about time the management faced reality,john wilkie spoke about the club being a family club.well I dont think that dragging young children, who I may say are the next breed of supporters, to matches on freezing cold friday nights and not getting home until after 10 oclock.that stadium is right out in the open and will be freezing cold.also I think salford will find it very dificult to get more supporters there, as away fans will travel better on sundays than on fridays

Club management get hung up on the corporate side of things quite often , they see the part of the sport that they have come to see as ' home ' , they see a hundred corporate as a lot easier to attract than 500 ' normal ' fans , it is where they feel comfortable

But it doesn't work , and it isn't susstainable , especially in the current economic climate , and especially if the cost of it rises when you go to Barton

Trying different days after some serious localised marketing would have been a more sensible approach , by all means play friday nights in summer , but a more realistic option would be Sundays for the start of the season in winter with a saturday night option as that is your usual TV night [ no disrespect , but the bigger clubs usually get the friday game

It'll never work, it'll never work, it'll never work (and neither will Simms again)

Well that's lease I'd expect what with it being built next to a farm

its nowhere near Anfailed

It should be Sunday in my opinion,I think more away fans will come.

The name's King of the Shed and I'm here all week. ; )

Will you have a tram station close to the ground?

Look at it this way.

The club need to maximise the corporate incomew from a bright and shiney new stadium so Friday is the best option.
The club generate much more income from the corporate Dollar in the new stadium, thus allowing greater funds to be released for player recruitment.
Better playing staff creates a winning team.
A winning team creates more interest in followers we now know exist (10000+ the othe week wasn't a fluke).
More fans on site generates more income thus meaning the club don't need to relly on the corporate dollar therefore the club then maybe look to playing on a more fan friendly day.

It's a circle, anyone who thinks that playing all home games on a Sunday would generate anything like the sort of revenue Friday nights does without a massive increase in fanbase has thier head stuck in the sand. Long gone are the days where it was soley about the fans I'm affraid.

On a personal note if they did play all games on a Sunday I know a fair few who wouldn't be able to attend because of family comimitments in the summer.

own goal! how can we stay playing on Friday nights when we need to generate fans, welcome to the congested car park called the M60, Trafford centre, just shows how important us fans are! you would doubled the away fans attending, all paying top price.

What we need to do is generate as many fans to the ground as possible & there is no doubt Sunday generates more paying fans into grounds. Own goal!!!!very disappointed.

FFS the traffic is not bad on a Friday on the M60, rush hour finishes earlier than any other night of the working week.
Think if anyone trys the M60 anti clockwise from the Whitefield side they will find they hit one hell of a lot more traffic from the M61 interchange through to the Barton high level at 14:00 on a Sunday than they would do at 19:00 on a Friday. Total rubbish that the M60 near the Trafford Centre is busy on a Friday at any time other than Christmas and seeing the playing seasons starts Febuary that is irrelevant.

MR: I understand your point but Sunday will generate more families, more away support ! more fans.

A few have mentioned walking from the Trafford Centre, but how do you get across the river? I know of the motorway which is obviously out of bounds for pedestrians. Upstream is the swing bridge, a bit of a trk. Downstream I think you can get across Irlam locks on foot, again a fair trek. Is there another crossing that I don't know about?

The swing bridge is not that far from the Trafford Centre and that would be the crossing, going over the locks is illegal.

Wouldn't fancy going over the locks at Barton, I'm not particularly keen on the Irlam ones where there's a proper bridge. Big drop into pitch black water, with them old wooden gates, no thanks

good job it's illegal



What's the crack with that planned second bridge over the canal, with the new slip road from the motorway?

There isn't as yet. As far as I know, any new bridges are at least a couple of years away from completion.

There is a potential short cut. Over the bridge, turn left down Peel Green Road, onto Langland Drive. Langland Drive leads onto a private/emergencies only road which leads under the flyover and onto the stadium. Not sure about the legalities of taking that route though and you're still talking about a 20 minute walk.

Not yet although there's potential for one in the future:



As the map shows, a new line from Pomona to Port Salford including stops at The Trafford Centre and Salford City Stadium is being proposed. However, it's all subject to funding etc. I think there are public consultations regarding this line in the next couple of weeks or so.

You're talking a good 5-10 years away from fruition.

Here's a novel idea how about they bring their family with them to watch the family game and help increase attendances at the same time?

Or would that get in the way of having a drinking session that they like so much?

We've already seen this process happen in football, post-Taylor Report and into the Premier League era. It is the model rugby league is following.

I think it was more to do with people who used to go coming back to see the place for one last time. There are a reasonable number of savvy locals, who know the score yet choose not to go to matches these days, that came to the final match. Word of mouth probably played a large part in spreading the word and you can wrap social media into that.



Sure I heard it mentioned that many of the boxes are already sold for the next two years. If that is true, and the boxes were sold on terms that Salford would be playing on a Friday night, I suppose that would go some way to explaining the recent decision. The R.F.L. gave us an insight into how integral the corporate side of things will be in Salford's medium-term business plan: 'The club has set itself ambitious performance targets in the new stadium which are based upon solid commercial, marketing, and media plans.'



Friday night rugby does seem to conflict with The Family Game®. A similar issue arose in the early 80s, after which we saw the introduction of the Junior Devils. However, I wonder what the balance is between those families that are put off by Friday nights and those businesses that are put off by Sundays? Whose income do the club seek the most? One they can control or one they cannot?

I admire your optimism fella. given that the line which was going to drop people outside the stadium for the commonwealth games is still a year away from opening, I wouldn't hold your breath...

I doubt it too but after seeing how fast Media City was put together, I wouldn't rule it out in ten. I don't know enough about the processes to make a decent guess.

The franchise say you need to increase fan base the club marketing is a joke for games also people finnish work at 5pm and don't have time to get to game its in the end not a viable buisness to rely on corparate to keep club going. Year on year the club promise top 8 finnish yet we get stuffed every week. It can't be good selling point when a new coach comes in and says club is craply run. Its been run poor for years. You can't have a club where no one wants to go any more. And after years of watching rubbish rugby and money not going far why would I waste 20 pounds watching a teamn that shows no intrest in the fans. I have several times asked the club why fans never get asked and the answer I got was there were moire important things to concider. In other words we don't want to here are views so I won't waste my time and money that don't care one bit for supporters.

T'raa then.

What could be more important than conning cider??



If your not going to be going to games any longer feel free to give the Turkey a swerve to help you get over the club totally.