If you go on the assumption that it is very unlikely that matches in March will be off due to frozen pitches, we will have 2/3 home games in Feb that might be in danger. The cost of inputting undersoil heating, maintaining it, fueling it when operational can not possibly be justified by the small risk that a couple of games will be called off in February and we will lose some ticket sales and corp hos by holding these games midweek.

Indeed. And we now have a shiny new stadium! The people have spoken.

'"

Dont toy with us lets have a look?

bloody hell I started a right argument there didnt I,icon_smile.gif, anyway the lit up bridge does look awesome, thanks St Helens council. I fully agree with you spending £2,000,000 on it out of council tax money,

I seam to recall a fair bit of council work being done on the surrounding infrastructure around the stade de crust to. That road network did not just pop up over night. Maybe the Saints fans living in Wigan would like a rebate also or maybe you could just accept that major developments, both commercial, social and sporting require infrastructure some of which is the responsibility of the council.

Unless of course you suggest that Saints should have built the bridge and therefore have rights for crossing it. Therefore opening something the council did not want, which would be people going to the new development disconnected from the rest of the town and pulling yet more shops out of the town centre and therefore reducing rents to the council as those shops pulled out. Any new development would be in direct competition with the town centre rather than linked up. For 2 million I'm sure Saints would have gone for more car parking space than a bridge, but then that would leave the council owned car parks rather emptier on match day.


I can think of many things the council could have spent 2 million on. But in the end it's a commercial decision, no one was going to redevelop knowsley road and the current board could only bank roll the losses for so long. Saints going bust and taking yet another business out of St. Helens would not have helped the council. In the end the council have a new development, new business' new revenue streams as opposed to the other option which was a slow death for saints and no new development.

Road infrastructure in Wigan pre-dates DW Stadium. If you look at the so-called "Improvements" to the Saddle Junction, they don't guide traffic towards DW Stadium, rather toward Robin Park & Wigan Town Centre. DW gain nothing from Saddle Junction "Improvement" works.

Cover your eyes, keep the kids away from the screen.
This image may make your eyes bleed

Just because a job is done incompetantly does not negate the fact it was done. Take out the development and the improvement works would not have happened. It's a package deal. Just like the Langtree development.

Point being, road ways and walk ways are council responsibilities. Stadia are not. but how many councils have put money into stadia? Now if you want to discuss councils spending money thats going to be a very long thread of what people don't want, don't use and don't value. Until of course they miss them or fall onto hard times and find out what it's like when these things are not provided.

They didn't. They spent two mill from the capital budget. That isn't the budget where the council tax money goes. The council tax money goes into the revenue budget. No money came out of the revenue budget towards the redevelopment of the former UGB site into a site which now provides additional jobs.

So the council makes revenue from other methods by doing what exactly? And when I ask that question, I ask knowing that all monies received from public services SHOULD go back into public services (and staff wages). No council should ever turn a profit.

What an embarrassment this thread is...

Who cares who started the whole 'flag thing' first?
Who cares who legally owns the DW Stadium?
Who cares about scoring points with the borrowing of money or what the council spend just to prove who is the better club?

Get a grip, both sets of fans.

Wigan fans - be happy for saints for finally having a fantastic stadium
Saints fans - be happy that Wigan actually have a facility to play in which is fantastic

Move on.

Not trying to score points. The Saints stadium is (almost) fantastic... The council forking out for the stadium is nothing to do with Saaaain Tellins Rugby League, that's the council being a bunch of back handed, in their own pockets, looking after their own interests con artists... I'm sure it happens in most councils, but Saaaain Tellins Council have always made it blatently obvious. That's all i'm going to say on it now.

They didn't. They spent two mill from the capital budget. That isn't the budget where the council tax money goes. The council tax money goes into the revenue budget. No money came out of the revenue budget towards the redevelopment of the former UGB site into a site which now provides additional jobs.

Bloody hell saints fan i'm trying to wind the pies up not us.

Perhaps you could let us have your detailed cost/benefit analysis of the council's expenditure on infrastructure for the stadium site development so we can see if we agree about them being "a bunch of back handed, in their own pockets, looking after their own interests con artists"?

Bit strong for someone talking from a position of ignorance, so I'm sure you'll have it to hand.

Just to rile onedego a little more

here are a couple of shots of part of what the council paid for - the "Saints Way" bridge in Xmas mode and in red-and-white match day mode. Will connect the town centre with the stadium site. Nice feature of the project IMO:

Oh look, Disney Land.

The lights are good but how long before they are vandalised?

Or stolen by scousers.

Wow you have a bridge connecting to your stadium. It might look good but I can think of better ways to spend £2m.

you just cant do it can you, you just cant say hey that looks pretty good that bridge, and the stadium looks good as well. go on admit it they look fandabbydosy, faaaandaaaabyyyydosyyyy.

I notice Saints aren't the first team to have a bridge connecting fans to the stadium.

FIOS.

I understand our's was an FXFowle design. The trolleys were added at a later date for dramatic effect.

see your hopeless, skit, call, but ignore us at your peril, go on just one with a sence of humour, say it looks good

Build a bridge...