So you don't see the potential of being in a location like this in comparison to the back streets of Weaste?

Walsall have always been hampered by the fact they are competing against four other big football clubs nearby who have a much richer history than themselves. Villa average 42K, Birmingham and Wolves 30K and WBA 25K. Would you want to watch Walsall if you lived in Birmingham?

Do you honestly believe Bolton would still be in the Premier League if they were still playing at Burnden Park?

No probably not, but I don't think the positioning of the stadium next to the motorway helped them increase their attendance either. At least not with drive by's thinking "hmmmmmmm I might just pop in there and see what it's all about"

That's the key point though. The Reebok is so eye catching. It's aesthetically brilliant whereas Walsall, despite being in a prime location have a stadium that fails to impress. Furthermore, Bolton also compete against some pretty useful clubs in GM and unlike Walsall, have achieved relative success due to the combination a genuinely iconic staduium in a prime location.

Oh, I don't know. I reckon the location of a leisure facility in combination with way it looks is a big selling point. The TC and Chill factore are two examples of this.
I reckon it's a case of planting the seed visually so that when we advertise to the potential newbies, as we do at the Willows, they immediately determine that "yes, it's easy to get to and yes, it looks like a place I'd want to spend Friday evening."

I think it's very different for the TC and chill factor especially. I mean Look at it It's just plain weird and it has snow in it. Thats enough to get people wanting to go and look at it. It's something very new and exciting that they normally wouldn't be able to do.

A square RL stadium or even Boltons for that matter will only encourage people with a passing interest in that particular team/ sport. And footie/ rugby being quite tribal in origin/ nature it won't encourage people to come along unless it's their own team playing there.

If it was the iconic stadium being built , but belonged to Swinton or even Sale sharks would it make you want to go?
I think we all know the answer is NO.

I am sure they must have attracted some people who never went to Burnden Park. What the Reebok did for Bolton was raise the profile of the club which helped them attract more sponsorship and a better caliber of player. It gave them something to sell that was sellable.

And there's where the hope lies in the assumption that we can't tap into a completely new market. There are a sizeable number of people with a passing interest in Salford RL. As we're all too aware from the countless debates on here regarding conversations we've almost all had with people that used to watch Salford. Unfortunately, people in general prefer the edge of town retail park style entertainment venues. Places with no real character but plenty of parking spaces and fast food outlets.

Suppose the question remains as to whether a square stadium can draw the passing interest back or not.

It certainly didn't do Warrington any harm.

Just to add something to that: Warrington had already increased their attendances significantly at Wilderspool before moving to the HJ. It's a fallacy that the new stadium doubled their attendances overnight.

I appreciate that some progress was being made whilst at Wilderspool but it's a fact that their attendances increased by 60% when they moved to the HJ. Warrington added about 4000 to their gates. Hull's gates increased by 72% and 4700 supporters when they moved to the KC.

This isn't something I've dreamed up it was from an article I read in the Rugby League World magazine last year.

But that for me brings me back to the point I was trying to make that new people who did go probably already had a passing interest in Bolton FC .

We have to hope that there are some 3-4000 salford fans out there who refuse to go the Willows. IMO I doubt very much that there is. I think we'll be lucky to get an extra 1000 home supporters.

If we only get another 1500 and a few more away fans plus some extra sponsorship it's much better than what we are getting now. Even Huddersfield managed to attract an extra 730 supporters in the first year playing in a lower division in a much smaller catchment area.

If the club can get another £300K - £350K a year in gate reciepts/merchandise and another £200,000 from hospitality/private box packages it will really drive the club forward. The club will have 750 dining packages to sell and 10 or 12 private boxes.

This extra revenue would make a big difference to a club like our's and take us closer to the salary cap.

I was being facetious. I've actually written articles in the past comparing Salford's potential in a new stadium to that of local ice hockey or LS Lowry painings, both were things that people could see locally anyway (ice hockey at Alty, and Lowry paintings at Peel Park museum), but it wasn't until they were put in a high profile location (Nynex Arena and Lowry Centre) that people went in good numbers to see them.

However, I am wary of the "build it and they will come" attitude. If all eggs are placed in a basket of assuming people will come because it's happened elsewhere then we may be being over-optimistic - remember, both Hull and Warrington, whilst moving to less visually prominent places, both moved to very accessible places - Wire's right in the centre, and Hull's only yards from their historic home.

I agree and I'm sure the club are trying to learn as much as they can from both Hull and Warrington as to why they were successful.

It's interesting that since the construction started I know a lot of people (Non rugby followers who know I go) are talking to me about the new stadium and showing a genuine interest and asking lots of questions. Some have even commented about going to see a game when it opens.

I've been thinking (yes do panic) we all know the stadium will be a fantastic advert for the club due to the passing traffic (literally), and we could get an increase from Barton, Irlam, Cadishead, Eccles, Peel Green, Walkden, Little Hulton, Worsley & maybe even Swinton dues to the locality but what about our visual presence in Salford (in the traditional sense) what chance have we of attracting people for Chapel Street, Irwell, Broughton (Higher & Lower) Kersal, Langworthy, Ordsall, Pendlebury, Weaste, Seedley, out of sight out of mind maybe. The club will have to pull out all the stops to bring in fans from traditional Salford so we could have the same issues we have now, no matter how well we're doing or how good the stadium is.

I'm sure many people from these area's of Salford visit The Trafford Centre or travel up and down the M60 frequently. Most Salfordians from these area's will probably see much more of the new stadium than they ever saw of the Willows.

Maybe so and that's what we can hope for but getting them to the stadium on a match day is much tougher than getting people to go shopping

I just think, and I'm sure it will be, that the marketing of the matches gets 100% better and reaches thos areas?

Sorry to deviate but, imagine if there was a fan out there who has spent the last 2 years in a coma, has come round and has decided to log in to the Turkey to see what happened with the stadium... [size=150"73 pages!!!"[/size



Anyway, back on topic. Good points everyone!

Come on KOTS you know I was replying to your comment about 'Out of sight..Out of mind' and not about how to get people to part with their money.

The way i see the location benefitting the club is that people already interested in RL (and who support, say Wigan, Wire and Saints for instance), will see the stadium when passing and be more inclined to go to an away game there, as the facilities look great and its a easy ground to access.

The main draw to the stadium will be winning games any other means of attracting passers by is a bonus.

I heard a story recently about how Matchday hospitality can become extremely competitive between companies in the same field.

For instance a well known firm of local solicitors takes out a bronze Matchday package and then when another firm of solicitors is made aware of this they can’t resist going one step further and signing up for a Silver package. This then escalates with more firms of solicitors taking out packages until it becomes embarrassing for any local firm of solicitors not to be seen there with clients.

Apparently this is kind of thing is rife in Rugby Union. I just thought I’d pass it on in case somebody from the club is reading.

Then we're agreed.

No, no they don't. Did you just make those numbers up??


Bolton were also relegated from the Premiership after moving to the Reebok, despite being in it whilst at Burnden.
Wanderers' average crowd at the Reebok now is only about 10% (2,000 fans) higher now than it was at Burnden Park in the Premiership. If Salford were to have a similar percentage increase we'll only ever need to open one stand.

For Salford to make the move to Barton work will require massive investement in marketing , several million over several years

But at least we've got "several years" before it gets built though, eh?!