Maybe and I agree with you on some points, but you also seem to think Sale coming in will help Salford in some way, which it won't.

Then, as a consequence, it appears to me that there's one desirable outcome. I.e, the management at Salford must make this arrangement work for Salford.

Whether the present management, with what many believe to be a mediocre track record when it come to advancing the club can succeed is perhaps unlikely. But with no apparent changes due to be made, besides collectively putting pressure on JAW to make changes, we, the people who make a sizeable financial contribution to the club, may have to stand back, hope and observe. What a bl00dy awfully powerless position to be in...

and that ship is called Titanic

I'm not stating whether Sale's arrival is inherently beneficial or detrimental; what I am saying is that we can derive some positive outcomes from their arrival if we choose to.

Is that the sound of stamping feet I can hear?

I've been giving this some thought and I do think there's at least some scope for the fans to take the initiative here to help shape the future of the club at the new stadium.

Apparently, there's some silly talk on Facebook about forming an FC United-style splinter club back in Weaste (obviously a non-starter for several dozen reasons). IMO it's important for those fans of a more rational disposition to make their voices heard. Personally, I'm in favour of working with the Sale fans to try to ensure that we end up with two clubs and one shared stadium that we can all be proud of.

Just to add my two penneth..I tried watching the Sale Bath game on Friday night. I was totally against Sale sharing the new ground , but after viewing that game maybe there is a slight positive!,a glimmer of hope,but only if the people who run Salford can get their act together. I tried to view the game subjectively in terms of entertainment,excitement and passion, but sadly I found none of these.People will accuse me of bias but I have tried to watch Union on a few occasions but every time it comes up short compared to our game.The Super Rugby from down under is fast and exciting so I am not totally pro Super league..It was like watching paint dry!! ,forward passes ,end to end kicking ,the funniest bit was when a Bath player intercepted a pass and then fell over his own feet.In my opinion how anyone can pay good money to sit through that garbage is beyond me. Eddie and Stevo come in for some flak but even they look good compared to the commentry and analysis provided by the Sky union team,which is dour and boring.My biggest concern is what will the state of the pitch be like after a winter of Union?,all that stupid rolling around on the floor etc
What we need is to some how build on the positives from this season,try and get some investment in and more strength in depth {a bigger pack}that can compete with the teams higher up the League and just maybe we could convert a few of the floating Sale contingent into following the better code.As Early Bath has stated Sale are here.. there is nothing we can do about it ..we need to get our own house in order.

I'm glad to see someone else is taking a rational view of all this. I think we have to be careful of falling into the trap of believing that anyone who watches a game of league is instantly converted, as it simply isn't true.

Some folks prefer league, some prefer union and, on the whole, that's unlikely to change. What we may be able to do though is persuade some of the Sharks fans to adopt us as a second club - even if it's just for the bigger games. Plenty of my Rhinos supporting mates in Leeds have been to watch Tykes/Carnegie when they've had a big game, so why can't Sale and Salford benefit in the same way?


Footnote: The Sharks held their open day at the stadium today and it sounds as though there was a higher than anticipated turnout and that their East Stand tickets have sold very quickly.

It was the floating/casual supporter I was referring to not the die hards.I cant see many Salford fans watching union especially as the weather and traffic will be worse. At the end of the day the potential for increasing gates is a distinct possibility...theres 2 problems..every time Salford have had a decent gate they always shoot themselves in the foot and get hammered .Warrington and Catalans last season are good examples and secondly a lot of curious people have a glory hunter attitude,they only want to invest in a winning side...they happily spend more money at UTD and City .To reiterate my earlier point...its easier said than done but if we could just get further up the Salary cap and improve the squad we could well suprise a few people.

There is no guarantee that there will be any positives though, people are just assuming/hoping that there will be.



I agree that there should be some sort of increased fans voice but don't think it should be linked in with Sale fans.

It's not an either/or situation though is it. Both sides will always have their own supporters clubs but it makes absolute sense to work together on some issues.

