Thought the stadium was great, sort out the cladding and can't be much to complain about. Nice Bridge aswell however its downhill from there for me. Got dropped in the town centre and the nicest shop was the McDonalds or the massive 99p store.

Whether they do student tickets or not shouldn't affect the price for a child though, so absolute credit to Saints for that price. "Young adult" is better than student anyway. I was a student between the ages of 16 and 21, but lots of school leavers are on low waged jobs, apprenticeships, etc (assuming they are lucky enough to have anything at all in the current economic climate) which means they aren't students but aren't rolling in dough either.

Warrington should charge less for kids (circumstances dictate season tickets aren't suitable for everyone before someone says that) so well done to Saints.

The location is great, the parking is fine if you do a bit of research on where to park beforehand and the stadium looks great from the outside. Once inside, I thought the open concourses seemed a strange design, and as we’ve heard from all quarters, will be awful in the winter and wet. However the food and drink facilities on offer were very good.

Once inside the stadium itself, I felt it was a massive let down and it is no way better than the HJ for a viewing spectator or in terms of its visual impact. The main stand with the exec boxes looked brilliant, but the halo and open corners, whilst brave in concept, looked dreadful and the swirling wind and rain on a bad night will be ridiculous. Cladding will certainly help, but that won’t sort the concourses out.

I also thought that Saints’ corporate power would be limited by having just one stand of exec boxes (or are there others that I’m missing?).

You can get into a p1ssing contest about whether Langtree or the HJ is better and which will be the better in future when all the trumpeted improvements are made to both grounds, but they’re very similar in most ways and it’s each to their own. I was just very surprised at how poor it looked when I got inside and frankly, the design of the halo, etc, struck me as A for effort, but C for execution.

That's my opinion, anyway.

Yeah it will. The cladding is going on the external walls, so the concourses will no longer be open to the elements.

Your 16-21 argument does have merit though as there will be supporters who fall into that catagory. Changes coming in over the next two years will reduce these numbers when students have to stay "in education" until 18. Once again though it all comes down to who pays full price at the moment and how many more will pay the reduced price.

Does it always have to be about "the bottom line" though? Saints are a bigger club than us and have a bigger ground which reflects that. Warrington is a bigger town that St Helens though so arguably we have more potential to attract more fans if we can sustain the level of success Saints have had.

You mention Bradford and of course they have had massive problems since the success dried up and people started deserting them. They had to lower prices to try and get those people back. Success tends to go in cycles, so Saints and ourselves may both have that problem in future, but that remains to be seen.

Either way, I imagine Saints and ourselves to have a fairly similar revenue stream - Saints may have a slight advantage but not massively so. Would the attendance on Monday night have been significantly lower if they had charged £14 on the turnstile for kids to access the terraces? I doubt it. Slightly lower perhaps but not massively so.

Therefore Saints sacrificed some potential revenue in order to let young fans in at a price which is easier on their parents' wallets than Warrington charge. For that I applaud them.

What wire could do is introduce prices for the lower attended games, but for the sell out games leave them as they are, i've no problem with two tier price structuring, supply and demand ateotd.

I can't say i was overly impressed, yeah its new and yes its miles better than knowsley road but i wasn't bowled over.

Maybe its because there's been a spate of new stadia lately, or maybe i was expecting something much much more from what the PR has been about it.

it felt somewhat daft, going inside, and then still being outside before heading up to the terraces.

It's not overly impressive inside either, one main stand, not too dissimilar from the one at leigh, and the others, i thought it was supposed to be a bowl? It looked and felt to me, half finished.

Do we know what the corporate £££ is like for them on a matchday? how many boxes or actually dining facilities?

Sponsors Lounge £75 each + VAT (£90) 3 course meal
Players Lounge £59 + VAT (£70.80) Hot & Cold Buffet

Yes. Warrington Sports Holdings is a business.

What were you expecting? It's in line with modern stadiums and for a rugby league facility, wholly owned by the club, it's a fantastic outcome is it not?

It's apparently doing really well from a commercial point of view, with conference suites, meeting rooms and dining facilities being used daily by businesses. Corporate boxes have sold out regularly throughout the season as well and the bars are making a wedge on matchdays and we've just opened a really posh coffee shop that is open throughout the week. The club is also showing away games at the stadium and we're making plenty of wonger through that as well.

