Stadium takeover plans kicked into touch
A joint bid by rugby union club Sale Sharks and football club Salford City to buy the city’s AJ Bell Stadium has been blocked by the city council.
Instead Salford City Council has ended 18 months of negotiations and now plans to purchase the 12,000-capacity stadium outright.
A Salford City Council spokesperson said: “Unfortunately we have not received a proposal which satisfies our aspirations for this great community asset.”
Salford City Council is the majority shareholder in the stadium company, but significant minority shareholdings are held by Peel’s John Whittaker, Sheila Greenwood and Chris Eves.
The stadium has been open for 10 years, and was originally built as a replacement for the rugby league club’s old Willows stadium.
The development was delivered by a joint venture between Salford City Council and Peel Group after the original firm Red City Developments went into administration.
Sale Sharks agreed a 25-year lease at the stadium in 2012, weeks after it opened.
It has often been a difficult relationship between the two clubs and council, with the commercial agreements causing tensions.
In a statement Salford City Reds said: “We are currently in dialogue to secure a long-term tenure that will present the club with the opportunity to increase match day controls and the associated incomes streams to ensure the long-term sustainability of the club.”
This was echoed by fellow tenants Sale Sharks. Chief executive Sid Sutton said: “We are now working very closely with Salford City Council to ensure we reach a robust agreement that allows Sale Sharks to both enhance and control the matchday experience for the benefit of our supporters, and benefit commercially from matchday activity.
“We have always maintained that taking control of the stadium is integral to the long-term future of Sale Sharks and that remains the case.”
League Two football club Salford City co-owners include former Manchester United players Gary and Phil Neville, Nicky Butt, David Beckham, Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes. They had hoped to do a stadium swap that would see the rugby league club move to the 5,100-capacity Peninsula Stadium.
Following news of the council’s decision, Salford City has confirmed “at this moment our immediate future is to remain at The Peninsula Stadium”.
