Over 9,000 tickets were sold when they last made an announcement a few weeks ago. I get the feeling it's stalled a bit as I did all along. I could see it getting to about 15,000 tickets sold and then struggling to get rid of the rest. There's some decent offers on and the advertising and offers seem to be good. For example you can trade in Tesco clubcard vouchers for a ticket. I think they'll get a respectable amount in. We've done a good job of marketing ourselves with activity days at local schools and the like.

Although if the Wigan fans are to be believed then we're trying to steal 15,000 fans off them alone. So there's a sell out right there!

9,000 a few weeks ago is great going. A predicted crowd of 15,000 is not good enough.
I think the Wigan thing stems from Mick Hogan (or maybe someone else at Sale) saying the club were aiming to be 'the North West's [irugby[/i club'. Ian Thornley, youth coach, recently another young player (or so I was told) and Mick Hogan himself have all gone from Wigan to Stockport so you can see the why some Wigan fans are a littled concerned.

We are the North West's Rugby Club to be fair. Our fanbase and our attendances are two very strange things. People on here can laugh and be arrogant all they want, but merchandise wise and places you see fans - we must be behind only United and City. Our fanbase come from all over the North West. Sale, Stockport, Manchester, Macclesfield, Sandbach, Stoke, Bury. All these areas have a large amount of fans. Then there are fans from elsewhere in the North and all over the Country. Pretty much everywhere you go around here you'll see somebody with a Sale shirt on. That's why it's disappointing to only be getting 6,000 some weeks. We put on good ticket offers last week for the Northampton game and got a much bigger crowd than usual. So it's either the Rugby on the field or the prices that are putting people off. Probably a collection of both. The Railway End where I sit is £10 for adults. After that the cheapest adult ticket is in The Cheadle End and is £28. It's too expensive for mediocre Rugby at a 4th division Football ground

And I appreciate the Wigan connection. But I think some of them have read more into it than they need to because it's a Union team. Manchester United and Manchester City have been advertising in the papers and on the radio about tickets recently. I don't see anybody complaining there. Obviously if we're to get 4x our current attendance in then we're going to try and tap a few different markets. It wouldn't make sense otherwise. I haven't seen a slogan that says "Come to see top flight Rugby at the Reebok Stadium. Abandon your favourite Rugby League team for life and get a season ticket". It's just a big day for the club. I don't see many United fans moaning the one day a year the Super League final is held at Old Trafford or many England fans moaning when American Football is at Wembley

Orrell may have something to say about that bold claim

But seriously, ahead of Liverpool and Everton?

What do you class as a fan? Someone who has a shirt and might watch a game on tv but won't go to the ground isn't much of a fan in my eyes. As you say, Sale have a massive catchment area with no other rugby union competition. Crowds of 6,000 are awful. Wigan average around 16,000 and that's with top level rivals within spitting distance.

Yu wouldn't think it was the price that put people off, especially considering your fans come from some of the places you've mentioned.

To be fair I think you've got a bit carried away there. Most Wigan fans don't know anything about Sale. I'd confidently say even fewer are concerned about Sale rugby union taking fans.


I think many people stay true to their sport in that they may watch another sport on television or go to a special event for a day out but they wouldn't make a habit of it. I went to the Roses cricket match last year on a lads' day out. About twenty of my friends went to the England v Argentina rugby union test match at Old Trafford. Much in the same way that many rugby union fans watch the Challenge Cup on BBC and Super League on Sky whenever it's on but wouldn't dream of getting a season ticket at Wigan, Warrington or Widnes, I won't be rushing to go to another cricket game and the majority of my mates won't be going down to Stockport to get their Sharks season ticket.

Well not the North West but at least the Greater Manchester area. You don't see many Liverpool or Everton shirts within a 20 mile radius of south Manchester, where as United and City you probably do. I once went to watch Grimsby Town vs Bury and there was a woman who gave us directions to the ground who had a Sale hoodie on. We get everywhere. It has very much turned into a North West regional side in my opinion. Whenever there's talk of a new ground the name of Sale doesn't even get mentioned in terms of a location which is a shame. We're the only professional club between Leicester and Leeds in the sport. That gives us quite a market to aim at. Saying that, I'm not sure if Rotherham or Doncaster are professional but we're certainly the only top flight club.

A fan is somebody who calls themselves a fan. It's not up to me to judge. I just mean if the amount of people who walk around in Sale shirts got to the games then the attendance figures would be much bigger. The year after we won the league we were getting over 10,000 every game and the season before last our average was 9,200 so the people are certainly there. I understand the point about Wigan and other Rugby League clubs and so I'm not going to get into a debate about who's bigger and what not. But of Wigans average crowd of 16,000 - probably 12,000 come within 5 miles of the town. The same with St Helens and Warrington. Rugby League is a lot more territorial and that's why the away crowd figures are a lot more like Football. I once read Warrington fans saying 3,500 fans wasn't a big away crowd for a certain team. Yet today we took around 150 to Exeter and that's quite a lot for us for such a distance.
Plus, a lot of people that go to watch Sale aren't so much fans of us - more fans of the game. Because we're the only professional team in such a distance fans of the game, rather than the club will come and watch us. You see amateur rugby jerseys of teams from all over the show in the crowd. Not to mention a fair few Rugby League tops.

