Tesco as a secured "anchor" tenant make the whole development financially viable. Without there is no way that Saints could afford to pay for all the necessary new and up-grading of existing sewers, roads and utilities or the mucky mountain money. Having the guaranteed future "rent" from Tesco at a level still viable for them allows the developer to make a profit after it has paid all the interest and repayments on the money it will be borrowing.

The question you should perhaps ask is what do St Helens rugby bring to the table for Tesco. Well whilst Tesco may make the obtaining of planning for the stadium more difficult to obtain, the stadium and the good that will do for the town as a whole makes it possible for Tesco to get planning.

In truth both parties are dependant on what the other brings to the table.

thats about it, they wouldnt get planning without us, and we couldnt afford it without them.

Tesco are a means to an end, it could have been any other supermarket chain, first and foremost Langtree where charge with building a Stadium for St Helelns RFLC not a Supermarket, remember the plans for a Casino. Tesco though always had the inside track because of the Market St developement, plans to develope that part of town are nigh on 15 years old.
All parties do well out of the Saints need for a new stadium, the Council get Market Street developed, Tesco get their new Supermarket, and to develope their old site (Market street) the bottle shop is saved, much needed housing on Knowsly Road.
What do the club bring to the table, money from the sale of Knowsley Road, money from the NWDA, this money is for the club not for the developers or to build Supermarkets, Tesco involvement in all this will come at a cost that cost will help build the Stadium for the club, Langtree are not imune from costs either, they will make a lot of money having Tesco on their developement.
No doubt Sadfish will be the one to find out first about the fine details of this deal from some shareholders meeting in the future.

Sorry that's a myth. The council will be paying for all that. That is the council's contribution and they have put on record how they will raise the money for it. Tesco will definitely NOT be paying for infrastructure like sewers and feeder roads etc. SImilarly the NWDA money is paying for the clearence and preparation of the land.



That is how the developer benefits. Maybe indirectly Saints benefit from that, but that's pure guess work. Just as possibly Saints could have gone ahead alone and got the prime spot right next to the linkway. I'm guessing that people don't know the answer to this and just posting guesswork.

So I go back to my original question....
In what way EXACTLY is Saints benefitting from the involvement of a supermarket?

If you don't know, it's quite OK to post 'I don't know' instead of guessing and making stuff up.

He said money.

Tesco will put money into building the new stadium, that is how these things work, that is why Tesco have been brought into the mix to help fund the Stadium, its the only way we are going to get a new stadium.
Tesco help fund the new Tory club in Haydock, the developers of Triplex will help fund a new club on that site, Everton went down the same road only to be Knocked back by the Council, Warrington where helped by Tesco, the new Castleford and Wakefield stadiums will be funded by retail developement around their stadium sites.
The only mystery is how much they will put in, its a price they are willing pay to open a giant Supermarket in the town.

Listened to the whole thing and I never once heard him say Tesco are putting money into Saints' build. He did say something vague about Tesco and the developer mutually benefitting each other. It may be that Saints indirectly benefit from that but equally it may be that they don't. I (and I suspect you too) have no way of knowing. I was wondering if anyone on here did actually know for sure.

All you're doing with the rest of your post is comparing Saints' development with others. It does not necesarily follow that Saints got the same deal as these others. In other words you don't know, but you're guessing. Fair enough, but not what I'm looking for.

Of course I am guessing, very few people will be privy to what you want to know, and I very much doubt many people will ever know the real amount Tesco put in, it would set a bench mark for any future development Tesco are involved in.
On the radio interview, when asked where the money was coming from to fund the stadium, the chief exec replied from 4 parties, the club, with the sale of KR, the council, the NWDA, Tesco stroke Langtree.

I wouldn't be surprised if Saints have had to sign a non-disclosure agreement relating to the funds introduced by Tesco due to Tesco not wanting very public precedents set for their involvement in schemes of this nature.

