I know MikeGC - I post on the Sale forum as J Moon, Mike - Hello!

It really is sad what impact a load of bile from Stockport fans has had on people. I feared this day, Salford fans latching on to whatever rubbish they'd heard in the office. I'm not going into politics. I'm not a massive fan of Brian Kennedy if I'm honest. I don't agree with the way some of the Stockport dealings were handled, but they were in a position to fend for themselves in the end which is what they wanted and they f*cked it up.

You really couldn't meet a nicer bunch of fans than the Sale lot. Even the Stockport fans over on the Yellow Board admit that. Yet one of two idiots on here seem to have taken Mike's very genuine welcoming message as patronising. The majority on here seem to talk sense, even if it's not necessarily something I agree with. Most of it is well informed and people are entitled to their opinions.

I'm personally hoping it's a load of keyboard warriors, as I went to Salford vs Leeds with my Sale hat on and didn't get any stick. I spoke to a few people who were all nice enough with me and didn't even comment on it.

I hate that we're seen as a club who want to take over and dominate everything. We're a mid table team who average just less than 8,000 people. We're not Manchester City, trying to poach everything we can get, turning Hyde FC into their feeder club and rebranding them and changing their home kit to blue. The key word is in this thread title - co-tenancy. Where does it say we're going to come and wipe Salford out? Sure, Steve Diamond has a big gob on him and has talked about trying to become this Northern super club. That's just marketing though. It sells, it brings headlines, it's working to be fair. The papers and internet have been full of talk about Sale in the past 2 weeks.

I think you all need to realise the position most Sale fans are in. We're Rugby traditionalists too. We don't see the vision the club has a lot of the time. Most of us like being little old Sale. We don't want a name change, we don't want to be seen as trying to poach players from Salford's youth system like some people seem to have interpreted Steve Diamond's comments. We only have one chant and that's "SAY-ULL", none of us really like the Sharks branding idea, none of us are egotistical toffs who couldn't give a cr@p about Salford and hope you go bust or anything. A good fraction of our fans have already been to watch a Salford game. Some are talking about the idea of a joint season ticket and saying they'd watch both.

Most of us didn't want this move. Not in a disrespectful way to Salford. You're a great club with a great history. More the logistics. We didn't want to move to a ground in the middle of nowhere with hardly any public transport links, pubs nearby, playing on Friday nights when traffic is a nightmare. But we're here now. It's a modern facility that surely Salford cannot expect to function on their own. I'm sure most of you have the brains to realise from day one you weren't gonna keep it as your own forever. It's still called The Salford City Stadium, it's still your stadium too. Sure, live a pipe dream, convince yourselves Swinton or Uniteds Reserves would have been better. But it wouldn't. 2 Rugby teams playing 12 months of the year on it will bring in great income.

Personally I hope it works but after going through 37 pages I'm a bit disappointed at the reception we're getting. I really don't know what you think we are. Have a problem with Kennedy and how he's dealt with things in the past - sure, that's up to you. Even have a problem with Cheshire Sports, should you know the ins and outs of things. But Sale and its fans have never done anybody any harm. There's pages further down where some are taking the p!ss and calling us middle class, blah blah, the usual boring Union insults. If that's what you think of us then surely we're nothing to worry about? We're not Millwall. We just want this to work and for nobody to get shafted in the process.

To answer the question about where our fans come from, my answer would be:

Me personally, I'm from Baguley in Wythenshawe. There's quite a few who live round here and in other parts of South Manchester. A lot still come from Sale but the majority have an SK postcode as research has found out. This points to the fact that the move to Stockport worked and the reason why so many of us don't want to leave. Don't get worried by that, that's not to say the majority will have a Salford postcode in 10 years time. After all the locals aren't gonna want to watch kick and clap and no tries are they?

There's also a big percentage of fans from Macclesfield, Stoke, Crewe, Sandbach and other local areas, along with people from all over the show.

