hi i'm doing some research for my final year at university and would appreciate it if anyone would be able to answer these two questions.

a) What does it mean to be a rugby league fan?

b) Has the relocation of the salford ground to Barton changed what it means to be a Salford fan?

Thanks to anyone who is willing to take the time to answer them

Good questions

a) I'd regard myself as a Rugby league fan,I always acknowledge and applaud great play when witnessing a game of Rugby League regardless of which coloured jersey, unlike one particular sect of this forum who only watch the game through red lenses, who moan and moan about all what the RFL do, what they really should be doing is looking a bit closer to home, and seeing REAL mismanaged situations.

b) Definately YES. The move has unfortunately been more damaging than good from my own experiences. The relocation hasn't been thought out thoroughly enough as we've all found out this season. The site location should of stayed in Salford. I don't want to argue about city boundaries etc but Warrington, st Helen's, Wigan, and widnes's stadiums are within minutes from their centres where as ours, is a good 15 - 30 minutes drive away nevermind walk. So any advice for clubs building a new stadium keep it close to your town/city centre don't build it out in the sticks like we did...

1. The new stadium is in Salford. And where exactly is our city centre, do we actually have one or do most Salfordian's just class Manchester as our city centre?

2. 15-30 minutes drive? Driving what a Sinclair C5 blindfolded. Are you serious you could drive to Liverpool in a little over half an hour?

3. Is Old Trafford close to the city centre of Manchester? No

4. In the sticks? The stadium is a stone throw from the second busiest stretch of motorway in the UK and next door to the Trafford Centre that gets 35 million visitors each year. Very rural the way you describe it sounds like it would be a great idea to build a caravan park near it and advertise quiet relaxing holiday breaks!

5. What the hell has the RFL got to do with the original post?

(a) means being able to watch my sport while mingling with other fans and getting no trouble. It means i can take my family without any concern for trouble (im sure we have idiots in RL but thankfully not too many). It means having to put up with a ruling body that divides opinion but at best is inconsistant.It means seeing some of the most gifted and athletic sportsmen on the planet,(usually scoring against Salford)

(b) The move has done me no favours...using public transport i get home nearer midnight from a Friday game...but we had to move. However if you read these boards enough you will get the idea that our club made a pigs ear of our first season in the new gaff...im neutral...we had to move

Agreed. The club could have stayed where they were but simply wouldn't have a franchise if not this time, next time. Those saying they should have redeveloped the Willows are deluded because where would the club have found the money to do it?

Let's not forget that for years many seemed to take great delight in having a poke about the Willows and it's location.

In my opinion the new place will get much better when:-

1. The new road goes in improving access.

2. The stadium management company (SMC) spend the money initially budgeted for landscaping the surrounding area.

3. More gets built around it like a new pub, food outlets etc.

4. The SMC gain more experience of running a stadium and understand the matchday needs of the club and the supporters. I think the SMC need to review ticketing, food/drink prices and reduce the number of security/parking attendants. (Far too many and must cost a fortune)

Why do three people at three different locations on the long road in have to stop you to check if you have a parking ticket? This is the kind of thing that gets people's backs up before they have even entered the ground. Surely all it needs is a sign on the road in saying Car park pass holders only. If then somebody try's to enter the carpark without a ticket pass they get turned around. This wouldn't cause a traffic congestion problem because there's plenty room to do a u-turn and no traffic going the other way.

I think it's a great idea to get your tutor to commment on the answers as they are made and ensure you have a high set of grades. I assume the annoying marking is from your tutor?

Bye the way, not all Salford fans are "rugby league fans": some are very parochial (and good luck to them). Research the term "rugby league family" for what it means to a lot of us.

Q1. The stadium just qualifies in the boundary, and been relocated out of the heartlands of Salford. I however don't class mcr as my city centre, it's always been pendleton and the crescent in my aging.

Q2. On a match day it can take 30 mins easily from the willows to Barton with all the congestion etc... I've been caught up in it.

Q3. Old Trafford is about 1.5ish mile from the city centre. I can't believe you're essentially comparing Man United to Rugby League clubs. Man United can sell full stadiums anywhere in the world.

Q4. This is your typical club apologist remark, still hanging on to spiel fed from the management, actually believing that a percentage of shoppers would flock to the stadium just because they drove past a floodlit arena. You could send 5 billion over Barton Bridge, it wouldn't make a slightest bit of difference.

At the end of the day Barton was the wrong location in my opinion, support is intermittently declining in droves from the weaste seedley and pendleton districts, and it's due to this wrong choice of location. These people need tempting back, there's a massive dormant support lost to the mismanaged tactics of our board.

I apologise. How could I forget about all those bumper 10,000+ gates in Weaste. The main reason people don't flock to Barton is the team. If Salford were up near the top and seriously challenging every year a lot more local poeple would be tempted to visit the new ground at Barton compared to the aging Willows. It seems those who have to travel a couple of mile now like the rest of us see it as a major inconvenience.

With the development of the Barton stadium, do you feel there has been a change in the type of people Salford are trying to attract to games eg. Is it more corporate and business orientated?

I actually agree with some of the stuff you have put on here (wigan is quite a walk from the centre) the difference between us and the others was the availability of city centre brownfield sites, I had long thought that the Ladywell site would have been ideal for Salford's new ground, it has all the transport links and pubs nearby, but at the time it became available the council were not so SCR friendly and allowed a developer to build first West One and then after that office blocks and warehouses and now apartments all bringing in more in tax to the council than SCR would. Also I don't think we would have got the land on a peppercorn rent the government insists on market value for land sales and it was NHS land afterall. Barton will only get better if the new road is built (a given with Port Salford on its way) facilities around the ground and a low level bridge over the canal from the trafford side, without this infastructure Barton will struggle, with them Barton could grow and proper investment on the park could also increase crowds but we await what this new investment is and the work to be completed.

I might be wrong, but I'm sure I read on some Peel Holdings report once that there would be retail outlets coninciding with the completion of the new road and bridge?

Has the atmosphere changed for fans within the barton ground compared to what it might have been like at the willows?

I would say the club have put a lot of energy into attracting the corporates for a number of years. We have played home games on a Friday for a number of years because the club attract more corporate business with this schedule. Theres no doubt the corporate money and the match day sponsorships are a vital source of income for the club. Barton has great facilities and any successful business needs to have this to generate revenue.

What I think has changed in recent years is the focus of clubs. I dont see as much energy being put into attracting new fans and in particular young fans. We dont seem as proactive as when the super league era began. Peter Deakin (RIP) was the leading figure in selling a club to the community and focused on both corporates and the ordinary fan and his record at Bradford and Warrington was second to none. For clubs such as Salford to succeed we need to get back to this vision and not just pay lip service to the potential supporter. We may have a shiny new stadium but we have completely overlooked the match day experience.