two tenants in situ makes the stadium at least viable, but surely just Salford then it is nothing but a huge loss maker.

The best option would be for Sale and Salford to join forces and deliver a joint message to the SMC/Peel/Council that collectively we are not happy with the current situation and then hopefully force them into the kind of action it seems is not currently being taken.

It appears it's a 25 year lease with an opt out after 5 years, so the impact may not be all that great. They will probably lose something on the naming rights, but it may be that their current poor attendances outweighs it. I've had the odd look around the Sale message board this past couple of months, and it seems their attendances are far worse than the quoted 6000 average suggests, with their fans often reckoning the actual attendance is around half to two-thirds of the official attendance. It looks like they're including tickets given away, even if the people don't turn up (and they don't). They're probably including the ghosts too.
I suspect it is just an attempt to get the SMC to improve the 'matchday experience', although it's difficult to see what they could do about the access problems. And, for sale at least, it's the access problems that count. Most of their fans are in the South Manchester/Cheshire area, and getting to the stadium on a Friday night is difficult from there.

www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/ ... in-6650602 Good to see someone speaking up for the fans and the poor 'matchday experience' at Barton. Or maybe they are being a bit 'Daily Mail,' as one forum poster recently described criticism of the stadiums matchday operations.

www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/ ... in-6650602 Good to see someone speaking up for the fans and the poor 'matchday experience' at Barton. Or maybe they are being a bit 'Daily Mail,' as one forum poster recently described criticism of the stadiums matchday operations.

Comic report. www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/ ... in-6650602 I think this is the incident that might bring all concerns to a head. www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/ ... nt-6597008

Comic report. www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/ ... in-6650602 I think this is the incident that might bring all concerns to a head. www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/ ... nt-6597008

I do like the fact that, since day 1, Salford fans and staff (Koukash included when he came on board) have complained about the stadium and various aspects of it. Then as soon as Sale complain about it, to the point of thinking of leaving, social media is full of Salford fans laughing and telling them "if you don't like it, f**k off." Short memories, some people.

I've often wondered if Kennedy and the Doc might consider a joint bit to buy the stadium?

Not got a clue how it would work but sure two businessmen would be able to thrash out a deal and ensure it was mutually beneficial to both clubs.

I fully expect the SMC to ban all vehicular traffic at the site on the 16th Feb and also to charge people to walk on the approaches.

The daft thing is with the traffic lights they did some rudimentary work just before Christmas to allow them to be removed for 2 weeks and then do what they did in the article, I've seen this week that there seems to be a large amount of work being done on the stretches leading to the A57 so obviously someone has had a monnumental bollocking over this.

sky sports report www1.skysports.com/rugby-union/n ... ll-stadium

sky sports report www1.skysports.com/rugby-union/n ... ll-stadium

thing is they didn`t move into the stadium blind , they had a season to watch us and how things worked , they knew the problems with the infrastructure were there and were going to be there for the foreseeable future .

This is true although it may have been a fair presumption from Sale that the stadium company would learn from their mistakes and no doubt there have would have been assurances made that they have not kept.

I understand Sales predicament but have zero sympathy. We fought so long for a stadium to see them come in and take advantage and at times act like vultures such as taking over the club shop and naming rights. Thank the lord for the good Dr that Sales future does not impact on us as severe as it would have done 12 months ago.

From what I hear the SMC and not very accommodating to Salford or Sale. They seem to be on a power trip and don't view the clubs as the customer. I've heard of lost sponsorship opportunities like a big security firm for instance because Peel have all their favourite suppliers in place. I've even heard that the clubs can't even choose their own menu for hospitality on match days. What both clubs have lost is associate sponsorship opportunities which is a big loss.

The best thing they could do is bulldoze it to the ground and give each club 10m compensation and write it off as a bad job. It seems to me that the SMC are doing everything they can to make it more difficult for people to attend a game.

The only way this will work is with:

1. An independent SMC with no links to Peel.
2. Improved transport links fast.
3. Free parking.
4. Allow people to pay at the turnstiles.
5. Cheaper food and drink.

I agree Wirecutter, ideal world we would also put west one out of its misery and have our stadium on that site rather than more than likley will be another supermarket.

All 5 points make sense but peel are used to doing things on their terms, and the council let them.