THE council takeover of the Salford Stadium is said to be of urgent necessity with Salford Red Devils rejecting calls to move stadium.
The Salford Council has been in talks to take over 100 per cent of the venue from The Peel Group who own 50 per cent with plans currently hitting an obstacle.
Conservative council members have shown their displeasure at the proposal with Councillor Robin Garrido successfully bringing the proposal before the special scrutiny meeting last month.
Speaking to TheBusinessDesk.com, Cllr Robin Garrido claim the Red Devils have had “every opportunity” to take advantage of a “free stadium”.
“Paul Dennett (Mayor) believes in a socialist state owning public buildings. He complains the Council has no money and is suffering from austerity.
“I say the money would be better spent on repairing pot holes in the roads and on community facilities.
“Salford Red Devils Rugby League club need to get their own house in order and make the club self-supporting, they’ve had every opportunity to make themselves successful with a free stadium that is usually only a third full.”
Meanwhile, Salford’s managing director, Paul King, believes that only a council takeover will ensure the club’s Super League future with a move to Salford City FC’s Peninsula Stadium out of the equation.
“Salford Red Devils moving to the Peninsula stadium entirely places our Super League Status at risk, the risk would be a loss of Super League 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.
“Salford City FC receive complaints from residents about access and egress of their 1800 average attendances, we had 7800 for the game v Wigan recently, I can only imagine the negative impact of that volume leaving the stadium on local residents.”
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