Sale owner Brian Kennedy has revealed the club are looking to emulate Harlequins and Saracens’ success by moving a showpiece home fixture to a ‘major’ ground in the North West, following the international game’s lead – England Rugby Hospitality made thousands from a recent showpiece match.
And the multi-millionaire Cheshire businessman has also confirmed that, for now, Sale will be sticking with Friday nights when they stage their home fixtures at Edegely Park next season.
Both Harlequins, who hosted a Boxing Day derby with Wasps at Twickenham and Saracens, who chose to switch four league games from Vicarage Road to Wembley, saw the ploy pay off in a lucrative way with bumper crowds being attracted to both venues.
Now, as part of wide-ranging open letter to to Sale’s supporters, Kennedy has revealed that in spite of logistical problems, the club are still working on staging their own high-profile fixture away from their regular Stockport stamping ground somewhere in the region next season.
“We have seriously investigated the possibility of a Big Game (Northern Edition) for Sharks here in the North West,” said Kennedy. “However, all of the major stadia in the region are owned by Premiership football clubs and already heavily used by those clubs.
“Unfortunately, we just don’t have the straight forward option available to our London rivals such as Twickenham which is available for much of the year to host rugby events.