Quote ="Gruntfuttock"Some more pictures inside courtesy of Saints website, fantastic pitch www.saintsrlfc.com/news/page/1162'" Why does everyone praise the pitch? To me it looks yellow in massive sections, no doubt where the undersoil heating pipes are located? We should be having a nice plastic pitch like Widnes. Grass is so last year.

Quote ="Gruntfuttock"Some more pictures inside courtesy of Saints website, fantastic pitch www.saintsrlfc.com/news/page/1162'" Why does everyone praise the pitch? To me it looks yellow in massive sections, no doubt where the undersoil heating pipes are located? We should be having a nice plastic pitch like Widnes. Grass is so last year.

I'm guessing that you already know there is no undersoil heating and you're taking the pee???? In fact there is no under soil, just sand.

No, it really did look really streaky and yellow on previous pictures. But looking at those posted today it does look carpet-esque. I suppose with it benig new it will look great when it's been raining a bit and a bit weak when it's sunny.

Looking like another great new stadium,does it have standing or is it all seats reminds me a bit of the Keepmoat stadium Doncaster

Behind both set of sticks is standing for the chavs and the hooligans. Down both sides is seated for the civilized folk.

Do you think they may actually put the same fake grass down like Widnes?

I doubt it unless there is a horticultural reason for doing so. It's a brand new facility and we have a world class training facility, which Widnes clearly don't as they plan to train on their pitch as well.

Quote ="Gruntfuttock"Some more pictures inside courtesy of Saints website, fantastic pitch www.saintsrlfc.com/news/page/1162'" Great pics of the interior which we're unable to see elsewhere. Alot of work going on and it's looking good. It's getting closer to completion now.

Quote ="Gruntfuttock"Some more pictures inside courtesy of Saints website, fantastic pitch www.saintsrlfc.com/news/page/1162'" Great pics of the interior which we're unable to see elsewhere. Alot of work going on and it's looking good. It's getting closer to completion now.

Widnes have bought land in Widnes to build a top class state of the art training facility near the albion pub.

this was rumoured well more than a rumour a couple of months back, its the sports ground along from the Albion, it belonged to one of the big firms in Widnes, something on the style of Ruskin drive.

Correct, it's just past the Albion pub on Liverpool road. It was the old ICI rec club that went bust last year. It's a massive piece of land that Ste O' Conner has bought.

Ste O'Conner has also rescued Widnes St maries club and has bought their club house and pitches and paid off the 40k debt the club had run up.

Not really stadium picture related, but looking at the season ticket brochure I could not help but notice that the capacities of the respective stands has changed somewhat since the last set of plans on the council website.

Overall capacity was 17984 its now listed as 17986

The respective stand capacities ignoring disabled for now are as follows:-

North stand seating was 4635 now is 4718
South stand seating was 5344 now is 5233
East stand terrace was 3949 standing now is 3899
west stand terrace was 3808 standing now is 3796
East stand seating was 46 now is 81
West stand seating was 62 now is 118

The respective wheelchair capacity was 140 and is now 141

Northstand Wheelchair was 42 now is 44
Southstand wheelchair was 58 now is 60
East stand wheelchair was 18 now is 5
West stand wheelchair was 22 now is 32

With regard to disabled provision, originally a significant proportion was pitchside. However for the final build the majority of disabled viewing will actually be in elevated positions. This offers a large improvement for those who are mobility impaired.

Get the feeling saints may get into a similar situation as Warrington have. The home end behind the goals will be full but a lot of the seats will be empty I think. A bigger terrace and a few less seats would have been better IMO.

Saints have 10k seats to sell, I think that is too many when most people are used to standing up at KR.

Again, I still don't understand why they havn't tried to emulate the popular side from the old ground, I can't believe Salford didn't do the same and make a 'modern shed'.

If we average between 13-14000 next season that will be good for St Helens more will be a bonus any less and we don't deserve to have a top 3 side in superleague

Why would you want to? Standing up is for chavs and ultras. Saints want to market the sport to families and encourage the blokes to bring the Mrs and the kids.

I don't get all this 'Saints won't sell any tickets for the new ground' nonsense. We are getting 6k crowds because it's in Widnes. Neither Wigan nor Warrington would have had better averages in the same situation. There seems to be a real buzz about the new ground and I reckon we're going to be set for a well attended future.