Having a 'never the twain' approach to two clubs sharing the same facility will inevitably lead to conflict.

The Student, it's a shame you didn't enjoy the game on Friday - I was pretty dissapointed too - but would you care to comment, subjectively, on the state of the pitch at Edgeley Park ??
That pitch has been played on every week this winter, whether it be kickleg or yawnion. It looks in pretty good condition to me, although I'll grant it hasn't been an especially harsh or wet winter. Sharing between Salford and Sale the pitch will get approximately half the use that the Edgeley Park pitch has had, for the majority of the winter.

What is the union position on artificial surfaces ? After watching the interview last night the ipitch at Widnes was discussed.I read that Sharks had trained at Burnage on an artificial turf.Would Brian Kennedy fund an ipitch
at the SCS ? I ask because that would enable the SCS to make further use of the stadium;invite more community groups to use it.
I have no idea if marriages,gigs,or anything else is permitted at the stadium therefore further use of the pitch may be the way the stadium company make some money/profit.

I am not too keen on the artificial pitch,personally,but a union perspective may let me know which way it could go.

SCR-SeaDiver, as it happens I've been a member at Burnage for many a year.
We have a 3G pitch which is fully approved (at National 3 level) by the RFU.
The pitch is in use almost all day with school soccer, hockey, etc.
Sharks have trained on it when poor weather, etc. has kept them off their training complex at Carrington. SCR also used the pitch a couple of times prior to playing Widnes, to get a feel for the surface. I've heard that Broncos and Catalans have inquired about "calling in" prior to games at Widnes.
Sararcens (last year's premiership final winners) are moving to a new home in London (Barnet IIRC) which is due to have an artificial pitch installed.

Not sure why Sale or Salford would instal an artificial pitch, sure they might fund it jointly with the stadium owners. Certain to bring in plenty of community interest.

[urlhttp://www.pitchero.com/clubs/burnage/[/url

Having played on Leeds Rhinos' I pitch at Kirkstall last year (the pitch Milford Marlins use in the NCL), I have to say that although it's a great facility/surface, there doesn't seem as much 'give' as there is on grass. Consequently, I wouldn't fancy playing a full-blooded game of league on it and I'd be even more concerned about the prospect of collapsed scrums in union. Doubt it'd be RFU/IRB approved anyway (the RLIF won't sanction games at Widnes for the same reason).

Ha Ha Ha Total contradiction. To derive positive outcomes of Sale's arrival surely you're leaning towards the inherently beneficial side, and not the inherently detrimental side.

Wayward by Name

I suggest you put down that half empty glass you've been holding, take off your blinkers and try to read what I've written properly before passing comment.

I was kind of with you until this point, to have any chance of that many everything from the administration, management both football side and money side, marketing, media and PR machine needs to go though the gears and attract the new fans and most importantly keep them.

The way things are going at the moment with the pr disaster of Matt Parish getting sacked, the pr disaster of moving to the new stadium, lack of away shirts,the willows turf, the car park situation, its SOOO important the club up their game in the coming weeks, months and years Sale are moving on to our patch and will make a beline for the city of salford to get support (just like we should be in sale imo)
Its not been all bad the club have rolled the dice a few times this season and are playing a good brand of rugby for a change and their is a more interest that normal but more is needed

I totally understand that getting new support from the city of salford is very difficult after years and years of disapointment the ordinary saforidan isnt willing to put his or her toe into the new adventure without a succesful cup run (semifinal IMO) or being top of the middle or bottom of the top neather of which is going to happen over night.

The only advantage to Sale moving in is that it will give the club the kick up the backside it needs to go to the next level, it doesnt and we are looking down a barrell imo unless we get further investment then perhaps we can go toe to toe with sale and match them




Think thats it in a nutshell

Remind what your reaction was to the possibility of Manchester United's reserve team moving in was again?



Now that's funny.

