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Town hall sees Red as fans celebrate victory

Tony Howard
28/11/2005

REDS fans, players and chairman celebrated on the town hall steps as the City of Salford Stadium took a giant leap towards becoming a reality.

Fans cheered as the players, led by captain Malc Alker and chairman John Wilkinson, appeared through the big wooden doors of the Swinton Civic Centre to meet their public after the council approved the plans.

A clearly emotional Mr Wilkinson said: "It's a great day for the club and for the city of Salford. This is a really important step and the council have been behind us all the way and ensured every detail was looked at in what has been a long process but now we're finally at the next stage we couldn't be happier.

"The stadium will be great for the club and allow us to compete in Super League but it will also bring a massive boost for the whole city with investment and regeneration and as a proud Salfordian that obviously makes me very pleased.

"The supporters have been great sticking by us throughout the process and I really hope now that the secretary of state approves the plans and we can get on with building a stadium that the city of Salford truly deserves.

"We will have the best facilities in the country - I promise you that. The city of Salford has a very bright future."

The players also voiced their approval. Prop Paul Highton said: "The future of the club is a lot brighter now the stadium is a step closer - we can start looking forward to competing with the top four in Super League and attracting the best players. We go to the other new grounds and see the fantastic facilities available and hopefully we will soon have the best around."

Second row Ian Sibbit said: "We were thinking the decision was 50-50 and could go either way so it is a big relief now it's been passed. We sat in there with the fans in the gallery and it was great when everyone cheered after the vote."

Salford actor Nigel Pivaro, who played Terry Duckworth in Coronation Street, joined fans on the steps. He said: "I'm very proud today as a Salfordian and I believe this stadium will help rebuild the image of our great city.

"There's a lot of positive development in the city with the Quays and the Lowry so this stadium will be another piece of the jigsaw in rebuilding a thriving Salford."

Joanne Fletcher, 18, from Swinton is a life long Reds supporter. She took time off work to await the result. She said: "I'm over the moon with this decision because a new stadium will allow us to compete with the big four teams in Super League.

"We go to away grounds and are impressed with the new stadiums, when we have our own then visiting fans will go away impressed with ours."

New Order bassist Peter Hook said: "It's fantastic news. Hopefully it's going to really turn the city around. The best part of it is that they have said there will be plenty of jobs for local people."

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