Only Saints and Wigan. Widnes finished above Leeds.

You are totally off with that my friend; weaste (where the ground currently is) is one of the most lightly populated areas of the city due to crime thousands of people have now moved. The area where the new stadium will be situated will be slap bang in the middle of nearly four different area's there's irlam/cadishead. flixton/urmston. eccles/worsley trafford/sale these area's have 10 times the population of tiny weaste which I m not afraid to say has more immigrants and crime sponging families than anything else living there. Home fans don't like going to the willows never mind away fans the ground is in the total wrong area for a top league sporting team, the sooner were out the better. You can kind of match us to hull fc with there old boulevard ground being situated in a very similar type of area to weaste, its just not appealing to families to come and watch there team.

But what happens if you build it, and it doesn't attract the fans you want it to? And that's an if. Clearing the topsoil and not laying one brick doesn't convince me.

what makes you think it still wont be built? Salford city council have injected 10 million into the project and peel holdings 16 million the work has started the tender has been finalised lang orouke i believe have the contract, the guys are on site Digging the foundations as we speak, steel structural work will start in october, the wheel's been in motion for along time now, put it this way theres more chance of gordon brown being re-elected than the stadium not being built . Have a look on the scarlet turkey some detailed arcitecural drawings on there.

Heard all this one million times. And you've cleared the site before now. And you've all shown us pretty drawings. Doesn't matter a jot if there is no brickwork.

It's not that I don't believe it will be built, it's that, this is no different to what has been said before and it wasn't built then.

believe me pal it will go ahead without any problems from now on, the last time work was holted was due to change to the drawings, the original plan was for a 32 million pound iconic stadium, since goverment issues have arised over spending the council had to go for a cheaper 26 million pound scale down version. Still a nice lookin stadium all the same, as ive said the tender has been sold to lang orouke, they will start work in october and the stadium will be finished by late 2011.

Forgive our scepticism, but it has been how long since 'Framing the Future' and still some clubs are playing in grounds that simply aren't good enough after years of promises. We've heard things like this time and time again, you can hardly blame us for a few raised eyebrows even though your stadium does seem to be actually moving along.

Can someone tell me why grounds appear to be the number one criteria for entry to SL?.

And while we are at it, how many clubs own or even part own the grounds they so proudly brandish as their qualification trump card?

I have to say I suspect the RFL of manufacturing the situation whereby we all argue about each others grounds rather than uniting and asking difficult questions of the RFL around the sports governance, lack of international competitiveness and financial state.

It could have something to do with a letter that was sent to 5 clubs currently occupying SL berths by the RFL. It warned them that their currently grounds were inadequate and threatned consequences if they did not act on their promises.
FWIW I think the state of stadiums will play one of the roles in determining which teams can apply for a SL licence along with performance criteria for the championship clubs and this average crowd figure of 2,500 that has been raised by Halifax.

Just on this... I can't agree. How long ago was Framing the Future touted. How can the sport claim to be one of the premier sports in the country when some of it's teams are playing in their current stadiums.
Don't get me wrong I am a massive fan of old RL stadiums and used to enjoy going and standing at Central Park Wilderspool, Knowsley Road, Belle Vue etc but to entice new fans to the sport I think we need to modernise in this area.

Chris, I agree that there needs to be improvements in stadia at a great number of clubs. However the standards that are being touted are way beyond the requirements of all but 4 clubs in the country.

Personally I would cite financial stability, a quality development policy and history of consistent high performance on the pitch above a 12000 cpacity stadium with a boardroom capable of seating x and y amount of conferencing facilities etc.

The stadiums are not the product thats on sale, they are just part of the wrapping.