And those areas aren't all that wealthy. Prices are still relative. Why would you pay £28-47 to sit at Edgeley Park? At least with the nicer grounds the higher prices are justified

I wouldn't say I'm getting carried away. I am just basing it on what I read over on the Wigan forum. If any Wigan fans think I'm slagging you off then I'm not. I've always looked out for Wigan's results and went to the away game at Widnes in the Challenge Cup and sat with their fans at the Grand Final.

And for your last point I'm agreeing with you.

You could always move back to Sale

...only joking


Sale are the only top flight rugby union club for many a mile which is why its difficult to understand why the crowds are what they are. We're not talking about a regionalised minority sport, like rugby league. Union is a global sport and the second biggest in the UK.
Can't say I look out for Sale scores but I always keep an eye on Orrell Anvil. What are the chances of Sale redeveloping Edgeley Park? If not what is the alternative? If you are to truly be the North West's rugby union club could you up sticks and move to a different town or city?

If the rumours are true they might be going a bit further north around the M60,somewhere near Salford I believe.

Quote ="Catalancs"You could always move back to Sale ...only joking Sale are the only top flight rugby union club for many a mile which is why its difficult to understand why the crowds are what they are. We're not talking about a regionalised minority sport, like rugby league. Union is a global sport and the second biggest in the UK. Can't say I look out for Sale scores but I always keep an eye on Orrell Anvil. What are the chances of Sale redeveloping Edgeley Park? If not what is the alternative? If you are to truly be the North West's rugby union club could you up sticks and move to a different town or city?'" Football. Simple as that. I always get annoyed when I see quotes along the lines of "Sale - the club that's thrived in a Rugby League hot bed" - because that's . We're not in any other area but for a football one. Pretty much the whole of England is. You could walk to Old Trafford from Sale. It would take a while but from Sale to Stretford it's a couple of miles. You've also got a load of Premier League, Football League and Rugby League sides within 20 miles of us. That's apparently why we play our games on Friday nights. Or at least was originally. I don't really think it matters though. I doubt thousands would be going to watch Football the next day. Even Sale itself is more a football town than a Rugby one. I went out in Sale before the Grand Final and said to my mate that we'd go to a pub near the Metrolink stop, thinking it would be empty. It was absolutely full of United fans watching the game. The chances of redeveloping of Edgeley Park are probably pretty high. I would think though as cj has mentioned that Salford is probably first choice. I don't know what's happening with that yet though. The club said not long back that the immediate future remains in Stockport. I don't know the ins and outs though of redeveloping Edgeley Park. I know the council have jumped in a couple of times. For example we're not allowed a screen in the ground when it's a televised game. It's against health and safety to put it in the available areas or something. Also, the open stand - www.footballgroundguide.com/stockport_county/, The Railway End backs onto private property or land not owned by Sale or Stockport and so can't be expanded. I'd much rather stay in Stockport or somewhere nearby. I'm from South Manchester and don't drive. Salford is a bit too far to get to and almost impossible on a Friday night on public transport.

Quote ="Catalancs"You could always move back to Sale ...only joking Sale are the only top flight rugby union club for many a mile which is why its difficult to understand why the crowds are what they are. We're not talking about a regionalised minority sport, like rugby league. Union is a global sport and the second biggest in the UK. Can't say I look out for Sale scores but I always keep an eye on Orrell Anvil. What are the chances of Sale redeveloping Edgeley Park? If not what is the alternative? If you are to truly be the North West's rugby union club could you up sticks and move to a different town or city?'" Football. Simple as that. I always get annoyed when I see quotes along the lines of "Sale - the club that's thrived in a Rugby League hot bed" - because that's . We're not in any other area but for a football one. Pretty much the whole of England is. You could walk to Old Trafford from Sale. It would take a while but from Sale to Stretford it's a couple of miles. You've also got a load of Premier League, Football League and Rugby League sides within 20 miles of us. That's apparently why we play our games on Friday nights. Or at least was originally. I don't really think it matters though. I doubt thousands would be going to watch Football the next day. Even Sale itself is more a football town than a Rugby one. I went out in Sale before the Grand Final and said to my mate that we'd go to a pub near the Metrolink stop, thinking it would be empty. It was absolutely full of United fans watching the game. The chances of redeveloping of Edgeley Park are probably pretty high. I would think though as cj has mentioned that Salford is probably first choice. I don't know what's happening with that yet though. The club said not long back that the immediate future remains in Stockport. I don't know the ins and outs though of redeveloping Edgeley Park. I know the council have jumped in a couple of times. For example we're not allowed a screen in the ground when it's a televised game. It's against health and safety to put it in the available areas or something. Also, the open stand - www.footballgroundguide.com/stockport_county/, The Railway End backs onto private property or land not owned by Sale or Stockport and so can't be expanded. I'd much rather stay in Stockport or somewhere nearby. I'm from South Manchester and don't drive. Salford is a bit too far to get to and almost impossible on a Friday night on public transport.

