Super League side fearing IMG Stadium “disaster”

Leeds Rhinos at Headingley, Wigan Warriors at the DW Stadium, Warrington Wolves at the Halliwell Jones, Hull KR at Craven Park and many, many more; Super League is full of iconic stadia which have played host to some huge moments in Super League history.

We have traditional stadiums such as the homes of Wakefield Trinity and Castleford Tigers as well as football grounds like at Hull FC, Huddersfield Giants and Wigan.

We also have new builds like at St Helens and their Totally Wicked Stadium or Warrington’s Halliwell Jones or indeed Salford Red Devils’ AJ Bell Stadium however its future is shrouded in doubt.

The City Council have made what is being described as a “controversial move” to buy the stadium and the potential purchase is set to be reviewed at a special scrutiny meeting on Wednesday August 23rd according to Manchester Evening News.

At present, the city council are 50-50 owners of the stadium with property giant Peel.

Speaking to I Love MCR, Mayor of Salford Paul Dennet recently said: “Do I think [the heritage] would be secured if we sold the stadium? No, I do not. Because who’s to say whether or not someone bought that stadium and didn’t share our values and beliefs about the importance of this 150-year-old institution in the city of Salford?”

Mr Dennet also explained how the council ownership of the stadium would be part of the cities ‘rugby-strategy’, which encompasses both League and Union. The stadium currently plays host to both Salford Red Devils and Sale Sharks.

“I think it’s really important to do justice to the original decision that was taken back in 2009/10.

“We want to solidify what happens from here on in as to what happens to the stadium and the stadium’s rugby.

“We said this was as a community stadium when we took the decision. We’ve got to deliver on that ambition. We do that by putting a rugby strategy in place, establishing a rugby forum, getting all partners in the city behind it, and aligning it to all the work we’re doing on health and wellbeing, tackling obesity and the importance of sports within schools.”

Salford Red Devils also provided a statement on this, saying: “The club has been at the heart of the Salford community for 150 years, and with the recent transition to fan ownership we have now placed the community at the heart of the club.”

“A council deal securing our future at the stadium enables us to continue the work that we carry out within our area as well as to develop it further; enthusing our young people and providing an opportunity and positive pathway through our wonderful sport.”

“Sports stadia have a history and trend of being sold and leveraged basely and the council’s efforts to buy the remaining 50pc of the stadium would ensure that the City of Salford Community Stadium remains a key component of the Salford community.”

It has been suggested a number of times that Salford should swap stadiums with Salford City FC.

But this would be a disaster when it comes to the IMG criteria as Paul King said to the Business Desk:

“Salford Red Devils moving to the Peninsula stadium entirely places our Super League Status at risk, the risk would be a loss of SL distributions at £1.5m per annum which in turn would likely liquidate the club or at the least make the club part time and commence a slow death spiral out of existence.

“Within the IMG stadium criteria, the current Peninsula Stadium would fail to meet the minimum Super League IMG criteria on a number of bases, including minimum capacity, pitch size and slope, sponsor facilities, broadcasting and photographer facilities, floodlighting and seating percentage to name but a few.”