Rumour quashing

Lovely Heywood Road
By Sarah Braide
June 10 2002

Sale have broken their silence on the subject of a move away from Heywood Road. Contrary to rumours, we will not be moving to Bury next season and instead will remain at Heywood Road for the "forseeable future".

Quite what constitutes the "forseeable future" we do not know, but Brian Kennedy's statement certainly suggests that Sale will be playing at Heywood Road for the next season:

"We all know that the facilities at Heywood Road fall short of everyone’s expectations and will not sustain professional rugby long term, but at this moment in time we need a level of certainty in order to plan our marketing activity for the forthcoming season," he said.

As far as I can tell this has actually been Sale's line all along - whilst a move is expected in the future, the 2002/03 season will be played at Heywood Road. I think it is very important that we stay there for one more season because the level of support achieved this year must be consolidated before we could rely on that support following the team to another venue.

The news will also be a relief to the supporters who have already bought season tickets for Heywood Road. It was about time Sale got their story straight on this issue and I'm glad there's one less thing for us to worry about. Now we can concentrate on keeping the name SALE SHARKS.