A few of us have tried to have a rational debate about this only for people to not fully explain why they feel this will be good for Salford by hiding behind the handful who are just throwing abuse around as an excuse. I think we realise Salford are the biggest threat to Salford, but some of Sale's past dealings mean that we're extra wary about the added impact of them being there. Will these fears definitely come true? Of course not, nobody knows what will happen. But I'm still yet to see any real potential benefits for Salford - constantly mentioning "joint marketing" with no real rationale to it isn't cutting it for me.

To be fair, it's not really down to the fans to come up with a marketing strategy - either joint or otherwise.

To me, the issue is fairly simple: the ink is dry and Sale are moving in.

Regardless of what you think about this, faced with that reality you're left with a selection of fairly clear choices:

1) embrace change, keep an open mind and encourage the club to turn the situation into a positive (I believe there are ways that this can be achieved but I'll be passing my suggestions directly to the club rather than posting here and entering another series of pointless circular arguments).

2) Mount a campaign to have the decision overturned: write to your MP, chain yourself to the railings of the stadium, organise a march/blockade etc.

3) Hide behind a keyboard spitting vitriol whilst the club you profess to love is sliding towards oblivion.

I know which of these options I will be pursuing.

Im just going to say one thing iv been a salford fan my whole life. I was brought up in the altrincham/sale area and i can see the argument from both sides but guys not as much the sale fans this is coming from one of your own to the salford lot still crying there eyes out and spitting verbal abuse and pointless thoughts out from behind a keyboard, whats done is done its time to get over it and move on at the end of the day how do you know these people your throwing abuse at ect ect arnt going to become next generation salford fans hey ? . so stop complaining its done and over and for one i am welcoming of all you sale fans and cant wait to come watch some union with you over at barton and im shore likewise for a lot of you hey lets hoep they do a dual code season ticket ill be jumping at the chance. WHATS DONE IS DONE AND YOU CANT CHANGE IT GET OVER IT AND MOVE ON AND STOP BEING SO DAMNED PESSIMISTIC OVER ALL THIS!

I'm not suggesting you, me or anyone else should. I've not mentioned a marketing strategy. I'd just like people to expand on their opinions that marketing is a positive, despite the fact the two departments will be working in different locations.



Correct. No one is disputing that. People can still have genuine concerns about what this means for us, though.



I've already attempted to communicate suggestions via Facebook and been knocked back. I will be taking it directly to the club instead before too long.




A bit pointless. I know this from previous and personal experience.



I would hope you're not putting me into that bracket.



I hope it's a fruitful exercise - that's a genuine statement, by the way, I really do hope you get somewhere with your suggestions to them.

Is it?


I opened with "rugby stuff aside" - the people I was referring to detract from any reasonable debate on here regardless of which pro/anti club statement they're pretending to support.


I agree with the latter part. In fact, I think the Sale 'marketing machine' has little to offer us, unless we're sharing their budget.
Time will tell if we'll find some common ground in our backroom setups. Don't we currently have a former RU conditioner? A goal-kicking coach would be a welcome development. There [imay[/i be increased opportunities to shmooze with some of RU's bigger brands for sponsorship.
Ifs, buts and maybes but so is all the negative conjecture on here.

Well it amused me, considering some of your own debating techniques at times.



So ignore them. My point was a general one - I can't stand the way they go about posting on here neither, but I don't allow them to influence any part of my debate. Maybe if we all started doing that then the debate on here would be much better? In fact I think I might start using that ignore list feature...



Those are fair points, but I still don't see how much cross-over there would be if Sale are still basing their operations in Carrington? If we ended up moving in, then maybe I'd be more inclined to think we could benefit from that, but as it stands they're going to be locked away from us.

As for shmoozing with the sponsors... Wouldn't that only work if Wilky or others were at Sale's matches?

Well said. Taking people as you find them used to be a Salfordian virtue.

I was invited to Sale's game on Friday by some Sharks fans and had a great night; they're now planning a reciprocal trip to the Bradford game.

We're all rugby fans at the end of the day, let's put pettiness and bigotry to one side and be proud that our city will soon be renowned as a Mecca for rugby of both codes rather than the target of cheap headlines.