think the turn out from us in these weather conditions were pretty sweet. driving conditions were horrific, took 45 mins to get out of their car park. Overall, salford's ground is pretty simplistic, but I like it. Fairly close to the pitch still, stood up, decent rugby league ground. Would like us to be playing in something similar 1 day.

The conditions were appalling tonight.... And had I known when I set out for the game what I know now... I may have stayed in and watched it on TV myself... I'm still trying to get warm. You cannot judge the potential of a new stadium on one game... In atrocious conditions... Sub zero temperatures... Live on TV... We pulled on over 10,000 for the last game at The Willows... Would you judge our potential on that one game ?... I wouldn't.... So I won't judge it on this one. If we have a poor overall showing at the end of the first season... Then I'll accept your point.

Did you go or watch on tv?

Salford had wanted to put on a proper display but decided against doing so because of that fatal crash on a motorway which was thought to have been caused by a nearby firework display at an RU club.

It was a real shame that the opening game was spoiled by the weather. However, Holdsworth and Patten must be two of the most useless players in Superleague at present! If Salford could find another halfback to partner Smith and another fullback, along with another Feka type prop, they would have performed much better today and likely won.

Salford's final try was a beauty.

The opening 'ceremony' was about as entertaining as the game itself; the potical spectacle of one bloke with a wheelbarrow delaying the KO reminded me of last season's footage of the kit woman at Halifax unlocking her cupboard to give Cas some jumpers.

Did the function of the poor bloke kneeling down on the pitch in sub-zero temperatures ever become clear?

What appeared to be just one bloke strolling around with no sense of urgency collecting the fireworks was embarassing. As for the size of the crowd, where's this mean-spirited glee at the though of failure come from? Personally I'd say the size of the crowd has everything to do with the terrible weather and little else.

I dunno if its just classic parochialism but there's some that seem to relish the idea of Salford going bust somewhere down the line. RL fans are a bit weird sometimes.

Or just a bit wary of past protestations of 10,000 crowds with a new stadium built (John Wilkinson's words, not mine). The moaning and groaning is pretty typical of your average cynical RL fan but they've been led down the garden path many many times by Chairmen and the games rulers to be anything else.

The margin meter on Friday was a typical example.
Your average fan: "What's all this bollax from that idiot Clarke".
The Sky commentary team "Wow, it's trending on twitter".

You see the massive gulf in outlook? By the way, it was trending because people were ridiculing it.

Salford will get the same averages as they've always done. This particular new stadium will not improve their position in that regard. Winning back to back Grand Finals may net JW his 10,000 avarege. Up the Reds!!!

Huddersfield is a good model for how it could all go right. Not so long ago a disillusioned fanbase, sick of watching the Giants always losing, singularly failed to turn up in any numbers. Steadily the team became competitive and the fanbase crept up to a really healthy level.

For me that's the model that Salford need to aspire toward. Whether Wilkinson has the same wealth as Davey I presume not?

I'd love to see a strong club in the Manchester area drawing big crowds...but the weather can only be partly blamed for Salfords poor crowd. For a big 'event' like the opening of a new ground, most fans should have been encouraged by marketing to buy tickets/season tickets in advance...and the majority of those would have got to the ground no matter what the weather had they already paid.

instead it looked as though it was the same die-hards that Salford previously attracted to The Willows, and nobody new has been attracted to the game.

Many will disagree with this, but what exactly do Salford have to entice in people who fundamentally see sport as having a pyramid system that has teams playing either to win something or to avoid relegation

Salford last entered SL 3 years ago, how many games have they won since? , are their fans going to see them win any more in the next 3 years than they did in the last 3 ?

I am constantly ridiculed and my opinions devalued by suggesting I am bitter that my club aren't in SL, why would I want Leigh to be in the same position as Salford? , how can you be expected to build a club in their position? , their season is esentially over already, they will be battling with Widnes to avoid the wooden spoon , a trophy in itself that no longer has the ' value ' to avoid

The lack of P and R will ultimatly damage the game, both at Championship level, and SL level

It wasn't helped by the club seemingly throwing the majority of their marketing eggs in a campaign that started 3 days before the game.

