Too true. Live in Manchester at moment. Very rare to find anyone with a remote interest in RL. It's all about football. Play for one of the Unis in Manchester. Pretty much all of us are from RL heartlands, with i think 1 from Manc.

Rugby League isn't popular in Manchester, but it doesn't mean it shouldn't be.

The 2nd most important media location in England, the economic powerhouse of the North West of England, a huge student population - Rugby League really needs to be pushed to the people of Manchester. The lack of a new stadium for Salford though, probably would kill it all off. Whilst I quite like the Willows as a ground, its not exactly in the most salubrious location... then again, Barton is a bit far out from the city centre for the corporate crowd.

Not gonna happen though is it.

Worst case scenario is Salford water down the plans for Barton and end up in a mediocre 12,000 capacity stadium that dosen't truly excite. They need to have some WOW factor at Barton. It really needs to be a modern state of the Art stadium that can lay down a marker for RL in Manchester!

yeah with a retracting roof & a big arch

Im stating the obvious in that you have got your east and west confused.

As for two towns North of Manchester merging to become 'East Manchester' and play out of Rochdale. We are onto a winner with that one

As a Salford fan who lives in Rochdale and has coached Rugby League in Oldham, I feel I can see it from 3 perspectives. The answer is no.

Simply to insert a "" club into a soccer-mad area and cut away the only clubs with any link to the communities is simply mad.
It betrays a lack of knowledge of the disparate communities within the conurbation: no body from Oldham or Rochdale sees themselves as a Manc: Manchester is the big city o'er there. Salford has a proud history it does not want to lose.

If this idea had any legs, there already would have been one team in Wigan once Leigh ran into problems, and one team in Salford, once Swinton ran into trouble. This did not happen as cvommuniities create clubs not vice-versa.

Salford are making inroads into north-west Manchester but it will be a long process. Kitting out aJamaican student team with the Red kit was a subtle but effective way of reaching one community in Manchester.

Leigh fans commenting on Salford ...

Swinton and Salford should merge to become Salford City Lions.
There's potential for a big city club, forget the 400 that might be put off, current Swinton fans and appeal to the whole Salford city region, dare I say it, Crusaders style. Nice shiny stadium, your academy plays under swinton with dual reg players but by god they've got to do bleedin somethin

You mean move to Cheltenham after one SL season.

edit: I don't see the point really. Swinton Lions's long term future (along with many other once proud heartland clubs) may be an NL3 style comp along with some expansion teams wanting to step up into the semi-pro leagues.

But merger with Salford? That wouldn't be a merger, it would just be the death of the Lions.

No I mean the excellent marketing they used to get 10000 through the gate on game one

Build a Manchester Rugby League stadium and let the Manchester clubs share it and training facilities whilst keeping them as separate entities.

Not the worst call i've ever heard

"the Manchester clubs share it "

But we play every week and so fitting Oldham, Wigan, Swinton, Leigh, Hornets, and Salford into some form of rota would tax even Einstein. All these play in Greater Manchester! By your logic all are Manchester clubs,

Let's take it further: the Leeds/Bradford conurbation have one team, Hull have one team, Wakefield have one team ...

You attract supporters by building from a base not by importing a club.

Remember Paris?

I've made a call re the Barton stadium a few times. The RFL are missing a huge trick by not embracing this as the opportunity to finally have a 'national' RL stadium. Capacity of 40-50k, with hospitality, hotel and retail developments, used by Salford. Great transport links, including public transport to the Trafford Centre nearby.

