We parked on the former Tesco car park and wandered down over the disco bridge. A very decent walk even in the dark, which will probably be a really nice walk later in the year.

Up to the ground and given fixtures and bought a programme, the stadium looking fantastic up close as you approach from Tesco. Ticketing stewards around the ground were useless. They had obviously never been to the ground and weren't able to do anything bar stand still in a high-vis jacket and reply to questions with "I dunno, I'm from Sheffield, we're contract staff".

Into the ground and the fears about the lack of cladding are realised as our first impressions in the ground are splashing around in standing water. Up to the seat and the viewing angles are fabulous. Utterly brilliant presentation of the pitch. Even at the back of the North Stand you can still see the action so clearly. All corners easily visible and the pitch looked great, as did the packed 'home' end.

The atmosphere was non existent, having the noisy rabble at the end of the stadium will mean there is only even anything approaching an atmosphere when it's full in a big match against a big team. Home to London/Huddersfield/Salford/Widnes/Cas/Wakey/Bradford etc it'll be ultra quiet.

The toilets were great, big and well kitted out. Only suggestion here is to paint instructions on the floor and having signs above the doors as the men of St Helens are incapable of managing a one way system by themselves, meaning a big crush as people attempt to walk into and out of the same opening.

Catering facilities? 0/10. I shudder to think how much money the club lost tonight. Having zombified staff who have obviously had no training at all in even the basics of decanting a drink and picking up a packet of crisps led to the worst 'service' I've ever seen at a sporting venue. I queued for the duration of halftime and was about 10th in the queue at the start. I didn't get to the front by the time the second half kicked off, in fact I think they only served two people on the till we were on. If it's like that I won't bother in future and I'll give my money to one of the places outside the ground instead.

On the way out the slow march down Saints Way and over the bridge was interesting with good conversation with a few lads who'd come up from Cornwall to see the game. Will be interesting to see the sea of people when the place is full to capacity. Exit from carpark was seamless and roads around the ground empty.

All in all pretty positive for a first night I think. FFS put the cladding up quickly, I really don't understand why they are waiting to do it. And replace the catering company and insist on human staff, have pints pre-poured and have people gathering the order whilst the other processes the till and takes the money. It's not rocket science.

I was wondering who would review the stadium, thanks.





I shudder to think of your comments on the match itself.

I agree with most of my sad friends post.

The lack of cladding makes the bar area like a swimming pool which also gets very slippy under foot. First thing in morning I'll invest in some wellies for our home games.

The staff on the bars are terrible, twenty mins in line for a pint! I do like the saints gold tho, very very nice!

The scoreboard is to small, if lms or laffranchci score, I doubt it will fit their names on it.


It's a very very good rugby stadium and I think we will have to wait until the competitive games arrive before we know what sort of atmosphere we will get. I think it will be a excellent stadium when the suns out.

I've posted those in another thread.



Do not read if your name begins with Lance.

You are experiencing exactly the same as we did at the LSV and as Salford are at there nrew place. All I can say is don't let it get to you because everything will be fine and enjoy your new home. All the best Saints.

You were obviously in the same queue as we were in near the middle of the North Stand.
We went down for a pint 5 mins before half time (it was a friendly after all!) and there was already a decent sized queue which suprised us. After 10 mins of no movement it transpired that they had run out of change so everything stopped until some manager type person, who looked about 12 came with change.
We thought well at least we will get served now but it took another 10 mins and the match had restarted.

You are right it was unbelievable how slow they were; there were enough staff but only 2 or 3 were actually doing anything for some reason.
Some random woman behind us with bright red dyed hair started having a go at the staff and the girl serving us started shaking - poor thing was terrified.
No sign of the famed multi-pumps for some reason?

It was clear that none of them had ever been on that side of a bar before and were not trained at all. It is something that needs sorting out and I am sure will get sorted out as its such a potential money spinner. Doubly sad as the pint of Gold was really good for this sort of venue and quite reasonably priced.

Apart from this, the soaking concourse and turnsyle teething problems it is a truly magnificent stadium.

My brother (who knows about these things and had to wade through, as he describes it, "a duck pond" in the North stand) claims that they've used indoor building techniques on the flooring for a fundamentally outdoor structure, leading to uneven flooring (which is apparently fine and very common when building indoors) with nowhere for anything to drain resulting in the enormous pools of water reported. He doesn't reckon it'll be too big a deal to sort out but was most unimpressed by the competencies of those involved.

