Super League team hold talks with Premier League side over potential stadium move

SALFORD RED DEVILS have held talks with a Premier League club over a potential stadium move.

The Super League team’s difficulties obtaining a long-term relocation after December 1st have been widely reported, with managing director Paul King outlining the potential consequences for the Red Devils.

During an interview with BBC Radio Manchester, King was forthright about the circumstances.

It’s serious on a number of levels. I believe that one is that they are totally dependent on having heads of terms at the new stadium, and we clearly have different funding pots—the match funding, which can create up to £2 million, and the regular mark, King said to BBC Radio Manchester.

“It’s challenging for us commercially because we also have a commercial partner opportunity that is totally contingent upon reaching that heads of terms point before we can actually start the ball rolling. That’s quite a large quantity of money.

It’s challenging as we can’t get income from food and drink until we have those heads of terminology. However, as of December 1st, we are also in violation of Rugby League regulations. If that position is kept until the end of 2024, it will cost us one point in our IMG rating. Then it’s obvious that we’ll quit the Super League in 2025.

“We will no longer receive our £1.31 million in distributions, which will force us to operate at a level of roughly £50,000 below current levels.

King also disclosed that talks regarding the club’s possible use of the Etihad Stadium with Manchester City Council are ongoing.

We had discussed Wool Lane a few years back, but it doesn’t comply with the RFL, and fixing it would have cost roughly £4 million. That was just not practical.

We are in discussion about the Etihad complex with Manchester City Council. We have extended our reach towards Stockport and there’s Keith Lane in Bury.

But it’s not Salford, I don’t mean to offend any of those folks. We are the Salford Red Devils for a reason; the majority of our fan base resides in and around Salford, and moving outside of the city seems like a death wish.

“We just hope that we’re recognized on the local authority level. We’re desperate to represent the city that we’re representing really well, and we have done so consistently for quite some time.”