Cheshire Sport Promotions Ltd run by Brian Kennedy owns both Sale Sharks and the stadium, I think he also has put a lot of money into Stockport to cover debts. Earlier this year they were discussing a possible new stadium in Stockport.

I wouldn't want a Union club though as their season goes on until May so would play havoc with fixture planning and also the pitch.

We play rugby though, not football. In the main it wouldn't alter much during the summer and one game every two weeks possibly two games, i don't see the problem other than it's union.

Brian Kennedy was only ever after a ground for Sale to play in and couldn't give a monkeys about whoever he managed to con into letting him groundshare. We would have been inviting a giant cuckoo into our nest had we ever come to an agreement with him, look at Stockport County now, he wooed them with all sorts of promises but they are tenants in their own ground, facing administration at best or bankruptcy, their only assets being the players so are virtually unsellable and their supporters only hope is that the club survives in some form though most fear it will be outside the football league.
While Peter Deakin was revolutionary in most things and his contribution to Warrington immense, thankfully saner heads at the club resisted going down this road or we could well now be in the same boat as Stockport County.

Not sure how you can solely blame Kennedy for Stockport's woes??

Stockport, like many football clubs, are a financial white elephant, living outside their means....Their demise has little to do with Sale moving into their stadium, in fact if they hadn't then they would have gone t!ts up a long time ago.

Lower league football (and indeed Premier League footy) could well do with looking at Rugby League's salary cap as a means to stopping what is becoming the never ending stream of footballing administrations.

Could be a good opportunity to get rugby union up and running in Warrington. We have already seen with the Celtic Crusaders how a visionary sport like RL can take advantage of the fact that there was already a strong RU community in Wales, and looking to market RL to them....why not take advantage of the strong RL community in Warrington and do the same with RU?

I agree...once the Wire natives get used to it, I'm sure they will embrace Rugby Union and accept that it is as good a spectacle as watching Wire.

On the other hand, if Wire natives grasp their spectacles they will embrace their union before they fall asleep watching a Victorian sport with four spare players.

Be great to watch RU during the winter -who knows might even get better gates than the Wire -can only be good for the club imo ( he says in sarcastic Christmas Day mode )

Seriously anyone who could consider entertaining these clowns , especially Brian Kennedy , at the HJ needs their heads testing ...

Kennedy is a very dangerous man, allow him in and your rugby club and you will be in big trouble. Look at Stockport County, i am a season ticket holder at SC and wish we had never seen this Kenndy man. He has taken our ground after over 100years and turned our Bowling green of a pitch into something that resembles Southport beach.
He takes 30% of all our football gate receipts and we even have to pay £25/hour for use of the board room for club meetings.
Dont touch him with a barge pole.

Please tell me you are taking the micky by suggesting RU is played at the HJ.
- Why should we support a game that treated rugby league like something on its shoe for 100 years by practicing sporting apartheit.
- Why should we allow a game that turns pitches into ploughed fields to ruin the grass.

If union wants to raise its profile in Warrington I suggest it invests in the existing Warrington or Lymm clubs or sets up a "development" club.

See you on the ice

As Sally puts it, admittedly in a sarcastic tone, why should RL go into the RU heartlands and try to burden them with Super League??.....Sale coming here would be the same thing, wouldn't it??

I put this forward for debate some months ago and the general view was a 'No.' Sale aren't in that good financial state themselves, having got rid of most of their high earners at the end of last season. RU in the North isn't that popular, Sale are struggling, as are the Falcons and Leeds will probably get relegated again. Kennedy will no doubt be looking for somewhere else to play shortly and my view is that they will move in with Salford if the new stadium at Barton ever gets built.

Dave Swanton recently stated in a post on the Sale forum that Brian Kennedy has pumped £13 million of his own money into Sale RU - now looking at the state of Edgeley Park it`s hard to see how this has been invested so presumably it`s cash put it to stem losses ...
If he pulls out they will be in real trouble ...

"IF" Sale RU went to Salford's new stadium in a ground share with the Reds then Kennedy would be able to sell Edgeley Park and get some of his money back from there.

I think it is different AP, though ground availaility is a common factor. Rugby League has tried to expand in areas where it perceived there was a market for it (London, South Wales, France) but where for a long time it was effectively prevented from doing so because of the availbility of grounds. Some efforts have been more succesful than others. Sale only moved about 10 miles from its base to Stockport and its fan base in South Manchester moved with it. I guess if SP is costing a lot of money Kennedy would want to draw a line under it and go somewhere else that would be cheaper, but it would still take its fan base with it.

Anyway for me the argument is much simpler, like most league fans I don't want them in my ground and in fact I'm not sure why we are discussing it in our forums

See you on the ice