FWIW I was sat in the South stand and had no such worries - the seats were a bit tight widthwise for my plus-sized frame (although I'm spoiled by Stadium:MK's magnificent seats these days) but legroom was fine thankfully. The burgers were absolutely divine (although curiously lacking in cheese) although I could physically feel my lifeforce draining away in the 15 minute queue I had to endure to get to them. Number 1 priority MUST be for Saints to sort out the bozos lumbering around behind the counters or I shall be eating at BK or Maccies beforehand in future.

Was most impressed by the speed of getting out of the place contrary to some's experiences too - we left on the hooter, used the wide path and not the Tesco ratrun and got over the bridge without the slightest hitch or holdup. Also encountered absolutely no traffic holdups getting out of the old Tesco carpark and heading off to Tatty Heath at all either.

And WTF was the point of the 2 (no doubt very expensive) "Britains Got Talent" dancers before the game? Just utterly awful...

Usual trolling garbage. At a scandalous £18.50 for a friendly, you really think last night was a true representation of a typical Widnes turnout? There was a whole raft of people who didnt go to this game on principle. The subject created a 4 page thread on a widnes forum alone.

For what its worth, the stadium looks really nice from the outside, but is just a slightly larger version of the Halliwell Jones on the inside. Breeze blocks everywhere. Fit for purpose, nothing more. Pitch seems an awful long way from the stands. The roof in the East stand appears to keep rain in rather than out. The PA system was farcical in our stand, sounded like a £25 ipod docking station.

As for the logistics, well the congestion walking away was ridiculous. The bridge to town was utterly rammed to the point of tripping over your feet, the walkway round Tescos to get there is so constricted (and dangerously dark) that at times you could barely walk at all and it ended up taking about 15-20 mins to get across into town. Just to remind you, that was with 11k fans. God knows what it will be like when Wigan turn up.

Good experience overall, mainly due to it being a good game. It will become a good RL venue, but some serious flaws need ironing out.

HTH.

The walkway past Tescos is actually the staff entrance to Tesco it needs blocking on match nights so everyone uses the LARGE and WIDE path across the middle of the grass which is well lit , seems everybody took the shortest route as peple are wont to do , with a little marshalling should be fine , the brisdge was a little crowded but not excessively so when we crossed

Yeah, 'the invasion'. I'm still waiting for the 'invasion' of Widnes from June last year.

When they bring the usual 8,000



They'll bring no more than Wire, Leeds, maybe Hull/Widnes..

You've just described the Halton Stadium too. In fact, pretty much every sports stadium in existence. Who is going to spend loads of money on plastering and paint only to have fans destroy it in minutes? Nobody with a brain in their head. At least Saints have put legends pictures on the walls and little Robinsons signs. Unlike Widnes, where there is just breeze block all over the place. Oh, and toilets with just one hand dryer and taps that don't work. Not to mention a freezing wind even in summer and horrible smells.

Couldnt agree more. Bring back Naughton Park any day, lol. FWIW I didnt say that ours WASNT like that, I just reviewed yours which was what the thread was about I believe? (despite the oh-so-obvious fishing by Saddened).

As it happens, I dont go near the concourses at Widnes, I am a resident of the members section and guess what? A rather tasteful lounge with real plaster, paintwork, wallpaper, seats, tables, televisions and proper bars for me and my fellow supporters before the game, at half time and after the match. You get what you pay for I guess...



I like the Langtree overall. It will become an icon just like Knowsley Road in time im sure, once the teething period is over.

The North Stand concourse could certainly do with some protection from the elements. Very wet and windy and standing pools of water is not a good thing to have around a bar area. I can live with that though and it didn't bother me too much.

However, where do I begin with the bar staff? I thought there had been a great escape from Jeremy Kyle's holding pen and they had taken up refuge in Langtree Park. To say they were simply awful would be flattering. If they all got together and worked as a team they could probably accumulate a brain cell between them. I have absolutely no doubt Saints lost a lot of revenue last night due to the idiocy of the staff. A couple of examples:

1. My mate got 2 pints of Saints gold and a hot dog as we entered the stadium at 6:30, the total of which comes to £8.80. Upon giving the staff a £20 note my friend received £17 change and a thank you. A loss of £5.80 right away.

2. Somebody else was at the bar and got £4.30 worth of drinks and food and paid with a £5 note. The girl behind the bar for some reason couldn't figure out how much change she needed to give. She gave him 50p after a deliberation, to which he replied 'I need 70p'. After another minute or so of looking completely baffled she gave him another £1, giving him £1.50, the man laughed and walked off.

