Proposed stadium in Salford

[George]

You may not have heard of Salford, but they are home to Super League club Salford City Reds. And this is their proposed 20,000 capacity stadium. It's pretty unique.





Oh, and while we're on it, they desperately need signatures on their petition for this stadium to become a reality, so we should all take a sec to sign:

http://petitionthem.com/default.asp?sec ... l&pet=2672

[Shayne]

That's awesome. I suppose they've designed it so that most fans will have their backs to the sun and the others will have the sun shielded from their eyes by the big stand?

Bring that design to Perth Rectangle!

[britishspud]

sun?????? it's in salford

[Egan]

Hey George.

Yeah mate Britishspud posted this about a year back.

Shayne - Think it has more to do with finances and the fact 20,000 is about what is needed...but build it so its not just your average 20,000 seat stadium

[George]

o ok, sorry for posting again. The people behind the petition reckon the stadium is crucial to the club itself as well as rugby league in the UK, and this is salford's current home ground:



It doesn't look too bad, but it's apparently in a rough area, which deters alot of people from attending matches, which is why they are so keen for signatures on the petition.

[Jeffles]

The Willows does look quite bad. They have parts that are redveloped but overall the stadium is pretty dire.

I'm reminded of an email I was sent from a Rochdale Hornets fan after visitng The Willows for a Hornets game. Hornets lost (as usual) but it was a good day "because our car was still there when we got back to the car park."

[IanRitchie]

Salford City Reds are delighted to confirm that permission for their new 20,000 seater stadium at Barton has been given the Governement green light today when the application was passed successfully after the recent Public Enquiry.

It ends a long wait for the Reds who are now set to develop the land into an iconic, landmark stadium, thus securing the future of the famous old club.

http://www.reds.co.uk/newsroom/news138_021106.html

[the crow]

its missing a bit of structure......so it will look alot difrent when built and an engineers looked at it

[Jeffles]

BUMP! It opened with a friendly a few weeks ago. Salford v Leigh (who play one division lower). Not the most glamourous of openings.

The venue holds 12,000. Its reduced capacity is probably because Red City Developments, a partner in the venture, went broke. Still, it's big enough for Salford RLFC and is rumoured to draw Sale Sharks Rugby Union to play there as well.

http://forums.rlfans.com/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=516817

[Boba Fett]

Gosh that pitch looks in good nick!

[Jeffles]

After only 160 minutes of footy, it'd want to be!

[dibo]

It's fibre-based grass, which is a great idea - fibre reinforced so that the grass has some support under heavy traffic.

It's also 122m x 86m.

That's interesting, because an international standard RL field is 116m long (8m in-goal areas) and should have 5m runoff. So your ideal length is approximately 126m.

Why on earth would they have built a ground with a shorter pitch than that?

[Jeffles]

The 8m in-goal is an NRL rule. The Laws of Rugby League say an in-goal can be 6-11m. With the 5m run off at each end, 6m would be the locked in length of the in-goal for this venue. I can't think of any convincing reasons why they'd do that. Building a grandstand 4m shorter in length is hardly a saving. I suspect it might have something to do with making the venue good viewing for soccer. Manchester United Reserves were being courted as a possible tenant. It also might be a venue for Salford City FC to consider if they were promoted to a level that needed a ground bigger than Moor Lane.

[Simmo79]

Might be good for FC United of Manchester. It's where they claim MUFC's true home is (Salford, not Singapore); it's got lots of terracing; they could fill it for FA Cup matches and it would have a decent atmos for their typical league crowd

[Jeffles]

^^ It would be perfect for them. I think some media reports suggested this but FCUM are taking a different path. They are building a ground in Moston, to the north of the city centre and closer to City of Manchester Stadium than it is to Old Trafford - which to me is laughable. It's also encroaching on Oldham Athletic territory.

Maybe if those plans go tits up they could look to Salford. Good location this ground. Right on the motorway and it will get its own tram stop when the network is extended west.