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Drive past it every day and it's flying up. With Salford's gates suffering at the Willows, what do we think are realistic expectations for them in 2012+? Can they attract similar numbers to ourselves, or will they be stuck around the 6k mark? I'm really hoping it really increases the take up in the area. I work in a large office located in the Eccles/Trafford/Salford bordering areas, and there is no one that I know of within our 400 staff building who is a Salford fan. Couple of Saints and a few Wigan and Wire, but no Salford. Very suprised when I joined, and a tad dissapointed.

Living in the shadow of Old Trafford, can't see them ever being able to attract big numbers in a city were football is king.

I saw someone in The Trafford Centre last week, on my dinner hour, and he had a T-shirt on, which had on it,

Salford RLFC is my religion. The Willows is my church.

I automatically thought 'yeah, it's old, run down and no-one visits it anymore'.

Back on track, good for them their stadium's flying up. I remember going over Barton Bridge a few months back, thinking 'this is never even going to get started', as the area had been levelled for months, but metalwork wasn't anywhere to be seen.

Hopefully (for them) they'll get the same fillip in attendances as we got, when we moved grounds. A half decent side might help, too.

Is it going to be duel use ?

Salford CR RLFC plus a team that can get a decent crowd like FC United of Manchester?

FC united are looking to build a new ground near Newton Heath.

It would be good to get MUFC resevers in as they play at alty at the moment.

But it seems that Sale will move in.

I think they should change their name to 'Manchester Red Devils' to get some new fans in.

The bait is set, lets see what you catch with that MD,

Could end up being one of the best grounds in the Championship.

Still no bites, well to be fair, we are fishing in a stagnent pond.

more like fishing in a puddle

Litigationtastic.

Some very valid points on this thread to be fair...

it is flying up and all on schedule and set to be completed by december of this year... this is only phase one of the building process, with stages 2 and 3 to follow...

i know the club are working extremely hard to push current gates up and eventually the gates at Barton

i hope we get similar success's to you where the gate increases are concerned from your switch to the HJ from Wilderspool, the same that happened at Hull too

i suppose we will just have to wait for the near future to (hopefully) see the clubs hard work in trying to get the attendences up to their maximum, if we can tap into just 0.01% of the population of the GM region we would be at maximum capacity every game...

i'm not saying that is going to happen, but for the club to set an initial target of maybe 7-8k i think that both the club and fans would see it as a success (aslong as we can keep the said fans coming in)

I reckon an increase to around 7k the first year. I think you have to take into account how many fans don't like going to the willows. I think that adds a few hundred on the away gate straight away.

definately, and take into account the fans that might want to make their first trip to the ground for the sake of seeing what its like etc...

The Newton Heath ground fell through. It looks like it's going to be in Moston now. They wouldn't play in Salford anyway. Salford already have a football club and FC are a Manchester club.

Salford does have potential but the stadium alone won't pull people in, it will depend on them having some solid finance behind them to get up to full salary cap, and getting a good coach in who can for them what Nathan Brown has done for Huddersfield. I think if they had Huddersfield type success (get to a final, be a competitive playoff team) and have one or two high profile players there, Salford would get a big increase in crowds.

I reckon Salford has branding power because a lot of Salfordians are big on their "Salford NOT Manchester" identity as a city, and the RL club does provide that form of branding, which is why they have committed die hards who have put up with a lot of crap supporting Salford. I wouldn't rule them out being a strong team but they need a top coach.

If I was a Simon Moran-esque business man right now I'd be up for buying Salford and seeing what I could do with them, I'd try and get Tony Smith as coach, if I pulled that off I reckon I could guarantee a thriving set of gates at Salford within the next few years.

Marketing will be key for Salford i think, they should be looking to plaster the first game in their new stadium all over manchester, Theres a huge market in manchester for entertainment, even tapping a tiny amount of that would offer far more than SL hopefuls like halifax, fev etc.

I will wish them all the best until they start winning trophies





Yeh i could see a bit of money and a bit of marketing nouse to take them a long way.

I've mentioned it before, but I'm not entirely sure about the location....Its a bit 'middle-of-nowhere' and as a few people have already mentioned, it might take some very good marketing to start filling the place.

I think the main problem is that Salford is not a rugby town in the same way that Warrington/Wigan/Saints/Widnes are...There is too big a competitor in the football clubs in the vicinity.....Also Salford has a much bigger Asian population, which have little interest in Rugby League, so preaching to those folk would be pointless.

I think an increase in crowds will come from curious visiting fans rather than a large influx of new local fans....Certainly, visiting the area through work, I don't hear much interest or enthusiasm from the locals, so its probable that it will be their current loyal fans who will be the bulk of the home crowd.

FC should rename themselves Newton Heath and play in green and yellow just to wind Utd up.

Is it just me or do others think it will be a nightmare to get in and out, particularly as there will be little walk-up from home fans and they are also likely to drive?

Work the oppersite side of the bridge and past like a few on here each day, to be fair looks better than the Willows already!!

They need to do something to increase fan base as like wirefan place I work in Trafford Pk has one Salford fan in it!! rest Wire,Pies and stains!