Sale Sharks co-owner makes major claim over future stadium

Sale Sharks co-owner Michelle Orange has pledged that the club will be in its own stadium within the next decade, after revealing the limited revenue it can generate from playing at its rented home.

Orange told the Love of Rugby podcast that the club has to pay the owners of the CorpAcq Stadium, Salford City Council, six per cent of every ticket sold, but doesn’t earn revenue from sources such as car parking or food and drink.

She also says that her billionaire husband, Simon, might have walked away from buying the club a decade ago if he had seen the contracts, and that building a stadium of their own is at least five years away.

“We don’t own our own stadium. Certainly when we start to talk about building a new stadium, but, you know, we’re talking five years away.

“So all we actually generate in terms of revenue on a match day is what we sell in tickets. And on top of that, we have to pay a 6 per cent commission to the stadium on every ticket that we sell.

“And we don’t get any food and beverage revenue. I would anticipate Bath possibly taking maybe £9m to £10m a year in ticket revenue alone. We take in about £2.5 million.

“We get some revenue from corporate hospitality, but we’re not getting a penny for a single pint that gets pulled at our stadium on a match day. We’re working on it (building a ground). I can’t really talk about it.

“If Simon had examined the contract that we have with our landlord at the stadium, we would have just walked away, but anyhow, we’re in it now, so I’m not going to complain.

“We’ve just recently celebrated 10 years of ownership at the club. We bought them in 2016. It’s been a decade of highs and lows, but I am now working on the next 10 years. And within the next 10 years, I can guarantee you we will have built our own stadium,” said Orange.