Fabulous pics, Chair. Thanks for posting them!

Didn't I read people whining that the north stand wasn't getting any cladding? Is it only the west/east now then?

its just the lift shaft on the North stand thats getting cladded in the red stuff, the rest of the outside wall will be open, apart from a 14ft wall.

That's not what they said on the website. They said the North will be cladded. Has that now changed?

Either way, think of it as a big window that someone left open. Should be nice and airy.

Ahhh, righto. Is that official then? How do you know that?

p.s. not questioning you as I know you're pretty up to speed on the stadium front, just interested.

OK once and for all on the cladding - Saints Media Manager has stated quite clearly that a planning app is in for the North to be cladded but it might not be done for the first game.

When is the 'v' wall going in?

Cheers

Is this the modern equivalent of the Eddington End wall where the chavs would pop a quick feel of one another during the game?

from what was said two week back the north stand will be cladded, not the outside wall where they are now fitting the red stuff, but the inner wall behind the seated terracing, would be great if it was the outside wall.

The club had to re-apply for planning permission to clad the North Stand because there had to be a 1m gap between the roof and the cladding to allow for wind to filter through otherwise the wind could threaten the stability of the structure. The club hope the North Stand will be cladded prior to the start of the new season and they think it should be.

However, there are no plans to clad the West and East Stands at present and apparently there never have been plans to do so. But the wall at the back of those stands is going to be high enough that someone standing at 6ft 5ins wouldn't be able to see into town. Or something like that!

Its the 6ft 5ins wall that will be made higher on the North stand.

a couple of pictures from today

the turnstiles in the ne corner


the view from PX now the wall and stuff has been knocked down



we have floodlights on the North Stand



and a few more seats in the South

First of all some pics i took last thursday in the fading sun





I like the look of the landscaping. However do wonder if in time (think decades) those trees will obscure the stadium. Note also the framework going on the Turnstile entrance in the south west corner, in readiness for the red cladding



Now onto the pics i took on Saturday

The concrete pavement is being laid around the south eastern corner of the stadium





As Gruntfuttock has already pointed outs, floodlights have now been fitted on the north stand. Cant be long now before we get a floodlight test



With regard to the seating. They have now fitted the seats in the South West corner near the Police control room/pa box. Looks like they have fitted the cheap seats first and are leaving the fitting of the posh premium seats till last.







There is now a huge wall of red behind the North stand. Cant help but think this would have been better if it was white with a big read V.



i also noticed that they have built a small wall between the toilets and the turnstiles. Presumably this is to prevent people queuing for the toilet from blocking the entrance to the stadium.
Also note that despite the road outside the stadium being soaking wet from heavy rain, the inside of the stadium is completely dry, despite it not being fully enclosed.



A nearly completed stadium with little over one month to go before it gets handed over to Saints, looking glorious in the sunshine

Fandabydosy. I don't care about the lack of cladding. It still looks awesome.

thanks Chair - was beginning to think you'd taken the week off along with the official Saints photographer who hasn't posted any pics for a while.

Great shots.

A small observation over the cladding...

The south west corner has 10 grey clad sections, but the south east section only has 6 grey clad sections. I wonder if the south east has 4 more sections yet to clad? Or maybe the south red faced part is offset towards the east?

Anyone have access to the plans to show if this offset is correct?

Not a point of earth shattering importance I know but people have posted questions on more minor points than this.

The PA box/ Police control room is in the south west corner which therefore requires to be clad, as do the lift shafts to the high level disabled section of the west stand. No such box exists in the south eastern part of the stadium, nor are there high level disabled facilities in the eastern part of the stadium.
There is also the quite interesting fact that every different stand within the stadium is a different size, and of slightly different design. This is a change from the usual flatpack cookie cutter stadiums we see built in the uk.

I do like the way we can call the home and away ends the Western Terrace and the Eastern Terraceicon_wink.gif

Have you seen the pics on redvee behind the stands? Bone dry, cladding is not required IMO.

North west corner looks like the worst spot to be.

hate to keep on about this, the stadium is fantastic, but there is very little cover in the Northeast and the Northwest corners of the ground, also check out the pics on redvee and see how far the rain has come up the front of the terrace, this of course cannot be helped but it will also come in from behind the above mentioned corners with the aid of the wind.
Go and have a look at how open these corners are it will effect seated and standing fans, granted not a lot of fans will be effected but some will.

these are our own seated fans, not bothered about the Northeast corner, they are for away fans.

They do look a little exposed, however perhaps not as bad as people think.

Look closely and you will see that the ends of the stands are walkways, so no speccies will be sat right on the end of the stand, they will actually be a few metres in. This will mean they have a couple of extra metres of roof cover, in addition to the curved roof in the corner. This will make it harder for the rain to get to them.

I do however think that seats in the far corners will be a bit like those on the front couple of rows, in that if the wind and rain are blowing the wrong way you can expect some rain getting to you, but i doubt if people will get a soaking.

The open corners are my only real bugbear with the new stadium. I would have liked them to be at least partially cladded, upto say the height of the North stand seated area. This would leave an open bit at the top but would make the stadium look and feel more enclosed.

I regard the open backs of the stands to be an opportunity. In summer months on a nice warm evening, the natural light will potentially make for a more pleasant drinking experience, than being stuck in an airless claustrophobic concrete cavern, with nothing but flickering neon lights to keep away the dark. Its only really in February, March and early April that the open backs will make for potentially a bracing experience. The vast majority of the season will be played in mild to warm, though often wet conditions.
Furthermore re the open backs, one of the things i have not liked about Widnes is that the North stand bar areas can be a bit of a sweat box in summer due to their fully enclosed nature.