They also have a special room for visiting Wigan fans - dope control

That may come back to bite you in the backside in the next few weeks.

Quicker than I thought.

I wonder why he is an EX saints player then?
So by your pie crust logic, we are responsible for players that used to play for us?

Well it's a s logical as this


Isn't it.

To build a "proper" full stadium and all roads in 12 months, it must be coming pre-packed from B&Q or Ikea! Hope I am proved wrong.

I'm sure someone will soon reply, I told you so here 12 months ago - LOL

Translation: Im gutted.

Sadfish has already done a good job of pointing out he's talking out of his backside; he's desperately clinging to his idea that the current board are no better than the previous people, despite all evidence to the contrary.

Hi mate, both Eamonn and Tony Colquit have told me the stadium can be built in 12-14months.

Now personally, i'd rather they spent longer, getting it right, than rushing it so that we have some of 2011 at the new stadium.

I'd be more than happy to spend the whole of 2011 on the road full in the knowledge the stadium will be right for the start of 2012.

But from a marketing perspective, and costs, both the club, langtree, all the contractors, and the marketing and sales departments its in their interests to move asap.

At the end of the day though, they are in the know with full facts of how it will be done, and we aren't.

In essence though that stadium takes as long as it takes and i'll still follow the saints, whether at Dentons Green, Knowsley Road, Widnes or whererver it takes me, as long as a home is being built ........

Next time you see them, ask them to bring one of the "on the road" matches to Stockholm while the stadium is being built!

There's a gang of us walk our dogs round Taylor Park every morning, all retired, one of our crew worked for the firm that built the jjb and the reabock he was the boss over everything at ground level, drains roads foundations ect, he said unless they hit a problem they will have no trouble with the time they have to build the stadium.
But he also built the new Pilks factories near by, they hit a problem on that job he says, old pit workings had left holes underground, they had to pump in 45,000 ton of concrete before normal building could start.

two blokes put up our old pebble dashed concrete garage in a couple of days

is it the same blokes who are doing your stadium in 12-14 months?

The quality and level of your debate, thanks! LOL - the lowest of lowest always use personal attacks.

Thanks Sadfish for your reply, I would think 14 months is a minimum, what is most important is as you say they get it right, this is a stadium for the future, long past when many of may have gone, I still would have liked to have seen it as a 20,000 seater, to allow for representative matches, while Wilderspool is fine, it is not a stadium, like the Reebok that The Doghead brings us the info about.

From what I understand, the difference in cost of 18k to 20k is quite huge, it means different buidling schematics and was outside the budget the Saints have.

Sadfish,

I accept that, but if we had a go ahead council, could they have not see the advantages for the long term and the Town with what many regard as The Number One team? but then we would have had the argument that 70% of the population don't seem to be interested in RL which is sad.

You fail to understand the difficulty in raising money for the stadium and the maximum possible money has been gleaned from maximum resources.

The council are a go ahead council, and they have invested what they possibly can into the project as far as I know.

Sadfish, please give me some credit, I fully understand the problems with raising funding currently for development, but I again say did not the number one RL club not deserve The Best!

When I look at the state of the town centre and the selection of stores, I don't see it as a go ahead council, look at towns much smaller than St Helens, we are more Bar City! LOL

Pointing out someone is talking out of their backside is [inot[/i a personal attack, no matter how badly you want it to be.

You can only relate this council with previous councils, of which there has been different levels of involvement with the club and spending available on the town.

The councils role is for the administration and betterment of the town itself, a private rugby league club, no matter how successful is always going to up against it when it comes to hand outs against social matters.

And then there is the issue that even Wigan can't average 18K per season, which is a town that has been far more prosperous over the years, and has often had better gates than Saints.

Unless you where looking at more than 25K then the DW Stadium and the Reebok would always be ahead in the running for "other" events in the area.

That makes them so totally different from previous councils. Their attitude towards this attempt to get a stadium built have been vastly different from previous attitudes. I think this is in part because lately there has been a hung council so there is possibly less of an emphasis upon party dogma. I think also that with Pilks finally being sold off, the council has realised that if Saints don't succeed, St Helens will have pretty much nothing left of its heritage or identity. Not to mention regeneration opportunity.

I personally think it's just the right size; Wigan and Hull FC draw good crowds, but the atmosphere often suffers due to the number of empty seats and the size of the ground.

18k is good! I can see us with an average of about 14k, so the ground will always be reasonably full. If it leads to people getting into the habit of buying tickets in advance, because some people get locked out from time to time, that's great.

I agree.

The rest of what you said is all fair enough.
But c'mon, you know and I know that these two people have stated overly ambitious timelines for the progress of this in the past. Timelines that at the time they made the statements anybody who knows anything about this sort of thing knew straight away were totally unrealistic.

Let's just hope that this time they are right.

However, I'd suggest the timeframe they posit is achievable only if the builders don't find toxic waste or unchartered mining. Both scenarioes are a distinct possibility, and has happened with most other building in this area.

Let's hope luck is with us and our leader's time estimates are correct. But I'd much rather they were fully open and told the full story and not just anounce a best case scenario.

For our needs, a stadium that holds 18,000 is bang on, apart from the World Club Challenge match and Australia v England games, the new stadium will be fit for purpose for any other game played during a normal season.
St Helens will no doubt in the future hold many neutral venued games plus internationals other than Australia, I only hope the town centre can rise to the occasion when this does happen, and give these fans a good day out.

I think our Chief Exec was the first to contact the RFL about holding games for the World Cup. It would be a great venue for internationals I think.