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SALFORD AJ BELL STADIUM IN PERIL AS SALE SHARKS LOOK TO BUILD NEW STADIUM
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Star date: 12th June 2020 £31.84MILLION DEBT AT SALFORD STADIUM COMPANY The AJ Bell Stadium, joint owned by Salford City Council and Peel Holdings, could be in financial peril as one of the major current tenants, Sale Sharks, has announced plans to build its own stadium at Crossfield Bridge to 'bring the club home'. The stadium company, according to the last financial figures available, has debts of £31.84million, including recent loans of £1.32million from its owners. Full details here...
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Sale Sharks has announced plans to move to a new stadium at Crossfield Bridge in Sale as part of a multi-purpose sports village, using the #BringSaleSharksHome hashtag. The rugby union club is currently the major tenant of the AJ Bell Stadium, along with Salford Red Devils, and fans have been left wondering whether the venue can survive without Sale matches... "What does this mean for us? The stadium will have a very small income and would be operating surely on a substantial loss. We cannot afford any increase in any rent etc..." wrote one Red Devils fan site. The AJ Bell Stadium and surrounding land is owned as a joint venture by Salford City Council and Peel Holdings. After new loans of £1.32million (£660,000 each) in January this year, the accumulated debt of the City of Salford Community Stadium Company, or CoSCos, is estimated at £31.84million – even after a plot of land near the stadium was sold to Aldi for £1.183million recently (see here). In January this year, Salford City Mayor, Paul Dennett, told a meeting of the Council that the Stadium was "actually a great success" and a "really good news story" (see here). Yet the Stadium has been surviving on loans from its owners for years, even with Sale Sharks as tenant, and the debt to Salford Council is currently estimated at £24.606million, while Peel Holdings is owed £7.23million. Sale Sharks actually offered to buy the Stadium a few years ago but was turned down by Salford Council (see here). Now the club is attempting to go it on its own with "a vision to bring its elite men's and women's teams back to its hometown of Sale...." A statement on the Crossfield Bridge website underlines the sentiments... "The club could bring premiership rugby to a state-of-the-art, multi-sport stadium, which will not only become home to today's world class sporting stars, but provide an arena for the next generation through showpiece community sports finals and competitions. "Fans would benefit from an accessible long-term home, offering an array of transport links for visitors, and a matchday experience like no other" it adds "The sporting hub could also be home to the Sharks Community Trust, which aims to have a positive impact in Sale through health, education and social inclusion programmes. These would be developed together with the local community. "There will be a two-phase consultation process to gather views and incorporate feedback from the local community" it explains "The first phase is taking place in June 2020, where we will present the vision and listen to views from the local community. The second phase will be in the autumn – here we will present back the plans based on the ideas we have heard. A possible planning application submission will follow towards the end of the year..."
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Brian F Kirkham wrote
at 15:02:11 on 17 June 2020 |
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| I went into the reasons why Salford (the city, not the football or rugby club) are in such a mess over this in a post a while back. Egged on by a chief exec of a neighbouring authority...our beloved leaders stuck a stadium (albeit nice, bright and shiny) on land not even owned by them...in the hope that it might raise the profile of the city. The Rugby sides seem to think now that it's built - its theirs..if they have the cash to buy out peel holdings (???? odd given the history) then why haven't they done it? could it be when the proverbial hits the fan - they can just liquidate their assets and set up again? As for the Union Side - we had been warned, if they come back to barton for the next season - they need to be reminded - they are no more than a tenant. |
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Brian F Kirkham wrote
at 15:02:06 on 17 June 2020 |
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| Update for Mr Felse...i guess you've been watching clips of the 2012 Olympics again, Mr F. Small thing...Youth Sports Trust ? They have their National Championships - this is true, but please take a humble guess where this is run...they do a round robin around Great Britain...in venues more established than the AJ Bell - also in order for your idea to bear fruit the stadium would need something that its lacking at present - a running track..perhaps if Peel hadnt just seen the football and rugby revenues - you could have had that. Sadly, any athletics in Salford would be at the running track in Swinton - unless you would be prepared to build your own venue? |
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David Wright wrote
at 06:16:54 on 16 June 2020 |
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| I though Felsey had retired from making comments on here.
He has a problem; he just can't resist telling us all his opinions.
As for "if I was Mayor" - the comment of a deluded soul.
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wrote
at 05:43:32 on 15 June 2020 |
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Felsey wrote
at 15:47:24 on 14 June 2020 |
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| It is simply about horses for courses. Finding the best use. If I was Mayor my plan would be to change it to the Youth Elite Sports National Stadium. In the USA their budget for such is £8billion. Our Government should match that to up our game. Post Coronavirus gives Salford new opportunities and I say yes to making this the YES National Stadium. |
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wrote
at 15:47:18 on 14 June 2020 |
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| (1) Sell off for housing .
