Saints fan(?) on the Warrington site reckons its the other way around and if the sale of Knowsley Road doesn't go through by end of 2010 then the developer (Taylor Wimpey) will be able to re-negotiate the price (or I would imagine pull out completely). At best given current land values compared to when the sale was first negotiated this would leave Saints with a couple of million pounds funding hole that in truthcould well mean the new stadium being potentially dead in the water.

I don't claim to have any knowledge of theSaints deal but having long-stop dates in pre-cotract agreements is a given so there may well be some truth in it, plus can't beat a bit of doom-mongering at the expense of Saints.

love it.

lol

the deal is fixed though, saints will be out on time, even if we're playing somewhere else for a few months

If there is a problem with KR. My answer is simple.

Get 8000 fans to put in £1000 each. That gives £8m. Wait till the price of land goes up and sell it. Admittedly there will be some admin costs but as true Saints fans we would be doing it to move the club on, not for selfish gain.

It's not square/rectangular. And I don't think there are any standing areas.

You couldn't trust a Saints fan with your money for a NZ All Gold shirt now you're all going to shove a grand in each.

The naievity of some people amazes me.

Who said "Giving it to a Saints fan"?

Wow! Welcome to 2008!

Should imagine the majority of opposition fans want the development to fail, then they can have there annual gripe about the existing stadium not fit for superleague.

Do you really think all the Saints die-hards have a spare £1,000 to give away, albeit temporarily?

exactly

Not to mention the fact that a large proprtion of our support are kids!

who probably haave more spare cash than their parents!

Getting most saints "fans" to cough up £17 at the turnstiles is hard enough.

Real Rugby League Fans! not those that are purely parochial! want to see every new ground project Succeed! be it a club you support or not!

What is frustrating is the number of promises and announcements by the current St Helens Board which never seem to materialise and that supporters are not kept fully informed.

But is that anything new? No! the success St Helens has had as a club and what have we (someone born in the Town) to show for it, plus all the Sky money, nothing much! it has never been run as a top professional club an d the current Board seem little better.

I'm not sure you are quite up to date, the latest info from the club was no more than a month or two ago and they were going through the tender process. no news is no news at this point.

As for SKY money, well we've only had the same as Quins have had we seem to have done a lot more than Quins have done.

Is the you Sean McGuire?

Sadfish, if you are Happy with the progress and the way the Sky money has been spent by St Helens, fair enough on you! but I'm not that easily pleased and Ski my comment was on behalf of myself, born in St Helens and the reason why I no longer support the team like all youngsters I wanted to play for as a kid.

this is rediculous. the sky money doesn't even cover the wages buddy.

at ANY SL club.

as others have said, how much do you think sky give us?
from memory the entire deal was about £86 million over 10 yrs between 14 clubs = not a lot

I appreciate your frustration re the apparent silence on the new Saints Ground project but I'm sure when there is news, then it will be shared with the speccies.

Regarding the rest of your post, well that's cr4p. Sts supporters have had almost unbroken success on the field since the start of Super League. We have also had the privilage of watching some of the greatest players ever to have played for the club during this period at a time of full time professionalism and the costs of maintaining a squad.

This has been funded partly by SKY, partly by the commercial department's work and partly by the generosity of our Chairman (who has put in excess of £1 million) and the club's directors.

Within the next 18 months or so a new Sts Stadium will be built and will be owned by St. Helens RLFC.

There is not a fan of any other club, or official for that matter, that wouldn't have swapped places with us since 1996 and you say we have nothing to show for the Sky money and the club hasnt been run as a top professional club?

mmm.....................................a riddiculous statement imho.

I remember watching Sts pre '96 and there's no comparison to the quality of the product, or the staus of the club now.

Okay IF Sky money is nothing at all, what would St Helens and others do if they withdraw, by your assumptions nothing would change, well that I see as a joke! as many clubs would either have no choice to go back to being part time or go bust! Gate money will not cover wage bills.

The problem is with many clubs and this is my criticism in the good days of money coming into the game far too much was pushed into wages rather than infrastructure, Knowsley Road could have been made into a superb stadium.

Yes the game has improved under Super League, but also it has gone backwards in some ways and that is being said by so many these days, who do not find it as exciting, the way the kick is used on the last play the ball.

It would be a sad world if we all agreed on Everything! there is plenty I don't agree with the Club I have backed and supported now for many years, the good thing in the South is more schools are playing the game than ever, a reversal of here in the games home territory, but for some reason we are not turning them into supporters? I wish I had all the answers!

The sky money isnt nothing at all, but it doesn't cover the wages as you said.

Knowlsey Road would have always been too costly to update, and they already have problems with the fact its in the middle of a housing area when it comes to games and noise level and line of sight and also the size.

Most clubs rely on their fans to invest the most money, either via tickets sales, merchandise sales or corporate sales.

in a turn over of say £5 milllion less than 25% is sky money.

If we removed TV money completely, then we would have to cut the playing staff wages by 25%, thats doesn't mean the club would no longer be professional simply that we paid out less wages.

Sadfish, that is your opinion, I did an Australian RL Management training course with the great late Peter Deacon, in an attempt to drag the British game up to date, Peter was the man behind the revival of The Bulls and then played such an important part in Rugby Union and a time at Wolves.

Ticket sales will never cover wages in RL and neither will merchandise, if you want to think Sky money is nothing keep thinking that way! why do Clubs have the debts they have??

no one is saying it is nothing, but its not an all all nothing argument!