A few years ago (the same game Manfredi got injured by Rangi Chase) I made the mistake of travelling over to Castleford without a ticket, assumed I could buy one at the ground. Parked up in the town centre over a mile away from the stadium and tried to purchase a couple of tickets from the ticket office for the away end by using my debit card. Was kindly told that the away end was cash only (of which I had none) and that the nearest cash machine was back in the town centre.

I had to walk the mile or so back to the town centre to get cash... and back again. Yes its that backward.

Never known anything like it. What made it worse was:

A) About five minutes after I finally bought tickets using cash I got a call from Jukesy offering cheap tickets.



B) We got beat.

So many happy memories of drinking in the Royal Oak, The Griffin, The Market Tavern, The Millstone etc before matches, or on Friday and Saturday nights just talking solid rugby, that it still hurts to think all that was taken away from us and that some of those grand old RL pubs, even without Covid, are now boarded-up ruins.

We definitely lost something there. Something irreplaceable for those of us who experienced it ... but time moves on and there's nothing we can do about it (sorry ... I know you're already aware of that).

Our pre-game local was Upper Morris Street club, absolutely packed to the rafters before big matches. One fond memory before the Manly game it was a good couple of hours before kick off, around 5pm we couldn't even get inside the club, my dad was in the queue and asked me to have a look 'how big the crowd was' inside the ground (from Upper Morris Street you could see most of the popular stand and the Kop corner). I told my dad we better go quick as it was heaving, didn't even risk a pint for fear of not getting on the ground. Never known anything like it to this day.

The crowds at Central Park perhaps loked worse than what they are at the DW Stadium as there was not the same level of security of entering the ground. How many children were handed over the low turnstiles, others climbing over the walls, having a friend who was letting them in by a exit gate etc. None of which you can do at a modern stadium like the DW with the tighter security, more stewards, full length turnstiles and more accurate turnstile counters.

Yes, over the years, they were "good old days" for those who did not pay to see a game!

So to bring back the good old days we should smuggle people in? Riiiiiiiiiiiight

Spot on, when you went to a game at Central Park, there were numerous pubs, clubs etc near the ground and in the town centre which helped to create a great pre match atmosphere which is sadly lacking around the Robin Park area where there is only one pub/restaurant.

Not to mention, the famous Sullivan Bar in the Popular Stand which also helped the atmosphere as most of the younger supporters gathered there singing songs which you no longer hear at the souless DW.;

As a result, most supporters now just turn up at the last minute, some spend time just looking at a piece of plastic with no singing etc on the same scale until the team gets well in front with the scoreline.

Oh, how many now get access to the players bar at the DW like they did at Central Park. No chance at the DW, where it is all about making money from providing package deals and corporate facilities for a minoriy.

The DW may be a modern stadium but it is not a patch on Central Park for pre and match atmosphere.

Times that will never be repeated!

What are you on about, only mentioning the reasons why you cannot compare attedances at Central Park with those at the DW Stadium.

And have you no commments to make about what others have said about the differences between attending games at the atmospheric Central Park and the souless DW Stadium?

A few of the clique on here judging by the way they defend getting rid of the clubs traditions like the famous colours of Cherry and White and the Ancient and Loyal Badge for cheapness!

It is a far shorter walk from the Moon under Water to Tesco (Central Park) than what it is to the DW Stadium and not all the supporters are "cheetahs"

We were in the Tavern that night. It was packed to its outer doors, and yet it only dawned on us what was going to happen when we gradually realised just how many people were walking past outside. From at least a couple of hours before the kick-off, it was non-stop pedestrian traffic all headed towards Central Park. A fantastic night, though my missus is still miffed that she couldn't see a thing all through the game.

Not sure that is relevant to Leeds as Headingley centre is less than a 5 minute walk and is better than any of the Town centres mentioned

My memory is a bit dodgy from that night (I was only 16 at the time), was the game all ticket or cash turnstiles? I'm assuming cash as there were a lot of RL supporters from Yorkshire and Cumbria who travelled to the game I'm led to believe? I also don't remember any news in the days leading up to the game announcing ticket sales (as you would get these days). Also I heard there was a large number of supporters who never made it into the ground as they shut the turnstiles.