One thing you notice at Sale is the variation in fans. You see jerseys from every local Rugby club from Carlisle right through to South Cheshire. This in itself explains why a lot of us hate this idea of rebranding to become a super club. We already have a massive catchment area. Changing the name to something stupid isn't going to suddenly make people from Bolton go "oh hang on, I like Sharks, I watched a documentary on them last week. There's a Rugby team called Sharks down the road at The Salford City Stadium, lets go and watch them". They're warped if they think that's going to happen. I've seen plenty of Rugby League fans at our games too. Come along sometime, you might even get to see a try.

He has his poker face on he ain't going to list them perhaps we should make a list of our own and then EB can tell us how many are on his list, quite disappointed nobody else has answered the questions STILL

I don't know whether anyone has seen the FAQ Sale Sharks produced for its fans: www.salesharks.com/RugbyNewsDeta ... le/2721098 I'm not sure whether we produced something similar but you should be able to pick through the useful bits. Worth a read.

I don't know whether anyone has seen the FAQ Sale Sharks produced for its fans: www.salesharks.com/RugbyNewsDeta ... le/2721098 I'm not sure whether we produced something similar but you should be able to pick through the useful bits. Worth a read.

Interesting would have been great if we had done something similar

Quote ="The optimist"He has his poker face on he ain't going to list them perhaps we should make a list of our own and then EB can tell us how many are on his list, quite disappointed nobody else has answered the questions STILL'" Bobby, it was posted when a lot of people were already in Wakefield, or were travelling across. Considering many people would have had attention elsewhere on Sunday, will be in work today and not everyone's constantly glued to the internet I think that's a bit of an unfair post. Okay. Rather than quoting the entire post from Wayward Fan, I'll take the questions one by one. There's no real point responding to the facts as they are, well, facts. Same with the opinion at the end, we'd only be going round in circles if I start quoting and responding to that as well. I'd probably also be repeating myself. So... * would fans of Salford City Reds prefer to see the stadium fail as a business? I think that's a fairly daft question, to be frank. Any Salford fan who wants the stadium to fail wants locking up away from the rest of humanity if you ask me. Of course people want the stadium to succeed and of course people want Salford as a club to succeed. * in this eventuality, would the fans of SCR be happy to see the stadium bought from its current owners (the people of Salford) or be closed altogether? I would hope the stadium has a clause somewhere stating that the facility must be used for community use, regardless of who is using it. Such an asset lock is in place on the new Community Stadium FC United are planning in Moston so that even if FCUM move in the future or go out of business, the stadium must be taken on by someone who will use it for the benefit of the local community. Hopefully, regardless of what happens with Salford, Sale or the SMC, the stadium can be used as a community facility. Whether or not that would be possible if the stadium fails I don't know, but I'd hope someone would be willing to take it on and run it as such. * will the fans of SCR be happy to see vital improvements made to the stadium (including a proper supporters bar) and better transport links or will we be more concerned because "it's only happened because Sale are here." I'd be perfectly happy to see improvements made. I would be concerned about how much influence other tenants have over us, regardless of whether or not it's Sale or anyone else. I believe a Supporters' Bar is now going to appear in the West Stand at some point - whilst I welcome this, the suggestion has been made to the SMC since we moved in and been ignored. Our co-tenants are getting it at the