(2) Developers say they cannot make a profit if they have to provide afordable housing or pay planning fees.
(3) Let the developers off with providing affordable housing or paying planning fees
(4) Lose the £24 million
(5) Claim this is a good deal and good for the people of Salford. |
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Bob the red wrote
at 06:53:05 on 14 June 2020 |
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| Yes Darren, your about right on the gate figure. Them Salford Reds might be poor, but they ain't daft. I think the agreement about not paying rent goes on for years, anyway, that land is not designated for housing, and even if it were, it would not be worth anything like 30 million quid.And where would we put our beloved Reds? Another idea, why don't we rename it to the White Elephant Stadium? Much better than one that sounds like a whiskey brand. |
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Darren born and bredi wrote
at 15:36:22 on 13 June 2020 |
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| I think when there is a game on at AJ BELL, the average crowds last couple of years is only 3000 to 4000 for the rugby games. Salford council Might as well sell the entire massive land for luxury apartments. A starting bid of 30 million. That's it. |
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Bob the red wrote
at 13:31:57 on 13 June 2020 |
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| Didn't know it was 5 million spent on the moor lane site.The football club could have been given say another 5million to vacate the site which could perhaps then have been sold for 5 million for ultra luxury appartments which would probably well please the local residents who do not like the club being there. That would have given our football club a budget of 10 million to play with. We all know that our footballing lads and their Malaysian pal are certainly not duck eggs when it comes to property investment, and no doubt they could have done some sort of deal with the rugby club and the council where they aquired the reds training ground next to the AJ bell. Well I am sure I mentioned it at the time. Never mind, the rugby club deal I think is for them to only pay rent when they get gates of over 8000 ,or something like that, which is not likely. So let the debt build up . It is like a millstone round the neck of the council.It won't be long now till they end up in the ship canal wearing it. |
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Darren born and bred in lovely Salford. wrote
at 11:53:03 on 13 June 2020 |
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| How about Salford football club on MOOR LANE in kersal taking over the AJ BELL stadium that has the capacity of about 12,000, and the space to expand the stadium around it. I know they spent about £5million upgrading the football ground about 3years ago, but MOOR LANE only holds 5000 and in about 5years time they will need to expand MOOR LANE and they can't expand because of the nearby properties and st Paul's primary school. This football club is getting better every season and it will grow every season. That's it. |
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the truth hurts wrote
at 11:52:50 on 13 June 2020 |
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| I wonder how much the site is worth if sold with planning permission as a housing development ?? Pretty sure the council could recoup every penny.
The Rugby stadium has always been a white elephant.
Sad but not enough people in Salford care about Rugby League.... writings been on the wall ever since they left The Willows |
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Darren born and bred wrote
at 11:52:21 on 13 June 2020 |
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| Sale sharks is possibly moving to CROSSFORD BRIDGE playing fields in sale. It's the big fields facing the TGI FRIDAYS restaurant in SALE. The local residents around that area don't want it turned into a sports village and rugby stadium for SALE SHARKS for different reasons like it will cause additional traffic on matchdays, it's got 2 football teams currently using the site, a grassroots youth football team called "sale United" that has about 300 kids and a veteran football team called "old Altrinchamians". It's also got "sale harriers", a running team that has used the fields for over 60years. It's also used everyday by joggers and dog walkers. These fields has a bloke called "John" who's job is to maintain and take care of the fields and he says "this is all lovely greenspace, this area has a pond which is home to woodpeckers, kingfishers and herons, and there is foxes and hedgehogs etc". it's got about 2000 signatures so far in the last 24 hours. So I don't think sale rugby team are moving to that location. |
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wrote
at 16:00:52 on 12 June 2020 |
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| Maybe John Merry, who always trotted out the "this is good for the people of Salford", could tell us what the council could do with £24 million?
Maybe they could not have cut all the services they have cut or something else? |
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Bob the Lion (just for today, am a red devil) wrote
at 16:00:31 on 12 June 2020 |
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| Well ,we don't want that posh public school rugby in our city do we? Let them XXXX off back over the river to where they came from. What we will then do is bring the Lions back to this side of the river where they belong. This is a great idea. we cannot have all these decent Labour voting Swinton people going over to Sale each home match, where they might get infected with Trafford Tory propaganda.We all know the Lions are more piss poor even than the Reds, and so they would be even less likely than the reds to pay any rent.Why should they have to pay rent if the reds don't and never will. just look at the figures quoted. Salford Council and Peel were supposed to be equal partners. How come Salford owe more than Peel? The worse it gets the better. The more they owe,the better. Roll on next May. |
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