[url=http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/sport/Leicester-Tigers-concerned-blanket-TV-coverage/article-2943579-detail/article.htmlLeicester Tigers concerned by blanket TV coverage. There could be a correlation between Tigers' blanket TV coverage and home attendances that are down by 2,250 a game.[/url

[url=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/article-1333721/Leeds-Carnegie-coach-Neil-Back-set-chop-Harlequins-win.htmlWorld Cup winner Neil Back faces the sack if Leeds Carnegie are beaten at Harlequins today.[/url

27-6 at half time. I think the Takes have seen the 'back' of him.

[url=http://www.sportinglife.com/rugbyunion/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=rugby/10/11/28/RUGBYU_Harlequins_Nightlead.htmlRelegation place sorted in November?

[/url

Wasn't too long ago they had 'capacity' crowds week in, week out!

How to make Henson look good. Stick him next to a fat bloke and hulk hogan www.saracens.com/

How to make Henson look good. Stick him next to a fat bloke and hulk hogan www.saracens.com/

20 quid for a family of four. You can't beat that


Now I understand why they need over 50,000 to break even. I thought they'd decided to stop after losing money on their prtevious games there.

seems ironic that EP was originally built as a RL ground !

who actually owns the ground now ? Stockport FC or the council ?

why would Sale want to invest in EP when more modern stadia already exist in the general NW area ?

Maybe to stay close to Sale. If they move any further then they could and possibly should consider a name change. There's been talk of them moving in with Salford.

why not ? could be good for everyone !

They moved in with Stockport County and now look at the state of them. I'm not suggesting anything but that is in the mind of many.

the problem of moving in with Salford would obviously be fixture overlap so the planning would need to be well thought out - a bit like if ASAP & Cats both played at Aimée Giral for example

I think they'll go down. I think they'll struggle if they do too. They are a terrible team to watch. Leeds obviously isn't a big Rugby Union area but it's not a surprise when they play the brand of Rugby they do. The 6-3 win we had over them was a rubbish game and their tactics were awful. I went to the LV Cup game the other week and the attendance was given as 3082 but there was probably half that. It was empty. It seems a lot of the fans have had enough. In the summer there was a lot of talk of good recruiting and that they were aiming for the Heineken Cup. Newcastle aren't much better and so if they manage a win or 2 you never know, but they have Northampton on Sunday and if form is anything to go by they could see a record home defeat. If any of the folk of Leeds do decide to go and watch a game of Union for once then that's probably the game to go to. Northampton are incredible if I do say so myself

To be fair, their capacity was about 16,500 2 years ago and so they've justified building the 10,000 capacity stand because the attendances are still ahead of that.

It probably is a good point though about the amount of games on tele. Leicester or Bath seem to be on every week and it's not a wonder the Northern clubs moan about a Southern bias. There's 2 games a week on ESPN and 1 on Sky. It's a lot of Rugby when last season there were some weekends when there wasn't a single game on.

I find it as confusing as anybody but I think Cheshire Sports own the ground and both clubs. Brian Kennedy owns Cheshire Sports or whatever they're called and so I guess he owns both. I'm not too sure. I try to stay out of that side of it all. I'm a football fan first and foremost and so don't like to slag off Stockport, but they're their own worst enemies. There are some not nice things that have happened to them, but I wouldn't believe the words of a few bitter fans. A lot of them accept what has happened. After all, Sale don't control what happens on the pitch and we've not forced them to get beat 5-0 every week it seems.

I think it's unfair for somebody to say we would bring bad on Salford. For starters we wouldn't be buying them, we would be groundsharing. Secondly their chairman or somebody quite high up has made it quite clear that they have spent years of hard work building this ground and don't want another team sharing, or at least they don't want another team taking it over. What's the capacity gonna be? I can't see them making much money or establishing it on their own with attendances of 3k.

I personally don't want the ground share but it's probably better to share with a Rugby League club than a Football team.

Despite the ground not being brilliant, Edgeley Park is very ideal with it's motorway and public transport links. There are several trains every hour to Manchester in one direction and Macclesfield and Stoke in the other direction. These areas seem to cover the core fan base, along with buses that run to the neighbouring areas. There are plenty of pubs and places to eat nearby. It might be an old fashioned Football ground but it has character and is easy to get to. I'd rather that than some soulless stadium off a motorway with nothing for miles

[url=http://www.sportinglife.com/rugbyunion/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=rugby/10/12/02/RUGBYU_England_Snap.htmlThe Rugby Football Union have announced their "absolute intention" not to select overseas-based players for England following the 2011 Rugby World Cup.[/url

One way to compete with the French salary cap I suppose.

Doesn't it just bring them into line with the SANZAR nations in terms of not selecting overseas based players?

can't give an opinion on EP never having been there for a match but an old mate of mine (an ex Stockport Co. player/captain of the seventies) reckons it needs upgrading & improving - this seems a mandatory requirement nowadays to try to give the maximum of comfort & facilities to the paying public don't you think ? County seem to be their own worst enemies - just when they seem to be doing ok they then shoot themselves in the foot ! which must be demoralising for the loyal County fans ? Proably a bit like being a Donny fan in RL ?