Knowsley Road was an absolute state. It was a filthy, horrendous mess. If you hadn't had it in your makeup since you were a kid you wouldn't love it. If you rolled up there to 'try it' you would walk away thinking about tetanus jabs and feeling like you've been thrown back to the 1900s.

I'd be amazed if we get less than 10,000 season ticket holders.

well said that man.

Not really sure what you are banging on about. Warrington don't have lots of empty seast at all. In fact they are adding more seats for the start of next season!

I didn't mean that. I mean the fact they fill the terrace and can't fit everyone in the terrace a lot of the time. A bigger terrace would be better. That is where the demand is.

Again, not really sure what you mean in terms of Warrington. The seats are almost always full (very difficult to get 2 seats together), the South Stand (home terrace) is often full and there is usually space on the West Stand (terracing). Generally, anybody who wants to stand at Warrington can do, apart from the sell out games against Wigan and Saints.

The balance at the HJ is for mine, perfect, and probably the same at Saints. The main stand at Saints was terrible, with shoddy seats and restricted views, they will see demand for the seating areas shoot up, guaranteed.

I am talking about the home terrace. I don't think it will be big enough at saints for most of the games. It will probably sell-out every game.

Same at Warrington. They need a bigger home terrace because that is where the demand is...

Understand? I realise I explained it wrong in the first place in relation to the seats...

Warrington's home terrace does not sell out most games. It has had an increase this year in sold out games, but generally you could get a ticket on matchday, and for many games pay on the door.

Clubs can charge more money for people to sit down, they will want to fill as many seats as possible, and Saints will see a shift in people who want to sit rather than stand. It's happened at Warrington, and tbh, many fans just don't want to go in that stand due to the people populating it.

For the Wire v Wigan game, more tickets have been sold for the seats than for the standing areas, so your point doesn't stack up at warrington at least.

Er, this is a thread about the SAINTS stadium. Thanks anyway.

I went to one of the season ticket forums tonight and took a look at the plans. Chatted with two of the staff about the changes.

I'd heard a rumour that the stadium wasn't going to be enclosed after all so I asked about this. Apparently Saints had to re-apply for planning permission to clad the North Stand due to concerns regarding wind resistance. Saints believe that the North Stand will be cladded by the handover date BUT it won't be totally enclosed. For safety reasons, there will be a gap of about one metre from the roof to the cladding. This is to allow the wind to pass through.

Unfortunately for those of us in the West Stand, and the same goes for the East Stand, we will not be cladded by handover date or indeed any time in the foreseeable future as the cost has become a problem. Ultimately it is hoped these stands will be cladded but there is no date as yet. There will be some wall behind, as there is in the photos, but that's as good as it gets for us plebs! I suppose something had to suffer for the reduced sale price of Knowsley Road and maybe that is it (or maybe it isn't!). Hopefully the open ends won't affect the atmosphere too much and hopefully the wind won't blow through too strongly! Should the day ever arrive when Saints are in a position to afford cladding to each end then there will be a one metre gap left at the top to avoid the wind blowing the whole thing down.

I can also confirm about the doors in one corner and the screen will be in the other corner. I forgot to ask whether those corners would be enclosed.

I have to confess that I'm really disappointed that the stadium isn't going to be enclosed. I'm not blaming anyone other than the banks for causing the credit crunch which no doubt has contributed to rising costs and limited available funds. But I'm still very disappointed about that. I was really looking forward to the atmosphere that would be generated in an enclosed stadium, and to the protection from the elements that an enclosed stadium would bring.

I also asked whether season ticket sales were going well. The member of staff told me that they were, and told me that there were a lot of people renewing who had given Widnes a miss.

So much for the myth espoused by some that the reason for the low crowds at Widnes were due to financial hardship! More likely couldn't be ahsed.

Try reading the posts. They are about the seating:standing ratio at Saints' ground, with reference to Wire's ground as to how it will shift at the new ground and whether the split should have been different.

There have been many comparisons with other grounds throughout this thread, and they are relevant, just like the above posts.

I'm not interested. This thread is about the Saints stadium. Wigan and Warrington fans should compare theirs between themselves and not on here.

That's ridiculous! I'm not only disappointed but disgusted at this. I understand the financial constraints but that is farcical to say the least in terms of planning etc. The damn thing is gonna look half finished!