Leeds Rhinos at Headingley, Wigan Warriors at the DW Stadium, Warrington Wolves at the Halliwell Jones, Hull KR at Craven Park and St Helens at the Totally Wicked Stadium: Super League is awash with great grounds across the league.
There are traditional grounds like at Wakefield Trinity and Castleford Tigers and football stadiums like at Hull FC and Huddersfield Giants.
And then there’s Salford Red Devils’ ground which is a superb stadium but one that has been at the heart of recent controversies.
This comes as a “controversial” bid comes in from the council to purchase the club.
However according to the Manchester Evening it is causing Salford “significant financial hardship.”
Board member Oli Randall said: “The delays over the clarification of the future ownership of the stadium is already causing significant financial hardship for it tenants.
“We can’t set prices for season tickets, which should already have been placed on sale in July. The current owners and management team have been in place for just four years during which time the Covid lockdowns devastated the revenue and commercial relationships during the last 12 months.”
Executive director Paul Trainor referred to ‘disrespectful comments’ made about the [lack of] community engagement of the club.
“We have hundreds of students and children a week playing in our rising stars programme, our building for the future programme engages with 100 schools across Greater Manchester, many of them in Salford.
“I think we are more than doing our part in terms of engaging with young people. It’s more than just playing on pitches, it’s about our players visiting schools, community clubs, and all the positive work going on around mental health – there’s a whole host of things that the club is doing for that which is integral to our work as a community club.”
Coun Garrido said: “Salford Reds are an important part of this city’s sporting heritage, and long may they continue to be so, but it does not need the city mayor or the council to purchase the stadium for this to happen.”
And he disputed Mr Dennett’s assertion that the future of the 150-year-old super league club could only be safeguarded if the city council took full control of the stadium.
He added: “The city mayor talks about improving sport throughout Salford by owning the stadium but they have been part owners for 13 years and what has been achieved? Have we seen a proliferation of new local sports clubs, particularly for our young people, I am afraid not.