I'd be interested to know from anyone who went to the Saints game in the late fifties (Brian?) with a crowd of 47k on to ask how the hell did they fit an extra 10k into the ground? Or did Maurice pull a fast one by allowing crowds in but not counting them on the gate?

It's definitely something that's lost, not only from a fan POV but the town itself.

As we've been over a few times now - the DW (& most modern stadiums) are a product of their time i.e out of town, part of a wider retail offering, increased parking & built on cheaper land. That being said, I'm sure that a town centre ground (if there's any left) have much more long term benefits to the business in the town centre.

Well, Wigan Lane is certainly dead now. No one even talks about the Wigan Lane pub crawl anymore. No one I know.

Things have changed dramatically all round. Sport is such a corporate thing these days.

I never had a season ticket at Central Park, and neither did most of my mates. We all just met in the pub, sank a few and then turned up at CP and stood in the queue, sometimes missing the kick-off and standing frustrated as we listened to the roars inside.

What you might, for want of a better term, call the 'working class' elements of the experience all seem to have been removed.

But though I miss the pubs and the noisy atmosphere, and that wonderful surge of the crowd when something exciting was happening, there were lots of things about it that were pretty dire. The view at CP, unless you were in the posh stand, was mostly poor. The toilets were terrible, etc. And the pitch was never great mid-season. Also, winter rugby was ghastly in the kind of weather we got in the 70s and 80s, the players rolling around in thick mud, while snow, ice and sleet were such constants from late November till mid-March that it was miserable for the fans. Even with our undersoil heating, we had games cancelled because the terraces weren't safe etc.

I think there are lots of problems with the DW, including all the things you aren't happy with, but I'm not sure we could ever go back to the conditions of that era and find them in any way tolerable.

All very good points Ruddy as to how poor the DW is.

You still haven't reminded me why we had to move? FWIW, there are no pubs around the Reebok either, unless you want to drink in a Harvester or other sort of eating establishment or walk for 10-15 minutes, which is where we could also have ended up playing.

The Beehive is a nice pub, five mins walk from the stadium. I'd say that's the closest.

There's the barnstormers too. Probably just a little further, but not much.

Yeah been in that too. Over twenty years ago, wasn't sure it was still there (think there's been some house building over that way I think).

Yeah it's still there, although COVID might have changed that. They've built houses just further down on the other side of the road.

I haven’t no. Mainly because Central Park is gone. It’s rubble is in Tesco’s foundations. You can sit here all night saying “Central Park this” or “Central Park that” in your grand nostalgia trip but it doesn’t change the fact it’s been flattened for 22 years. It doesn’t change the fact that even if we had no choice but to sell due to finances we’d have still had to move out within 10years to move with the times and grow the club or be like a Cas or Wakey selling the false hope and dream of a new fit for purpose stadium whilst simultaneously having no intention of moving, nor having the money to either.

DW is our home. It will be for another generation to come unless something miraculous happens. The sooner you and the other Central Park nostalgia trippers accept that (and you’ve had 22years to do so) and stop harping on about a stadium a lot of fans now had never been to - the better.

FWIW I don’t believe the DW is perfect. I’m not going to pretend it is either but it’s our home. It’s a decent walking distance to town and half decent transport links. Good enough for me.

Why reply to me and not the other supporters who have expressed more or less the same opinions about the differences between Central Park and the DW Stadium.

What we in Wigan got as a replacement for Central Park is second rate white elephant compared to many of the other new stadiums which have been built in the country!

And why did we leave CP Ruddy? You seem to keep forgetting that bit.

We've literally got the second best stadium in the Super League, which is bigger than we need most of the time. Why did we leave Central Park?

Out of interest, what's at number one in your list? Are we just going off size alone, or other things? I personally prefer Hull, Wire and Saints above the DW, but it's still a top 5 - no matter how much I don't love it.

Not a fan of Hull. Too cramped.