- hundreds of thousands of drivers would see it every day from the M60 (and from Manchester Airport) - banners announcing 'The National Rugby League Stadium', 'Home of Salford City Reds' would look fantastic.
- it could be used for Championship, Nat Conf, schools, reserves and amateur RL finals, and of course for internationals and the World Club Challenge. The Charity Shield could return.
- hold a national 9s tournament over a full weekend or a long Saturday - teams from SL, Championship and Nat Conf and the best of the rest, including guest teams such as NZ Maoris, Indigenous Aus, USA, etc.
- run children's RL courses in day during school holidays.
- perhaps even invite Sale Sharks (or a small local football team) to groundshare - and charge them a small fortune for the pleasure.
- hold concerts, festivals and other sporting events there. Amateur football finals, hockey, etc, etc...
- bring sports development and care under one roof - I know there are sports science and some very advanced treatment centres spread across the North - bring them together and charge them rent.
- both CC semi-finals and perhaps with a rejig of the format, some of the play-offs could be held there.
- the RFL to move home.

It seems to me Salford need a helping hand getting it going and the RFL could use some ambition and initiative to take our sport up a level.

Money

Much like Wales and London then? Which is why Salford will hang on to their franchise regardless, Manchester is too big an untapped area and important to the RFL's over-zealous great expansion plan.

is the stadium actually going to happen, regardless of whether its late or not?



not a bad idea, a lot of people would need convinced as to the benefits of shared costs etc... would be similar to the AFL in melbourne where 9 clubs share 2 stadiums.

scheduling shouldnt be a problem. 3 days in the weekend, even if by some miracle they were all scheduled to play at home you can have 1 play on friday night, then saturday evening, and consecutive matches on a sunday maybe even a double header

Salford City Council announced last week that work on site will start on 15th March.




And of course you have evidence of that, don't you?

Well the evidence is provided by Salford themselves saying they will have a 25000 all seater stadium built in time for 2011, that was a lie as far as I can see

If Salford get axed from SL in 2012 I could see 2015 seeing a Catalan Dragons style merged Manchester club. Maybe 2018, following a successful Aude bid from france, which would be a loud call to the Heartland clubs that there is only one way forward.

Just for starters

"25000 all seater"

no it wasn't as the plans at that time included quite a bit of standing.

Also, not only did we lie but we
made one of the original company bankrupt so the company had to reform,
made the price of steel so high that we had to delay,
allowed one of the partners to pull out of the hotel idea,
caused a recession in white goods trading so the original funding stopped,
caused an international recession,
stopped the government from funding a college
etc
etc

Oh killed two Kennedies, caused the Gulf Wars, and put up the price of beer.
Owt else bitter non-friend?

So Salfords stadium is a definite goer?

Apparently so:


Salford City Council this week issued an update regarding the Reds’ new stadium at Barton. This is a tremendous boost for the club and its loyal supporters as we embark on the 2010 Super League campaign with our long term future assured We look forward to working with our partners to create a first class sporting and community venue in the City of Salford that the whole region can utilise and be proud of.

The statement from Salford City Council is shown in full below:

Salford City Council and Peel Holdings are working together and propose creating a joint venture company to deliver a 15,000-seat community stadium which will be able to be used by a variety of community groups, sports clubs and other public and private sector bodies, as well as being the venue where Salford City Reds will play.

A business case has already been produced by consultants, which demonstrates that the proposal is viable and capable of being delivered.
.
The projected delivery date for the stadium is late 2011, to be ready for the 2012 RFL season which starts in February 2012.

The new stadium has outline planning permission and an application has been submitted by Peel Land (Red City) Ltd on the behalf of the JVC partners to extend the timescale for that permission. A decision on this is expected towards the end of March 2010

Remediation works will need to be carried out on the site before any building work can take place. Permission for that work has been granted and work is expected to start on remediation in late March/early April 2010

A detailed planning application for the whole development site is expected shortly.

Remediation work doesn't need to be project specific, is not covered by planning consent and increases the value of the land. So that in itself is not any guarantee they'll build a stadium.

However I do hope Salford do get their new stadium.

there is nothing concrete in that.

just a load of hot air (again). There is no detailed planning application yet - I cannot see how applications can be submitted, approved and then the stadium built and opened within 20 months. Even allowing for no delays or setbacks.

Its ages since Saints got planning permission approved, work is only set to start in March this year - with a 60 week build time. I will be amazed if Salford get it all done by 2011.

Cheers for the news guys, lets hope it gets built.