first request. This could be down to it now being financially viable, it could be a sign of our co-tenants being able to get their own way ahead of us as happened in their previous tenancy. Do we know the answer? Are we likely to find out? I'd say no to both of those and we've just got to make the best of it and hope the bar is a success. If it's run properly on our match days and used (although that will depend on the quality of beer solved for some) by Salford fans then we should have nothing to fear. * will the fans of SCR be pleased to finally see some of the club's history/identity imprinted on the stadium (eg, pictures of legends in the concourses, bars named after past players etc) or will we be more bothered by the fact that Sale - as co-tenants - have got equal representation? Considering the sterile feel to the place now, with nothing bar the illuminated signs on the main stand to make it feel like Salford City Reds' home ground, I'd be happy with any plan to show off Salford RLFC's history and heritage across the stadium. Knowing that Sale are co-tenants with equal right to representation means I would swallow my pride on the subject and put up with their representation as well. I won't like it, I don't have to like it, but what can I do? * would the fans of SCR prefer to see the club die a slow death at the Willows or at least have the fighting chance of success in partnership with Sale at the new stadium? I want to see the club survive, regardless of where we play. I still maintain that we could have survived at the Willows and, as things stand, I'm not sure whether we would have been better off taking Championship rugby for a while after RCD went belly-up in order to try and get ourselves back together and ensure any ground built was our own, giving us total control over our destiny. In fact, I think that's the biggest issue - not so much that Sale are moving in, it's the fact that this was meant to be our ground, securing our future and giving us total control over our future. That's not happened and we do have to deal with in the best possible way. But I'll come to that last. Quote ="Wayward Fan"I don't know whether anyone has seen the FAQ Sale Sharks produced for its fans: www.salesharks.com/RugbyNewsDeta ... le/2721098 I'm not sure whether we produced something similar but you should be able to pick through the useful bits. Worth a read.'" We didn't. Which is another reason why many of us are annoyed - at Salford and the SMC, rather than Sale. I'm still intrigued by the part about financial benefits to Salford. I cannot see how costs on match days can be reduced by having a co-tenant playing on different days costing the SMC at least the same, if not more. I cannot see how rent of office/shop space would be affected, neither, as again it is extra costs for the SMC to recoup. Also, considering Sale's administration is based in Carrington, I still fail to see how we could benefit properly from sharing information on a regular, constant basis. I can see it happening at monthly meetings, but not constantly due to the two being apart from each other. Again, I could well be proven wrong on that as well. Quote ="Wayward Fan"This is simply about accepting reality and finding the best way to deal with the situation so that Salford City Reds can prosper.'" I don't think anyone would argue with that at all. I think we all (well, 99% of us) agree with that. But after everything we've gone through as a club to get the stadium and seeing previous practices of Sale, statements from them claiming they want to "seize Manchester and the North West" and so on, many of us disappointed that Sale are able to walk in with no effort and are also slightly wary of what may come in the future if we as a club do not get our sh*t together and vastly improve the way things are run. Could all these fears turn out to be unfounded? Of course they could and I for one would certainly hold my hands up and say "fine, it worked, I was wrong, let's enjoy life and get on with it." But I'm still approaching the next couple of years with caution.

