BY JOHN DAVIDSON
Mason Caton-Brown says the new Salford RLFC Ltd club has the long-term goal of getting back to Super League “eventually”, but is focused now on “stability, honesty and transparency”.
The Salford RLFC Ltd group has been granted membership approval by the RFL to operate a team in the Championship next year. The new Salford will be a part-time outfit in the semi-professional second tier and play out of Salford Community Stadium.
The club has less than a month before its first game and is not any bold claims about pushing for promotion or dominating the Championship in 2026.
“Right now our goal is stability, honesty, transparency, building the community back up, and then, of course, the long term goal obviously is to back up to the top to Super League,” Caton-Brown told rugbyleaguehub.com Long Reads.
“But you know, every year can be different, and we just want to make sure what happened last year doesn’t happen again, and then slowly progress into what we need to be.
“Salford should be in the Super League. So we want to get him back there eventually.
“But we’re going to be open and honest and transparent. And I think the fans will understand that.
“They’ll understand the situation we’ve been in, and you’ve seen what’s happened in the past with, you owners making big bets and false promises. We’re just going to be open and honest, and I believe the fans will respect that, and they’ll get behind us as a new club, and that’s what we can ask for.”
Former Red Devils player Ryan Brierley has been announced today as the club’s CEO.
Salford will be annoucing coaching appointments and player signings in the coming days.
“So there’s announcements between Christmas and New Year, we’ll start announcing some of the coaches, the players,” Caton-Brown said.
“As soon as we can, we’ll get back, get get a few training sessions under our belt, ready for that game on the 16th. And that’s the most important thing is we can get the team together and prepare for that game as best we can under these timescales.”
The club plans to hold a fans forum before their season opener on January 16th.
“What’s happened in the past has been horrendous,” he said.
“So we’re really looking in these weeks building up to the 16th, to kind of bring everyone together again, and bring the community back. And that game on the 16th will be like a bit of a celebration, really, of survival for the club.
“We’re looking to get everyone down, not just Salford, but the whole wider rugby league community and celebrate preserving the history for Salford.”
The new club are looking to secure agreements with some Super League clubs for player loans or a dual registration agreement.
“We’re open to discussions with Super League clubs and other clubs to see what we can do, to see what we can do best for Salford,” Caton-Brown said.
Salford have secured a major sponsorship from the online marketplace OnBuy.com.
“Our main sponsor is with OnBuy.com, with a local guy, Cas Patton, who built the company up to a big valuation of £200 million,” Caton’Brown said.
“He’ll be coming on board with us as a sponsor. He’s been really helpful in communicating with us. He’s also got a great business, which we could use as resources for us. We’re excited about that.
“And then we’ve got other announcements coming soon.”
Salford plan to put tickets on sale for its Championship opener “as soon as possible”, and in the future want to build an academy and reserves structure.
“Long term, yeah we do,” Caton-Brown said.
“We’ve got a women’s team and the inclusive pathways that will be present this year. And we want to engage with the community as well.
“If that’s schools and local academies, we want to try and get them involved and down to the stadium and around around the club as much as possible.”