....I see that there's been some talk that Saints may have to be out of KR by the end of 2010 to be sure of another Franchise, and that Sale RU aren't happy with the Stadium at Stockport County (plus gates are well down for them this year). Bearing in mind that we're looking to increase our capacity to 18,000, how does everyone feel about a couple of years groundshare with Saints, or a longer term rental agreement with Sale?
My own opinion is that both would bring in some good revenue and help pay for the stadium changes. Please remember that this isn't the start of a rumour, I'm just looking for opinions.

Sorry but it's not as if we need the revenue that it would bring to buy extra players or to be able to compete with others. I would hate to share our ground with St Helens and I don't think their fans would be too pleased to travel to the HJ for a home fixture. As for Sale, its a little out of the way, plus there would be no time for ground improvements as the pitch would be used throughout the year.

Totaly silly idea.. what if saints have a home game and so do we on the same day?

shareing with saints will never happen.

Play on different days.

Don't think the pitch could withstand constant weekly use.

There wouldnt be any pitch left to play on. it would get ruined.

Theres no chance this would happen. have you asked on the saints forum what thay think. im sure you will get a nice responce on how thay would feel about shareing with us. or the fact that thay would be playing in our stadium.

Exactly. What an un-surmountable challenge that would be to overcome.

We may be capcable of putting man on the moon but sussing out two clubs playing home fixtures on alternative week-ends is un-imaginable.

How do those Milan Clubs ever manage to sort it out.

I could see Sale becoming Warrington Wolves RUFC,which was the original plan as far as I remember !
Saints can lose their franchise before I would let them play all their home games at the HJ !

Any groundsman on here familiar with how much a pitch can take on a weekly basis?

Bearing in mind Liverpool reserves don't play here anymore, would one game a week really be too much, especially with the good ol' Warrington weather?

Perhaps if we find a groundsman as good as the bloke at Headingly, we could cope with a Rah Rah team using it, too. Wouldn't be too bothered either way. Wouldn't go out of my way to watch them every week, but would be nice to see them do better than, say, Leeds Carnegie.

Where has this idea Saints could lose the franchise come from anyway?

If you remember they weren't amongst the teams who got the warning letters (because the planning process was so far on?? because they score highly on other areas??) and people need to remember that the ground is only ONE of the scoring criteria so I can't say I am overly worried about losing our franchise this time around (now if something went wrong and we got to 2015 without a new ground then I would be worried!)

The Stoop ?????

It's rugby not football! bring in Sale



Let Saints play at the Stobart

Do Sale have any traditional Sale-based fanbase whatsoever or were they little more than an amateur club before the era of Edgely Park, Jason Robinson etc?

I live in Manchester and they are the best known "rugby" club in the area but I haven't met anyone who has been going to their games for years and my office is only a couple of miles away from Sale itself.

Saints are going to be playing at Widnes for at least 5 games and probably more I heard at the beginning of the 2011 season.

Sale are a similar size to Warrington in terms of fan base. Their attendances were low 4 figures until that rich window guy got involved in the 1990's.

A mate of mine is a Sale fan (season ticket holder poor lad) and he told me at least 12 months ago that they have been looking to get out of Edgley Park and ground share with someone. They had been talking to Man City but nothing ever came of it. If Wire can make money out of it why not? If our pitch isn't capable of withstanding a game a week then change the pitch (again).

You would imagne Sale have learnt their lesson by leaving their district boundary. It would appear Sale supportersdon;t want to travel the few miles to Stockport, I couldn't see why they would travel to Warrington.

Anyone could do better than Leeds Carnegie.

If you did share with Sale, they shouldn't fall into the trap that they did at Headingley by thinking the Rhinos fans would also turn up to watch Carnegie. At the end of the day it's still Rugby Union and we watch our clubs because we prefer Rugby League.

Surely Salford would be the best option for them.

I cant imagine Tarquin and Jemimah parking The Range rover in some Salford Side street and then walking down Weaste lane to the willows !

I know I shouldn't, as it isn't politically correct, but that has made me laugh out loud.

It was confirmed at Saints AGM that even if everything works out well the new stadium would not be ready until part way through 2011. The then most likely options were that Saints first few fixtures of that season would be away or the first few home fixtures played at KR and the rest at the new stadium.

The subsequent rumour has nothing to do with a franchise. It is that the contract for the sale of KR has a completion date at the end of 2010 and that the builders have threatened to hold Saints to this if they will not renegotiate the price.

The new stadium is so vital to the future of the club that for me a few "home" matches at either Warrington or Widnes would not trouble me unduly if we had the new stadium up and running in 2011. The hire costs would in part or in whole be offset by the fact that bridging finance would not be necessary for this period.

All very interesting. Please don't forget that I wasn't starting a rumour, just looking for views and a bit of debate. The only reply that bothers me was that from Bombhead wire who seems to think that we should ignore various sources of income and just rely on the wealth of Simon Moran, a very dangerous thing to do. We need to maximise all forms of income, anything that Mr Moran puts in should be treated as a very welcome bonus.

Id love it if Dave Whelan let us use the DW stadium then the money would go to him and not wigan warriors

Anything that takes money from Saints is fine by us Wigan fans. What we don't have we won't miss, but don't let your Wigan hatred cloud your judgement.

Whelan would charge you top dollar (can you afford it), or would you have to move your club shop , the one that was going to bring in an equivalent amount of revenue of a Wembley visit each season



to Parr to reduce the rent even further?