All this head banging about finding out exactly how much they are contributing is futile, but I would bet a pound to a penny that they are contributing cold hard cash to the stadium project.

exactly, and i imagine their army of property lawyers cant have hurt either

I agree with you on this point. In the end Saints have £8M, NWDA £8M and the Council are doing the sewers etc. with less money than that Dire built the HJ (with some CASH from Tesco of course).

The people promoting the whole scheme may not be geniuses but they are not stupid either. My bet is that Tesco are bunging Saints a few £M but don't want the details out and have an NDA in place.

I thought this was the Stadium Site pictures thread

No myth. St Helens MBC will not be funding the infrastructure enhancements. Why would they?

Because they said they will be, they've even said where and how they will raise the money for it. There was a long debate in the council chamber and a vote for. Maybe I'm naive, but I believe them.

Where do you think the money the council is raising and putting in to this going to be spent?

Been looking at plans for new stadium and comparing them to the halliwell Jones, and Wigans DW as a guide.

A couple of things have stood out.

The Wolves away terrace has 5 rows of crash barriers. The end terrace on Saints plans appear to show 6 rows of crash barriers. Thereby indicating the increased size of the terraces at Saints.The capacity of Wires end terrace was originally set at just shy of 4k, however after overcorwding issues it was cut to 3500. Saints new end terrace has a stipulated capacity of 3884.

In addition, the seated stands at Saints show 22 rows of seats. I counted just 20 rows in Wires main stand.

The corporate hospitality and entertainment capacity of Saints new main South stand, is greater than the entire corporate capacity at the HJ, and also bigger than Wigans main West stand. Wigans overall corporate facilities are however slightly higher due to facilities in their North and South stands.

any whispers who has won the contract to build the stadium.

Nope,

However i would think an anouncement is imminent considering we are nearly in February and Tony Colquitt was saying on the radio the other week that they hope to be able to say who the contractors were by the end of January, with construction starting sometime in March.

Now obviously this isnt a guarantee, just a hope, or belief. Therefore things may get pushed back by a few weeks.

I'm with you all the way on this DoT.


Something just doesn't quite add up here. It's pretty obvious what Tesco are getting out of it, but as clear as fog what we are getting from Tesco etc.

What are you so suspicious about? We're getting nothing from Tesco other than the ability to build on the site. Without Tesco there, we wouldn't be there either as there is no way that Saints could afford the whole site.

Saints wouldn't want the whole site, only the area big enough for the stadium. And we might have had the premium place next to the linkway if Tesco hadn't pushed us to a hidden corner.

There's a lot of assumptions being made here and peddled out as fact.

If what you say is true and not conjecture then thats all we are getting and its "deal done" but I can't quite work out how the dire got a much better deal than us i.e. site enablement/development AND a fat bundle of cash.
How does that work then?



Don't say the obvious that each case is different, because if anything, given our fan base and status in SL, we would be entilted to more cash than was given to the HJ project.

Keep an eye on cnplus.co.uk and building.co.uk for announcements on the successful contractor.

Do you think for one second your "fan base and status in SL" means one little bit to Tesco. The amount they are willing to put into a development to make it happen is directly linked to how much the development is worth to Tesco in terms of future profits.

Tesco had no presence in Warrington and had been desperate for a store in the town for years whilst they already had a store in St Helens plus Warrington's is a bigger and more affluent customer base than St Helens.

Hence Tesco willing to put more money into the Warrington development.

Probably true. But then considering our ground specs look better than the HJ and the club itself will own the stadium - I'm not sure why we should give a monkeys what Tesco gave to Wire.

Not sure about the club owning the stadium - I thought we had all agreed the club was actually leasing the stadium.

I think you will find its "saint at wire" who is giving a "monkeys" about what Tesco gave to Wire.

I'll give you that Saints' ground's spec looks better on paper but for now that's where it remains - on paper.

Noone agreed that, it has been explicitly stated many times that Saints will own the stadium