The most soulless & plastic feeling stadium in Super League?! I honestly have never felt so unimpressed at a sporting venue in my life!

Even the advertising hoardings were desperate to get away from the place.

It's an example of ambition over reality. Way too big for the needs of either of its tenants.

Salford/Sale could have got along quite nicely in something the size of the HJ, rather than this white elephant.

Weren't Sale late comers to the venue and had nothing to do with design etc of the stadium?

Closer game than you thought was it? So blame the stadium? Boring

Not sure who was consulted when, but if Peel and the council went to Salford and said "how big do you want" and got 12k as an answer, someone's massively overestimated their needs.

When have we blamed the stadium on the closeness?!

God it was awful. Just so many little things that add up to not really enjoying the event, and certainly things that with Koukash's money, should be easily fixed. A big screen, maybe? A lot of that first half was spent at the opposite end of the field, and you couldn't tell what was happening a lot of the time, or even who had scored. Which brings me to the second suggestion, a better microphone/speakers for the announcer? Couldn't hear a thing. Pre-match entertainment? Even the running through of the team, seemed to be done at the last minute, at super speed. Maybe we're spoilt at Headingley, but nothing about this game felt like an 'event'.

And things that aren't really Salford's fault, but annoying none the less; taking the bottle caps off? Has that ever ended well? Decided against a drink as was standing, and it was cold and windy - hands would have frozen off or drink would be knocked over. And what's wrong with a chip van inside the ground? Not all of us want a pie or hot dog!

Anyway, I have to pick and choose my away games with working shifts, I won't be hurrying back to Salford any time soon.

Bottle tops is usually to do with alcohol license

I know! Hilarious isn't it

3rd rate ground for a 3rd rate club.

Well I will do my best to answer your frivolous comments.

We are tenants and the rent is Sky high. Moneywise Dr Kouhash loses an arm and a leg every match. We dont have a return from the drinks consumed, no say in the Catering. we dont have a proper club shop, we are totally restricted on what we can or cannot do including the Car Parks. We are doing our best with what we have in front of us.

Its easy to sneer but next time be more positive I always thought RL was a Family game. The big screen for instance is a good idea.

My grumpiness about is more the design of it more than ought else!

I swore never to return to that soulless place after our visit when it first opened, when we were forced to sit in our car for over an hour before they let us leave the car park.

With it being Sunday and with nothing better to do we thought we'd give it another go, but this time we parked on the approach road to the stadium for a quick exit.

For whatever reason it has turned out to be a dreadful stadium - it's like they spent all the money on one great big, shiny, posh stand and ran out of cash for the other three stands. The big holes in the corners let whatever atmosphere there is to escape and it just has a distinctly 'empty' feel about it.

We probably wont go back for another few years, or at least until we have forgotten how dire it is.

I'm not blaming Salford - more whoever it was that agreed the design or signed the lease on what are obviously ridiculous terms.

We'll miss ya

how would they have got along nicely in an even larger stadium ??? the AJ Bell holds 12,000, the HJ holds 15,200

not that I'm precious about you calling the HJ a small Ground........ its just not as small as many others....

Don't take the criticism of the stadium to heart. Not the Reds fans or teams fault. Everything I've read and heard about the stadium and the access to it suggests it it not a great facility. That's a shame as it will put punters off attending, it seems to keep the Salford fans numbers down, judging by your attendance figures. If the points you made about Salfords lack of control of the match day experience are true, I have to question who signed the deal and why. It must be hurting you financially and limiting your ability to support your on field renaissance long term. The club and its supporters ought to be petitioning the owners of the stadium to improve the match day experience and if you get no joy look for alternatives

They had a perfectly good stadium just off Weaste Road, just needed a bit of tlc and theydve been fine.

I'm sure koukash was saying this the other week

Fletch - whilst youve been in Slade Prison you must have missed the news that the Willows needed £90k pa just to maintain safety standards -thats just for starters -there was no alternative but the good Dr is doing his level best to improve things - a new Road apparently will be built by 2017 to improve the Car Parking problem but
remember there are many other options to park - just read our threads.

I thought the exact same yesterday after my first visit to the AJ Bell. What a bizarre stadium.

Walking up to the place and half constructed roads, marsh land, its like a scene from Call of Duty. Get into the place and its just one cheap ass stadium. Leaves you with the impression of why bother building this e. Location and build the worst in SL. Then you think to yourself a Billionaires Rugby team plays here...makes it more of a joke whether his hands are tied in a lease or not. If Koukash wants to succeed god he needs to get out of that place or develop it more himself!

I'd like to thank all the Leeds fans who have contributed to this topic.
Had any of you taken the opportunity to read the many threads on the Salford board about this very subject you would have found that none of your suggestions or observations have any novelty about them. We have been making these points since first moving to Barton.
The major difficulty that Dr K has in moving elsewhere is that the stadium is jointly owned by Peel Holdings and Salford City Council, the council having controversially invested a fair amount of tax payers money at a time of great austerity in public funding (just in case you hadn't noticed that!). There is considerable speculation therefore as to whether planning permission would ever be forthcoming for another stadium within Salford until the funds provided by the council for the AJ Bell are repaid. Of course that leads directly on to the question of whether or not Salford Red Devils will (or should) remain in Salford - but that is a whole new can of worms.
The option to remain at The Willows was never actually there. The RFL had made it clear to the previous owner that without a shiny new stadium franchise renewal would be to say the least unlikely. On that say so I understand the land was sild to provide working capital to keep the club afloat pending construction and the move to the new stadium.
So, thankyou all for your concern, we as long standing (and certainly long suffering) Salford fans do understand the issues and so, I believe, does our new owner and his management team.

BTW - I enjoyed the match yesterday - Leeds were certainly the better side and deserved the win but in previous years Salford would have capitulated and it would have been a cricket score. It shows that we are heading in the right direction and can produce competetive performances against the top sides. BUT in the first half especially the ref was bewildering!

'Bewildering'...??? that's one way of putting it. Not having a full grasp of the rules, being woefully out of his depth or 'not fit for purpose' are maybe how I would have described that refereeing performance.

I really don't mind the stadium and I thought for 4k the atmosphere was good. Get close to 10k to capacity and the atmosphere will be electric.
The approach and access roads plus the God awful car park are a nightmare. But once access roads are improved should be ok.

Obviously I've not visited the AJ yet,but I always liked and enjoyed going to the Weaste