City of Salford Stadium
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The City of Salford Stadium1 (also known as the Barton Stadium) is the (proposed) new home of the Salford City Reds rugby league club. It is due to be built in Barton, in Eccles.
The ground - the plans for which were agreed by the planning division of Salford City Council on November 17, 2005 - is expected to hold around 20,000 supporters. The final decision on whether the ground will be built has been referred to the Government (North West) Department of the Deputy Prime Minister, and - in January 2006 - it was announced that the Department had ordered a full review of the plans, putting a further delay in the starting of building of the stadium. The final decision by the MP in charge of the development - Ruth Kelly - was due to be announced on 28 November 2006, but was actually annouced almost four weeks earlier.
An interesting note about this stadium is that some of the ground will be designed for standing supporters - a situation not allowed in British football, following a review after the Hillsborough disaster - in which 96 Liverpool F.C. supporters died. This partial-standing design, is similar to the Halliwell Jones Stadium, home of the Warrington Wolves.
The City of Salford Stadium is designed with cover on all four sides. One side (the higher side on the image above - which will include a hotel above the seated area) and both ends will be seated, and the other side (the lower side on the picture above) will include a standing area for supporters who prefer to stand.
The stadium has been regarded as being vital to the continued development of the Salford City Reds, as the increased capacity will allow the Reds to move to the upper-tier of the rugby league salary cap.
The Reds current ground - The Willows, in the Weaste suburb of Salford - is a much smaller ground with a capacity of around 11,000. Weaste as an area does not have a good reputation, atlthough considerable regenration is underway. These two factors combine to restrict the club's attendances, hence the Reds are in the lower salary cap bracket. The Super League salary cap prevents a club from spending more than 50% of total turnover on players' wages.
Opposition to the stadium from some local residents has centered around problems with parking, and problems arising with access to the site. One of the issues that has been raised has been that the main proposed entrance to the site is only accessible from the main A-road - Liverpool Road - but only from one direction, as the central reservation has no gap to allow vehicles through. In addition, following to the Hillsborough soccer disaster, some people have advised that standing areas in sports stadia are dangerous to spectators, and that new stadia should not have such areas. The Halliwell Jones Stadium in Warrington (a town much closer to Liverpool than Salford is) was built with standing areas despite this argument.
Following the Government announcement on 2 November 2006 that the stadium had been approved it is now hoped that the City of Salford Stadium should be ready to host Super League rugby by the start of the 2008 engage Super League season.
[edit] Footnote
- The name City of Salford Stadium is expected to be the final name of the Stadium, if its building is approved. However, currently the name is officially regarded as a working title, at least until the Stadium is completed. (A stadium sponsor for the title rights would more than likely be sought by the club to bring in more revenue for the club.)
