Sadly with the present position of Salford it does seem as though rugby in the greater Manchester area is in serious, possibly fatal decliine, Salford, Swinton,,Rochdale and Oldham are all in the same position, tiny crowds, very few amateaur teams,and 2 hugely ssuccessfull football times in competition. Radio Manchester considers Wigan as its home team, with minimal coverage of the above teams I think that we were very fortunate in mot selecting some of the inane suggestions,for new grounds, Burtonwood, and Chester road at Daresury being 2 of the more sensible!!! Another one was a ground share with Sale. it does seem fortunate that through luck or good judgement we are in an ideal position. still it does seem a shame that the Salford position means that once again loyal supporters will be lost to the game . I personally feel that if we had moved to an out of town venue I would have been one of the missing rugby fans,

Slightly harsh on the original Gateshead as they only disappeared to keep Hull in the top flight (same as the original Sheffield did with Huddersfield).

The small district of Sale pulls around 6K and can near fill the AJ Bell when Leicester or Bath play there....blaming the stadium location as the reason looks unfounded with the Salford attendances mirroring that of the Willows.

I hold no candle for Helen Jones, but MPs are not 'delegates' carrying the votes of their consituents into parliament, they are supposed to use their judgement.

MP's using their judgement is what concerns me most. In recent memory ...

Selling UK Treasury Gold reserves at 20 year low (£7bn loss)
Invading Afghanistan
Iraq War
Bombing Syria

Complete twaddle RD, do you really think that Sale just represent the town of Sale in the Borough of Trafford?

I'm not letting Salford completely off the hook here, as the city hasn't and doesn't get behind the team, but, I think as fair comparative is that Sale probably 'do' for most of Greater Manchester and north Cheshire's RU fix. I'm discounting areas such Wigan (Orrell), Lancashire (Fylde Preston GH) Merseyside (Waterloo and Liverpool SH) that will have their own previously top flight teams to follow.

What Salford probably needed, apart from NOT being 'forced' to go to a new ground without a real benefactor in the mould of SM, cash in hand or supporters, was a trip to Wembley to generate some interest on all fronts and bolster their accounts

No point blaming the city. I think we have to be realistic and accept that interest in our sport is falling. Just look at our own gates and we are 3rd in the league and 1 game from Wembley.

Agree with this, sale are the northern Union team, most union speccies around this way support sale as their local team.

As much as marwan came across as a lunatic, he did his very best to raise the profile of Salford, made some great signings and improved the team, unfortunately the fans that he needed to turn up never did, it was a short term gamble on future spectator figures. If the club doesn't have an appeal then it's future isn't so bright unfortunately. If a club can't get a gate thsr allows them to spend the cap then they're going to struggle to compete.

Yes but if they always voted what their consituents want then we'd have brought back capital punishment and parted company with Northern Ireland.

I'm disappointed in our attendances too whatever the reason general apathy in the sport or not.

I've always thought with SM's backing, a decent ground, prospects of winning something and a clearly defined representation of the town in comparison to Salford, we should be attracting more through our gate not losing folk.

Ah well, horse to water and all that

Fans are fickle, and also Warrington's population moved from around 70,000 when the club had its moments of success in the 1970s to 200,000 and more over the next 40 years. Many of those extra 130k relocated to Warrington, with no allegiance to its rugby team. Only way to convert a good number of these folks is by sustained success, so we need an SL Championship or two and the odd Challenge Cup over a 5-10 year run to get us close to capacity of the HJ for home games. Plus, stop playing on sodding Thursday and Friday nights!

And there's some of that too. I never said they were solely from Sale and I even think that strengthens my point.

I think you started off by saying the small district of Sale.....so if you think that my post strengthens your point I'd politely ask you to think again

I don't think anyone would want Salford or any
Club for that matter go under but the game in general
needs a new approach. Look at the challenge cup
Final and the grand final we need fans from all clubs
to buy tickets just so it's full. The teams who make the final have a mad rush to start with then after a few days of sales you may see the odd advert on the club's web site but no real push to sell the game and are happy with the sales of tickets and merchandise this maybe down to short turnaround but social media should be full of offers for our sport.

The saddest part of our great game is that no one entity, either clubs, ruling bodies or tv can be bothered to promote the game beyond the basics. The introduction of NA teams will bring this to a new level and probably give others some new ideas!

The small district of Sale .... 134,022 (2011 census)
Castleford......................... 40,210
St Helens ..........................102,629

Everything is relative.
Or in St Helens case...everyone is relative.