The future of Salford Red Devils is in the balance as the continuing three year battle over AJ Bell stadium continues
In a strongly worded statement issued by the club, it accused Salford City Council of “dithering” and “inaction” over the purchase of the stadium
The club said that It is clear that our cooperation has been misinterpreted as our consent for inaction by some officers in the Council.
The club added that after endless pontification and procrastination by Council officers, we are less than a month away from having no such agreement, and the stark reality now is that without their action in the coming days and weeks, the future of the Club is at risk.
“Nearly 3-years on from the initial approach made by Sale Sharks to purchase the stadium – a move which would have compromised our home and, as a result, our Super League status – the Club has continually struggled yet continued to operate under the terms of an unfavourable lease agreement that has hampered our ability to become self-sustainable and grow.”
Currently the owner of the Stadium StadCo retain 100% of F&B sales on Salford Red Devils matchdays, and StadCo taking an additional minimum 8% of their ticketing,
There has been a developing narrative that the Club is not paying its way, when in reality the unfavourable terms of the current tenancy agreement is extracting from the Club’s key income sources, on top of rent.
The Red Devils personally loaned and guaranteed to its limits, having made incredible sacrifices to survive – including the subsequent sales of star players that were only necessary due to a lack of resolution over the stadium deal.
“Had this been in place when expected – prior to February 2023 – access to the proceeding income streams would have made unforeseen reductions to central distributions less significant a blow and our position now be much stronger.
In the last few months alone they say that they have generated more commercial interest in the stadium than any other party in the previous 3 years.
