By Sarah Braide
January 23 2003

Geoff Green wrote a really interesting summary of the pros and cons of Sale's various future stadium options. The choices are to stay at Heywood Road, build a new development at Carrington, or move to Maine Road. The first choice is instantly the most attractive but it's not that simple. Link to: Geoff Green's Manchester Evening News article

As we have all been told many times, Heywood Road is not roomy enough to accommodate a pitch, 10,000+ supporters, bars and corporate hospitality facilities. With Sale consistently pulling in large crowds this season, it is reasonable to assume that the expansion will continue and audiences will soon start to outgrow Heywood Road. I think all Sale supporters have a lot of ambition for the club - the league this year, the Heineken Cup the next (!) - but settling for a 7000-8000 seater stadium would be a highly unambitious move.

Those supporters who have visited one of the new rugby grounds (Northampton, for instance) seem to have been fairly impressed. We could build something like Franklins Gardens at Carrington. That would be lovely, and not too far from Sale. But out of town rugby would be a very different experience from Heywood Road with everybody having to drive to the ground, and no local shops and pubs. I imagine the club's main problem with this choice is the cost, as Geoff Green oulines in his article.

Moving to Maine Road is the option that has been talked about for two years since Manchester City decided to move out to the Commonwealth Stadium. It would be adapted to make it into more of a rugby ground, and I for one hope that they decide to put in some standing areas like at Newcastle, Northampton and some old football grounds (for example). We are certainly some way from achieving crowds of 18,000 and the place may well lack in atmosphere if we play there. And there is one point that rugby and non-rugby fans always say to me - if Maine Road is so good then why are Man City moving out of it?

Sharing a football ground (perhaps Stockport) is another route that has been mentioned, but it seems not to be an 'official' option at the moment. It works well at some places (Bristol) but results in terribly soulless rugby elsewhere (Saracens).

Everybody has different priorities when it comes to watching rugby - proximity to home, parking availability, atmosphere, bars, nearby pubs, standing room/sitting room etc. For this reason we are never all going to agree on the same choice. But it is the difficult job of Sale Sharks to decide on an option and sell it to us. If money was no object then I would definitely go for the Carrington route. If we can't have Heywood Road then I would like a shiny new purpose built stadium. But cost is a factor so logically I would concede that Maine Road is probably the best choice.

There is a poll on the site where you can voice your opinion. There is lots of chat about this on the messageboard as well.