Rugby in ‘national crisis’ as Salford get closer to much-needed stadium deal

SALFORD have the stadium deal they wanted – and hopes are rising they will get the money needed to make sure they are not victims of rugby’s ‘national crisis.’

The city’s council has voted through a £7 million buyout of current joint venture partners Peel – putting a total value of £14 million on what is now the Salford Community Stadium – which would open up access to much-needed cash.

But while city mayor Paul Dennett told SunSport he will do all he can to make sure the Red Devils – choked by red tape for the last year – pull through to avoid a ‘tragedy,’ the financial state of both codes is bigger than one authority.

He said: “Both codes of rugby are really struggling. The Government put money into league just to keep the clubs and the sport alive.

“There’s a national crisis in rugby at the moment. Salford City Council isn’t going to solve that on its own.

“So we need to work with the likes of Sport England, the Rugby Football League and the Department of Culture, Media and Sport to properly come forward with a strategy to support rugby.

“It would be tragic for the city of Salford to lose a 150-year-old institution. We need to do all we can to get behind the club. We can achieve great things working with this great club.

“It’s an institution that came out of the city of Salford for the city of Salford. That’s the sort of institution I believe in.

“Without this club, we lose so much. You really can’t put a price on that positive social impact – that’s what we’re fighting for.

“And we’re going to have to try and support this club in whatever way we can, there’s no doubt about it. We need to keep them alive.”

As things stand, Salford get nothing from food and drink sales or the car park and cannot do deals that affect the stadium.

They are so hamstrung under the terms of the initial contract from when it opened in 2012, they must pay extra to open three stands on a game day.

As a result, income does not match expenditure, meaning a hole that resulted in the sale of three top players – Tyler Dupree, Brodie Croft and Andy Ackers – which consequently has seen season ticket sales for 2024 drop.

Now as a new 10-15-year lease – which would give access to a pot of up to £2 million of Government cash after a community share offer raised more than £360,000 – is being lined up, Dennett criticised the way things had operated.

He added: “My frustration has been how slow it’s taken for us working with our partners to sell the land around it.

SALFORD CITY COUNCIL

“The original vision was the land disposals would pay for the stadium. That’s what we thought would happen – but it hasn’t been disposed of and it’s brought us to where we find ourselves today.

“In 2009/10, we decided to build a stadium and create a home for Salford to keep them in Super League and also raise revenue. We’ve done some of those, we’ve not done all of those.

“I think how you develop a city and run a stadium are separate things but because of how this was legally structured, we’ve this situation where they co-exist and tension between those two worlds.

“Once we’ve done this deal, it’s about separating them. Hopefully Peel quickly agree to this, then we’ll have our community stadium.”