The cladding will give it a far more finished sheen. The open concourses and lack of cladding is obviously an issue, but the club's designers quoted other stadiums like the Galpharm for example where this exists. They tested the height of the walls and the direction of the wind movement and concluded the stadium didn't need cladding, but could be added for £x. After experiencing some pretty nasty weather early doors this season it became evident it did need cladding. Saints are therefore paying to add this at the end of the season. Once that's done it'll be like the HJ's big cousin.

Who came up with that pearler?

To be fair, Warrington have been doing all that for years plus have other businesses actually based from the HJ (NHS for example). We're still the blueprint to be followed. Although LP is newer, and a higher capacity, it's still light years behind how diversely developed the HJ is.

Well you'd expect the Halliwell Jones to be diversely developed as it's been there for a good few years, so it has established links and contacts etc.

Langtree Park is getting there and when the stadium becomes established it will be a very good money making machine, as it seems to be already. Every time I go past the stadium during the day the car-park is packed full of cars, so something is always happening there...I mean the other day it was full of British Gas vans. The hospitality seems to be near full every home game which is great.

I'm actually surprised by the comments on here, they seem to be positive which shows the potential that it has once it has been finished. If you compare your views to that of Bradford fans then you will see the effect that the weather has. There is no doubt that the original design was a monumental balls up, but there are legal issues that are being cleared up behind the scenes according to a statement released the other month and we have been promised that it'll be fixed after the season.

I'm sure you don't really care about what's happening at our club, so I'll shut up now

Of course we are interested.

By the way, that was a gas leak that you had.

Chaz, whatever you do don't disagree with him, you will just go round in circles...apparently.

Sorry Albion couldn't resist.

Some Soccer Premier League Clubs tried to do this about 10 years ago, for example Aston Villa were offering a Home Season ticket with the option of paying extra and going to Villa Park to watch every away game, there was great interest from fans but the Premier League wouldn't allow it.

Do Saints show every away game? If so has does that affect your travelling support? Some SL clubs bank on the tickets sales from the away support of clubs like Wire, Wigan, Leeds, Hull & Saints to boost their attendances.

Sheffield Wednesday started doing beam backs a couple of years ago for the steel city derby, this was only possible when all away tickets were sold at bumhole lane, cos the demand was obviously through the roof, i think though that a large proportion of those funds went to charity. The pigs started doing this as well a year or so afterwards.

In all fairness, no clubs should be banking on away support and should see those ticket sales as a bonus.

Why not? If you get promoted into or are a small club playing in the top division and are mixing it with the 'big boys' then that is part of the reward surely.

Maybe the semantic difference between bank and bonus but in reality is there any difference (in any walk of life)

First sentence fails on one word, promoted



I know what you mean, CC ties for lower league clubs this definitely applies and I agree there, but in SL, your business plan should be able to depend upon home support. With London and Catalans bringing next to no fans for the obvious reason, 400 mile and 2000 mile round journeys to deal with, and the Yorkshire sides with the exception of probably only Leeds (1000+) bringing anything between 100-750. There's not THAT much revenue in the grand scheme of things generated by away ticket sales. I'll say roughly £150K after the 10% deduction when for example turnover should be approx £4M - About 4%. As I said, a welcome bonus, but should definitely not be depended upon.

I didn't really disagree so no fail I was using promotion to broaden the debate and on reading your latest response so do you.

It is all in the use of the words bank and bonus and you illustrated the math perfectly. Do you think Warrington will sell more pints in the West Stand playing Catalan or Wigan? (I was going to use pies but that would have been too obvious and not based on actual numbers attending the game) Therefore Warrington can bank on certain levels of travelling support from big teams and or local rivals.

Put simply, we can rely (bank) on Wigan bringing more than Cat's and you corrected yourself in your last post when you stated correctly that it is wrong to depend upon it.

First bit regarding promotion was firmly tongue in cheek my friend!

Although I see what you're saying, FYI, Warrington make nothing from beer and food sales. They rent the kiosks to Heathcotes/Lindley Catering so have a fixed income regardless.

Phew I'm glad we cleared that one up. Although if they sold less pints etc or vice versa, when the lease comes up for renewal......only joking.

Good luck what a time to bea WIre?