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, near 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 was 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 announced almost four weeks earlier.
An interesting note about this stadium is that some of the ground will be designated 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 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 regeneration is underway. These two factors combine to restrict the club's attendances.
Opposition to the stadium from some local residents 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 was hoped that the City of Salford Stadium would be ready to host Super League rugby by the start of the 2008 engage Super League season. As it turned out, building was delayed for almost two years and in that time Salford were relegated from the Super League. However, work finally commenced on building the stadium on 13 Feb 2008 and the stadium is now expected to be open by the 2010 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.)