There are plenty of other examples that happened to just 2 of us which resulted in us not going back to the bar during or after half time and Saints probably losing about £15 from us. I'm sure this is the case with many other people too. I'm not one to moan usually but this is simply unacceptable, in the current climate on unemployment there are plenty of people looking for work who could have done a far far better job than the frankly stupid staff Saints had on last night. It took 3 of them 10 minutes to figure out how to give me some change from the till.

This needs to be sorted out quickly otherwise Saints will lose thousands of pounds over the season.

Its good to get the opinion of an away supporter that isn't tainted with the ecstacy of a Saints speccie who has waited for years to get this ground. Even Saddened has struggled to contain his positive feelings, and you have to forgive his minor fishing efforts.

I couldn't get to the game last night, but if I could have done, I would have queued for an hour for a pint of Saints Gold and a scratty burger in three feet of freezing water, and still been smiling. Crap PA, tiny scoreboard, naff entertainment, who cares? Chairman Mac has delivered us his promised ground, with a few minor foibles, but they cannot take away from Saints fans overwhelming happiness at finally being in our new home.

I was exceptionally happy at being in Langtree Park, the Saints gold was a very nice pint and at £2.80 great value. After you've queued a few times though it gets a little tedious.

I have to agree with most of the gripes but anybody who claims they everything right first time is lying. As regards the queues, I can't think of any stadium where I haven't had to queue ages for beer. Headingley western terrace is legendary and they have those multipour things. There was a guy in front of me that left his seat at half time and was back sitting down with a tray of beers before the second half started

Well next time take a tray and buy in bulk, that way you only need to queue once

I would suggest you begin by cutting them some slack. Most of them will be new recruits. They need to learn the ropes. You can have weeks of training but nothing prepares you in any job for the actual hands on doing the job. They will become familiar with their roles, the stock, the pressure, and all of it over time. I felt real sorry for them last night and I hope they didn't cop abuse (but I suspect they may have done because I know how rude and demanding some people can be).

I have no problem in queueing for beer because it's busy, none at all and I was expecting most things to not go to plan at the first game. The thing that worries me is that I genuinely don't think the staff have the capacity to deal with it whether it's the 1st or he 100th game at the stadium. It wasn't anything to do with the stadium, it was basic common sense and intelligence that was lacking, as I said earlier, I can see Saints losing a lot of money over the season with the same staff.

I can honestly say they didn't get any abuse from me, that wouldn't of been fair, they were struggling enough as it is.

I don't conform to your view of 'they need to learn the ropes' though. Yes I expected some problems with perhaps managing the till and issues like that. I worked on a till as a part-time job when I was doing my A levels and it can be a little confusing at first with the new systems, however the user-interface is usually easy to navigate around with the slightest bit of intelligence and initiative. The problem I have is after 18/19 years of their life they can't manage £5 - £4.30, they're not going to be able to. I don't want to be horrible about it but they simply don't have the brain capacity to deal with these roles. I'm sure there are far better options looking inside the job centre everyday for some work.

I can't understand why people were allowed to move from one concourse to another. There was nothing stopping people from other areas joining the West terrace.

All i'm going to say, is the bar staff tried to kill me.

Whilst Foster's isnt the best tasting drink in the world at the best of times, it tastes even worse when its mixed with line cleaner.

The club did say earlier in the week that one match days the area's between the stands will be out of bounds for fans, so i've no idea why it wasn't last night.

It needs sorting though, it could cause huge problems at high crowd games.

I think what your arguing here Backrow is really about our education system that is chucking out semi numerate individuals.
The ability to add up or takeaway is not something kids are taught these days, as they have access to computers and calculators that do it for them.

I heard a similar story from a friend of the family whose child was looking for a part time job to fill in for college. The individual had written out a CV and sent it to numerous employees without success. It was only later when the family got to see the individuals CV, that they realised why the teenager wasnt even getting interviews at McDonalds.
They had written their CV in what amounted to text speak. Now this was from a teenager with GCSE's.

The thing is though, there a plenty of people who are educated who are looking for jobs, that's what's annoying me. I'm at University myself so not much older and probably the same age as a lot of the bar staff. I'm from the same generation and there are plenty of people who have the capability to do this basic task. If it was a case of they're the best staff Saints could possibly get I wouldn't be bothered. But there are unemployed people in St Helens who could do a far better job.