Salford's ground is in an awful location that is not very well accessible by public transport from Manchester city centre. There is a bus but it takes the best part of an hour, and it doesn't run every ten minutes either. Not great if you want to make it back for a train home after a Friday night game. That might not affect Sale much as I imagine most of their fans live outside the immediate area and travel to games by car, so being near a motorway junction is better for them. Salford fans will see it as more of a hassle though as the ground is no longer in the heart of their community like the Willows was. Also if you're travelling to games from another part of the Manchester area, or you're an away fan getting off a train in the city centre, you just had to get on a tram to Weaste before. It's now a lot less convenient to get to by any mode other than by car, and as such I imagine plenty just decide not to bother.

I agree with your point DM as far as it not being part of the community, but, what is good for Sale is also good for Salford Fans travelling from other parts parts of the Manchester area and Away Fans so it doesn't quite stack up. Although yes the vast majority of Sale home fans will be travelling

BTW the grounds are about 5 miles apart and there is plenty of connectivity between Weaste and Peel Green even if you had to go via the old ground to get to the new one. I don't get that many Salford Fans will be starting their journeys in Manchester City Centre or historically relied upon a tram from Piccadilly to Weaste it certainly wasn't around for the most part of their history.

Salford's fan base IMO or lack of it is due to the make up of Salford as a city, it's spread out and not really one community, there is a great appetite for Association Football, they've had little to shout about since the early 70's and even then crowds weren't in 5 figures, I think the last game ever at the Willows attracted 10,000 but week to week the club relies upon a hard core of less than a third of that number. It's a tough sell and yes the ground could be in a better location and they've lost some fans in the moving process but the thing that would get people taking about and attending RL in Salford is success.

They could double their numbers and if they ever got to Wembley then they'd take plenty for a day out the trick being able to retain some of those fans

£27 on match today today, the big boys are in town. Hiking up the price fot a big following, way to go to get people through the door, whats that all about.

Fair point, I probably fell into the trap of stereotyping RU match goers as more upper/middle class types less likely to be travelling to games by public transport. Sale fans that do travel by that method won't like the location either! Speaking as someone who has never driven in my life and is never likely to, I see Salford's ground as miles away when it's actually the closest Super League ground to where I live. Getting to a home game in Warrington by train is quicker from Manchester than getting to Salford. That doesn't do them any favours does it?

No it isn't ideally located, although I'm just off to my local pub in Monton (Eccles) for a quick beer with some Eccles based Salford Fans pre match and it's probably 50/50 them getting to either ground, all be it the other is now gone.

Where I think the game let Salford down was the threat of SL status based in some part on the quality of your ground. Salford were in a mess, the new ground offer came along at the right time as it suited a variety of none RL agendas I don't think that the Salford plan ever stacked up projected numbers wise very optimistic and the uplift that we had from Wilderspool to the HJ couldn't be repeated as the AJ Bell was pretty much rejected day 1 and the die was cast.

The rest is history and it's not over yet I know this Forum isn't an indicator of Salford's fan base but two (in my case ex pat) Wire fans discussing Salford's predicament probably says something about their plight

Salford fans post on another forum so actually it says nothing at all.

Our move from Wilderspool to the HJ revitalised us as a club because as well as being a nice shiny new ground, it was also perfectly located right on the edge of the town centre, just five minutes walk from a train station that connects to the town's small local stations, the two major cities either side of us, and Yorkshire for a large number of away fans. Also within that proximity are the town's bus station and the main shopping centre. Wilderspool was actually tucked away, but there can't be anyone in Warrington who doesn't know where the HJ is, even if they've never been inside it. Salford would have had to go to the Quays for a similar level of exposure, and I acknowledge that was probably completely impossible financially. I do remember there being loads of talk of us moving to various locations on the very fringes of Warrington before we secured the HJ site, and I thought at the time it would be the death of the club if it happened. Die hards would go to wherever it was, but more casual fans would drift away. Luckily we got the ideal spot in the end, but Salford emphatically didn't. It might be as close to Eccles as the Willows is, but it's much further from the likes of Ordsall and Broughton, and I think the lack of a train or tram stop within a few minutes walk is very prohibitive. They're stuck with it now though unfortunately.

Why don't Salford fans go to the ground by car, perhaps by carpool?

They can share with the Catalan and Toulouse away followers then cant they.

It's all relative to how you perceive it, as an away fan, yes it takes longer to get out of stadium carpark but then it's like half a mile and back in motorway, used to take longer to get back on motorway from he willows but back to the car and away quicker, overall it evens it self out. And as I live 25 miles away from headingley and 3 Rl clubs are closer to home for me I just see driving to any game home and away as just part of the game day. If Cas ever get the new stadium I will use the short rail journey, but can walk from my parents house to Cas ground anyway. I can probably see why home fans get a bit miffed if public transportation to the stadium is poor, but surely the entire Salford fan base was not 800m radius from the willows and people still had to drive before, surely for a number of fans the stadium is now closer.

"says nothing at all" a bit like your post then really? Read my post again I think that is what I was saying, over the thread two Warrington fans discussing Salford's plight and quite sympathetically IMO rather than simplistically rubbishing your club and you select half a line to prove what point?

So on reflection your post far from saying nothing at all perhaps says it all

I agree a 5 mile move shouldn't be that difficult to replan and whilst it might put a few off it might make it more likely for others to go or certainly make it easier for those Salford citizens in Cadishead, Irlam, Eccles, Patricroft Peel Grean Worsley

Scatalan tried that, and the driver was singing to himself.

Five miles might not sound a lot, but imagine if we had moved five miles away from Wilderspool, thus taking us right out of the centre of Warrington. Would we be getting five figure crowds? No chance. I travel to home games (from Didsbury) and obviously we would have our core who would go anywhere as long as it was still technically Warrington, but in the grand scheme of things we'd be a minority. Premier League football clubs would easily survive such moves, but clubs at a more community level - not just RL clubs - that don't have Premier League football sized fan bases don't have such flexibility.

Really? What does it say?
No Salford fans have joined in this thread because no Salford fans bar a handful read this site (cue the moronic quotes of "Salford fans" and "handful"icon_wink.gif.
I read the last paragraph differently than you suggest you intended it to read.
My bad.

do you car-pool to Shark Park Bazza?

i went along yesterday, car park fee wasn't too bad as there were 4 of us to share the cost. Took 5 minutes to get away after the game. To be fair most of the crowd had left well before the end though. thought the crowd as a little on the disappointing side as salford had started well, the WCC being on might have led to a few neutrals like me attending, and leeds brought a reasonable number with them

Saleslim always uses a taxi. There would be plenty of room in his taxi

To be honest why can the club or fan group arrange a coach or coaches from the willows? And have it preferentially parked for an easy exit? We're talking a couple of quid a person maybe sell it as part of the tickets?

Stop talking to yourself Jean it's embarrassing.

And no I don't always use taxis, I drive and then walk 15 mins to the ground.

Good on you, as well. There are plenty on here that dont actually go to ANY games but, just love to moan.
Could have done with Salford beating Leeds though, Trinity are at their place next week and I was hoping that we'd catch them lacking in form.

I thought you had done 30k trips in a taxi to the games?

Which is still excellent by comparison with many away followings.

I don't talk to myself.

I think we all know that's botty talk isn't it Barry?

You've got more profiles on here than I've had hot dinners (although being a pauper from Salford that isn't many I have to admit

).