Quote red13pjb="red13pjb"That is a very provocative statement from Diamond that does not suggest they are interested in sharing with Salford rather than tring to destroy us along with the rest of rugby league in the North west. The whole of rugby league should take this as a declaration of war from Sale and the RFU. Salford City council and the stadium management need to think long and hard about the possible ramifications of Sale succeeding in their plans and be way of giving them the keys to the stadium and the opportunity to kill us off.'"
Spot on. This should not be taken lightly.
We pretty much have the North wrapped up. Leeds is not a problem, football is far too popular for RU to ever become big there, especially as the RL team is one of the biggest clubs in the game. Newcastle is not a problem for us as we don't have a league team there and again, football is far too popular for RU to take off bigtime. Manchester is a probelm though, we cannot let it slip. There seems to be enough RU interest, just look at the England crowd against Argentina at Old Trafford. RL needs a strong Salford team, near the heart of Manchester and neighbours to the new media city. A strong Salford club is more important than ever.
We will never compete with RU at international level, they will take games to 50k+ stadia all over the country and fill them for games not including England. But we NEED a stronger club game, yes we need to increase our International coverage etc. but if we can win these little battles against Union then we can fully take the North. With the amount of money in Union, Sale do have the potential to become a very strong club. Some big investement could see them up at the top of the league, filling Salfords RL stadium every week and playing the occasional game att Old Trafford with huge crowds. RL, Salford and the RFL can't let it happen.
Sale had 9k for the last home game against Newcastle who are the bottom team. If they took that support straight into Barton with a move there, it would be very bad news for Salford.