Quote ="The optimist"He has his poker face on he ain't going to list them perhaps we should make a list of our own and then EB can tell us how many are on his list, quite disappointed nobody else has answered the questions STILL'" Bobby, it was posted when a lot of people were already in Wakefield, or were travelling across. Considering many people would have had attention elsewhere on Sunday, will be in work today and not everyone's constantly glued to the internet I think that's a bit of an unfair post. Okay. Rather than quoting the entire post from Wayward Fan, I'll take the questions one by one. There's no real point responding to the facts as they are, well, facts. Same with the opinion at the end, we'd only be going round in circles if I start quoting and responding to that as well. I'd probably also be repeating myself. So... * would fans of Salford City Reds prefer to see the stadium fail as a business? I think that's a fairly daft question, to be frank. Any Salford fan who wants the stadium to fail wants locking up away from the rest of humanity if you ask me. Of course people want the stadium to succeed and of course people want Salford as a club to succeed. * in this eventuality, would the fans of SCR be happy to see the stadium bought from its current owners (the people of Salford) or be closed altogether? I would hope the stadium has a clause somewhere stating that the facility must be used for community use, regardless of who is using it. Such an asset lock is in place on the new Community Stadium FC United are planning in Moston so that even if FCUM move in the future or go out of business, the stadium must be taken on by someone who will use it for the benefit of the local community. Hopefully, regardless of what happens with Salford, Sale or the SMC, the stadium can be used as a community facility. Whether or not that would be possible if the stadium fails I don't know, but I'd hope someone would be willing to take it on and run it as such. * will the fans of SCR be happy to see vital improvements made to the stadium (including a proper supporters bar) and better transport links or will we be more concerned because "it's only happened because Sale are here." I'd be perfectly happy to see improvements made. I would be concerned about how much influence other tenants have over us, regardless of whether or not it's Sale or anyone else. I believe a Supporters' Bar is now going to appear in the West Stand at some point - whilst I welcome this, the suggestion has been made to the SMC since we moved in and been ignored. Our co-tenants are getting it at the first request. This could be down to it now being financially viable, it could be a sign of our co-tenants being able to get their own way ahead of us as happened in their previous tenancy. Do we know the answer? Are we likely to find out? I'd say no to both of those and we've just got to make the best of it and hope the bar is a success. If it's run properly on our match days and used (although that will depend on the quality of beer solved for some) by Salford fans then we should have nothing to fear. * will the fans of SCR be pleased to finally see some of the club's history/identity imprinted on the stadium (eg, pictures of legends in the concourses, bars named after past players etc) or will we be more bothered by the fact that Sale - as co-tenants - have got equal representation? Considering the sterile feel to the place now, with nothing bar the illuminated signs on the main stand to make it feel like Salford City Reds' home ground, I'd be happy with any plan to show off Salford RLFC's history and heritage across the stadium. Knowing that Sale are co-tenants with equal right to representation means I would swallow my pride on the subject and put up with their representation as well. I won't like it, I don't have to like it, but what can I do? * would the fans of SCR prefer to see the club die a slow death at the Willows or at least have the fighting chance of success in partnership with Sale at the new stadium? I want to see the club survive, regardless of where we play. I still maintain that we could have survived at the Willows and, as things stand, I'm not sure whether we would have been better off taking Championship rugby for a while after RCD went belly-up in order to try and get ourselves back together and ensure any ground built was our own, giving us total control over our destiny. In fact, I think that's the biggest issue - not so much that Sale are moving in, it's the fact that this was meant to be our ground, securing our future and giving us total control over our future. That's not happened and we do have to deal with in the best possible way. But I'll come to that last. Quote ="Wayward Fan"I don't know whether anyone has seen the FAQ Sale Sharks produced for its fans: www.salesharks.com/RugbyNewsDeta ... le/2721098 I'm not sure whether we produced something similar but you should be able to pick through the useful bits. Worth a read.'" We didn't. Which is another reason why many of us are annoyed - at Salford and the SMC, rather than Sale. I'm still intrigued by the part about financial benefits to Salford. I cannot see how costs on match days can be reduced by having a co-tenant playing on different days costing the SMC at least the same, if not more. I cannot see how rent of office/shop space would be affected, neither, as again it is extra costs for the SMC to recoup. Also, considering Sale's administration is based in Carrington, I still fail to see how we could benefit properly from sharing information on a regular, constant basis. I can see it happening at monthly meetings, but not constantly due to the two being apart from each other. Again, I could well be proven wrong on that as well. Quote ="Wayward Fan"This is simply about accepting reality and finding the best way to deal with the situation so that Salford City Reds can prosper.'" I don't think anyone would argue with that at all. I think we all (well, 99% of us) agree with that. But after everything we've gone through as a club to get the stadium and seeing previous practices of Sale, statements from them claiming they want to "seize Manchester and the North West" and so on, many of us disappointed that Sale are able to walk in with no effort and are also slightly wary of what may come in the future if we as a club do not get our sh*t together and vastly improve the way things are run. Could all these fears turn out to be unfounded? Of course they could and I for one would certainly hold my hands up and say "fine, it worked, I was wrong, let's enjoy life and get on with it." But I'm still approaching the next couple of years with caution.

Quality post GT. I don't agree with 100% of what you say (it'd be boring if we did) but it's nice to see a bit of reasoned debate without all the other nonsense that often gets chucked about.

I guess the thing we do agree on is that we now have to up our own game and see what happens.