Salford City Stadium (referred to as the AJ Bell Stadium for sponsorship purposes) is a rugby stadium in

Barton-upon-Irwell Barton upon Irwell (also known as Barton-on-Irwell or Barton) is a suburb of the City of Salford, Greater Manchester, England, with a population of 12,462 in 2014. History Barton Old Hall, a brick-built house degraded to a farmhouse, was the se ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, built to replace

Salford Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 11 ...

club's ground the Willows for the 2012 season. Sale Sharks

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

club have also played at the stadium since the 2012–13 season.

Development and financing

In 2005,

Salford City Council Salford City Council is the local authority of the City of Salford in Greater Manchester, England. It is a metropolitan borough council, one of ten in Greater Manchester and one of 36 in the metropolitan counties of England, and provides the maj ...

approved plans for the Reds to move from the Willows to the brownfield site at Barton. The stadium was originally to be developed by Red City Developments, with construction to be complete for the start of the 2009 season. However, RCD went into administration in July 2008. Salford City Council formed a joint venture company with

Peel Group The Peel Group is a British infrastructure and property investment business, based in Manchester. In 2022, its Peel Land and Property estate extends to of buildings, and over of land and water. Peel retains minority stakes in its former ports ...

to develop and deliver the £16 million stadium, which is part of the a £26 million development close to the Manchester Ship Canal and the

M60 motorway The M60 motorway, Manchester Ring Motorway or Manchester Outer Ring Road is an orbital motorway in North West England. Built over a 40-year period, it passes through most of Greater Manchester's metropolitan boroughs except for Wigan and Bol ...

. Planning permission was granted in March 2010 for a 15,000-capacity stadium. Sale Sharks confirmed their move to the stadium in April 2012, signing a 25-year lease. In 2013,

and Salford City Council each lent £600,000 in emergency funding to the stadium. The council is still owed £20 million for building the stadium, and is already owed £1.5m by the Salford City Reds who play at the stadium. In 2014, SCC and Peel lent a further £410,724 to the stadium.

AJ Bell Stadium

On 13 September 2013, it was announced that investment platform AJ Bell had secured a nine-year stadium naming rights partnership with Sale Sharks Rugby Club. The deal saw Salford City Stadium re-branded and renamed AJ Bell Stadium.

Facilities

The stadium capacity (since inception} has accommodated a crowd of 12,000. However, with further construction, the space exists to expand the capacity to 20,000 spectators.. The stadium has areas designated for standing supporters. This partial-standing design is similar to the

Halliwell Jones Stadium The Halliwell Jones Stadium is a rugby league stadium in Warrington, England, which is the home ground of the Warrington Wolves. It has also staged Challenge Cup semi-finals, the European Nations Final, the National League Grand Finals' Day, ...

, home of Warrington RLFC. Salford City Stadium - Home of Salford Reds RLFC - geograph

There are four stands: *West Stand (main stand) including changing rooms, media centre, hospitality boxes, banqueting suite; capacity 4,500 *Places2Be Stand (North) – all-standing, usually the away end; capacity 2,500 *Printerland.co.uk Stand (East) - all seating, capacity 2,500 *AO Stand (South/THE SHED)– all-standing, home to hardcore Reds fans; identical to the North Stand, capacity 2,500 The seats in the West and East Stands are red (for Salford) and blue (for Sale). The development also includes offices, player facilities, concessions, community resources and two community outdoor sport pitches, a gym and the Sale Sharks Club Shop.

Events

Rugby league

The Reds played their first league game at the new stadium against

Castleford Castleford is a town within the City of Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. It had a population of 45,106 at a 2021 population estimate. Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, to the north of the town centre the River Calder joins th ...

on 4 February 2012; Castleford won 10–24. The 2012 Challenge Cup Semi Final was held at the stadium on 15 July 2012 – Warrington beat Huddersfield 33–6. The

2012 Autumn International Series The 2012 Autumn International Series is a rugby league tri-series between England, France and Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and ...

Final took place at the stadium on 11 November 2012, attendance was 7,921. On 7 November 2013 the stadium hosted the Rugby League World Cup match between

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

and

USA The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. A crowd of 6,041 watched Scotland beat the USA 22 – 8. Summary List of test and International tournament matches played at AJ Bell Stadium since its opening in 2012.

Rugby union

Sale Sharks' first game at the stadium was a friendly on 24 August 2012 against Leinster Rugby, which ended 10–10. Their first competitive game was against Saracens on 8 September 2012. The score was Sale 16–23 Saracens and the attendance was 7,451. The stadium served as one of the two venues for the

2016 World Rugby Under 20 Championship The 2016 World Rugby Under 20 Championship was the ninth annual international rugby union competition for Under 20 national teams. The event was organised in England by rugby's governing body, World Rugby. Twelve nations took part in the tournamen ...

. England beat Ireland 45-21 in the final at the stadium.

Other sports

American football

Manchester Titans American Football Club held a trial game at the Stadium against Crewe Railroaders on 1 June 2014. It was stated that they could hold future fixtures inside the stadium if the trial was successful. The Titans beat the Railroaders 69–0 and the attendance was 1,349.

Association football

For the 2013–14 season, Manchester United have announced their under-21 team will be playing all their home games at the stadium. The stadium also hosted England women's Euro 2013 qualifying match against the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

on 17 June 2012.

Attendances

Notes

References

External links

AJ Bell Stadium official website

Salford City Reds get new Barton stadium go-ahead
BBC Sport, 19 August 2010
2012 – The Future of History
Salford City Reds {{DEFAULTSORT:AJ Bell Stadium Sports venues in Salford Salford Red Devils Rugby union stadiums in England Rugby league stadiums in England Rugby League World Cup stadiums The Peel Group Sale Sharks American football venues in the United Kingdom Ship canals