Would that be to the detriment of FC?

Just what positives do Salford have to use as a marketing tool to entice new / ex fans?

A few years ago you could have said nearly all of that about Huddersfield.

The problem is Iain, even if as they should have done and given out 10,000 free tickets, the weather would have still decimated the attendance, I really think JW must have run over a whole box load of black cats

Another club moving in to the top8 could be at the detriment to HullFC yes, but it would add more competition and make us improve further to keep our place in the top8. With the BBC moving to Salford, the area is gaining even more importance nationally, and SL can't afford to miss out on the publicity.

and yes, the biggest tool any club can use to gain new fans is success...but I still feel Salford could have made a better effort than they did for this fixture.

Hull opened the KC in 2003 with a fixture against London (possibly the least attractive home game on the calendar) but still marketed it and gave out free/cheap tickets to council staff etc to fill the ground up and make it feel like an event.

If they had given our 10K free tickets, yes a good thousand, even 2 thousand may have been put off by the weather...but they would have still had 8/9K in the ground. The fact is they didn't bother to do much with the marketing, the same die-hards turned up...and they started the season with a defeat and the same problems in attracting new fans to the club.

I did, and tell me, what has changed? , Huddersfield are still not a viable stand on their own two feet SL club, Kens millions are still needed every year to prop them up, and try to get the local population interested, take it away and they'd be back down with the Reds in couple of years, maybe another 10/15 years and they might be susstainable

Have to agree.
Lets see how Salfords attendance are a few months into the campaign before needlesly lambsasting them!

But they wont be anywhere near the top 8 , even we gave them a good hiding in the 1 st match, it isn't just success, it is playing for ' something ' , at the moment they are essentially playing 27 friendlies

As I said, even freebies wouldnt have turned up, and you are correct, their marketing has been rubbish at best , but people arent stupid, no club can build itself with the prospect of losing most of its home games year on year

you just cannot help yourself can you but to have a dig at cas.

the home support is a worry,ive read all the excuses but it didnt stop 1500 cas fans going over the pennines on a road which was barely passable to get there and the m62 resembled a car park on the way home,hope everyone made it home safely.

the game was what anyone could expect given the conditions,both teams tried to play rugby on a night when if it hadnt been a sky tv game would have been called OFF.

the stadium is basic and there were a few teething problems but it will be decent place to go in the summer and it does have the feel of a rugby ground.

The crowd was 50% up on the corresponding fixture from last season.

What more can you ask for?
If it had been on another day, without snow it might have been higher, but 5k+ in that weather on Friday night TV game isn't bad at all.

If Salford keep up that level of increase there will be a lot of embarrassed pundits about.

As for Huddersfield, it isn't a standalone club but it is moving their and that's ultimately the long term goal. I'd suggest that only Leeds and Wigan could truly claim to be standalone.

Oh and no way did 1500 Cas fans travel. It always amazes me the sheer stupidity of numbers suggested for away fans in these situations.
500 Cas fans tops.

you are right i underestimated it ,the club chaiman has just put out a statement saying we sold over 1800 tickets.

Correct.

You have to admit though, these parochial scenes of well-meaning but inept match-day organisation don't do us any favours when they're on the telly.

I doubt it.

If I'd been given free tickets to an outdoor sport I'd never had any previous interest in, and the weather was as bad as it was for Salford/Cas, and I had *any* other distraction than work to keep me warm and indoors on a Saturday night, I'd not have gone. Imagine if it wasn't RL, but lacrosse or shinty. Would you have bothered?

Free tickets aren't enough - there has to be some incentive. In that kind of weather you need a better incentive than when it's warm, sunny and pleasant to be outdoors.

Looked like 1300 of them stayed at home then.

It'll be interesting to see what Cas's crowds look like when they move into their new stadium.

When do they open it?