ooh name-calling.

Why would Langtree deal with St Helens' legals? They will be (potentially) seperate parties to the same contract and therefore to have the same legal advsiers would be a clear conflict of interest.

The actual relationship is going to be a sale and lease-back; but there again what would I know.

oh i just dont know who to believe, a keyboard warrior or the chairman of the club who has explicitly stated that saints will own the stadium?
Are you jealous because our stadium will be bigger than yours? are you that petty?

Not just bigger, but better looking too!

Just heard a rumour that work on the stadium will start 15th of March,
also that club officials are meeting this week to arrange the fans forums.

The real question now is, will work on the stadium or my heritage shirt arrive first?

Tomorrow (Friday) is The Heritage Shirt Day!

as was "mid Jan", 25th Jan, 1st Feb, 8th Feb ..... i wont hold my breath!

what are you guys doing nxt year then coz its your last season at knowsley and i presume your new stadium wont be built in time. also is the stadium going to be built deffo is funding inplace ect

Play wherever, like Widnes or Leigh

All funding has been in place for about 2 years now

Well if it doesnt get built the council will look a bit daft building a bridge to nowhere and a roundabout to nowhere.



Saints have stated that they expect to play the early part of the season away from Knowsley road. It has not been confirmed where yet, though Widnes or Leigh are the rumoured front runners.

Whats spooking some fans is that in media broadcasts Saints have said that they hoped to have computer generated videos of the stadium by the end of 2009. Non has so far been forthcoming. It was also said that the contractors would probably be announced at the end of January. As of yet there has been no word. Also its been stated that in February the club hope to organise fans forums to discuss the new stadium. We are half way through February and as of yet not heard anything.

As a result of the above, some fans have speculated that they think the stadium build is running far behind schedule. As a result they fear spending the whole of 2011 travelling on the road.

With regard to funding, as far as we are aware all of it is in place, however you can never be 100% certain with any construction project that the money can cover all eventualities. What we do know is that Tescos cannot open their store without the new stadium being operational. So if Saints run out of money then Tescos will need to shell out.

Personally im confident the Stadium will get built. Im also hopefull construction will start either March or April. If it doesnt start by the end of April then I will know that the pessimists are right, and the club will be spending at least one season effectively homeless.

FWIW i understand why the club would not want to stay at Knowsley road for a few games in 2011. The cost of just ensuring Knowsley road has a safety certificate, has at times exceeded over a third of a million pounds. There just would not be any justification spending that sort of money on a ground at the end of 2010, just so Saints could play four or five home games in 2011.

We have no choice we HAVE to be out in November.

The one thing we do know is that Tesco CAN open their store without the stadium being open.

It is there to be seen in the S106 document.

Word in Widnes is that Saints game against Catalans an Knowsley Rd 9th July will be their last game they will play the remaiming matches of this season at Widnes.

thats rubbsh.

It's my understanding that Saints have to leave KR at the end of October as Langtree? have a contract in place for the purchase / ownership of the land from then.

Is that correct?

No.

Taylor Wimpey entered into a contract a number of years ago to purchase the Knowsley Road site at a set price based upon land values at the time. The contract will include a "longstop" date by which time Saints will have to hand-over the land or the contract can be invalidated by Taylor Wimpey.

Taylor Wimpey are paying massiveley over the odds for the land and would love the opportunity to get out of the purchase. Saints have no alternative but to vacate Knowsley Road by the date mentioned as to not do so would bring the whole deal crashing down as they wouldn't be able to put their "share" of funding into the pot. The way things are looking I woould not be suprised to see Saints spend the whole of the 2011 season on the road.

Nor would I, given the silence from the club.

So I was right except that it wasn't Langtree hence the?

yep

Taylor Wimpey may have paid over the odds for KR, but with a
guarantee of planning permission they did well out of the deal.
One main reason Saints are leaving KR early for mine, is the cost of the Bridging loan they need to take out.
The Saint are taking out an £8million bridging loan over 18 months, it will cost the club £750,000 in interest payements. the club must have their reason, but 18 months seems a little long.

Only if they cough up money to guarantee that the stadium will open.
Section 3.13 and 3.14 states

The Superstore would not open prior to the Stadium coming into use;
Should the developer request that the Superstore open prior to the
Stadium coming into use, then a bond would be put in place to cover the
remaining construction cost of the Stadium at the time the bond is entered
into.
The Council to subsequently agree that the Superstore can open on the basis the above is complied with.
The timescale for completing the development and calling on the bond would be either 18 months from the date the new Superstore is first open for trading; or following 6 months of inactivity on the site following occupation of the Superstore

3.14 The purpose of a bond is essentially to guarantee the completion of the Stadium building once the construction on the site had begun, should
anything unforeseen happen. The applicant’s proposals are such that, even if the Superstore were to be built, it could not begin to trade unless the Council agreed, and the necessary finance to complete the Stadium building was put in place.

I like that, but then to tesco the numbers involved here are chicken feed

Nice pwnage there mate.

On the Tesco part of it, and I'm not being negative. In the current economic climate would Tesco really be be bothered about any major delays.

They already have a town store which IMO is in a better location than the one they are moving to.
Even if the new store is bigger, how long will it take thm to get their money back on that investment?