Oops yup, can see them fine at home, you must be a security risk at my work!! Cheers GF

How many announcements have the club actually made? 3 or 4 over the last two years?

I know of three in the last 9 months! come on open your eyes, the public meetings to show the model of the ground and last weeks cancelled announcement (due to the media centre being double booked) that is TWO!

Yes, the public meeting announcement was before Christmas though IIRC, saying they'd be done in Feb. Add that to the McManus one this month. That's two in 7 months, they aren't exactly overloading the news feeds with announcements. When was the third one and what was it?

wouldnt be the worst thing ive been called mate

Plus the one from Tony Colquitt on Radio Manchester when he referred to a 60 week build and gave a stadium opening date in 58 weeks

at the end of May 2011.

IMO the media / PR side of the project has been handled very poorly by Saints and it's quite understandable why the fans are upset about it.

As Sadfish says another six months delay after ten years of waiting is hardly a disaster, but at least have the decency to put out a statement, even if there is no news.
A simple "We are waiting for A,B, C or D" would suffice.

If Saints didn't have to move out of Knowsley Road then I can't see what the issue would be however they do.

Has any thought been given to taking out a 12 month lease from Taylor Wimpey for next season? Can't see that they will have an appetite to develop the land immediately and may be thankful of a bit of cash in return.

I know the H&S Certificate argument but I would guess the move to Widnes will cost you about 2,000 per game on average so over the course of a season that could easliy equate to £500,000 in revenue. (could be more if Widnes keep revenue from corporate and food/bar concessions). That should easily cover the necessary works.

There must also be a fee for using Widnes' ground to be considered. Is Knowsley Road used for academy or training purposes? Ipresume it is used for administration and alternative office accommodation will need to be sourced for that.

Staying at Knowlsey Road for an extra year would seem to make sense.

(I appreciate that this would involve cancelling the organised "leaving Knowsley Road" celebrations but lets be fair Saints seem to be quite good at cancelling any events planned in connection with the new stadium).

Heard they have a big appetite.

Three it is then.



True enough, I think the problem is that they tend to come in batches of a couple at a time promising everything is sorted, nothing is, and then there is silence from the club.



I'm not sure it would. Everyone knows that there is little the club can do about this, it's out of their hands, yet they are the ones certain people wish to blame.

Thanks Billinge_Lump! Three it is!

It is not a matter of blame, in my career if I got things wrong whatever it was I stood up and accepted responsibility, if it was one of my staff I still took the flak, but with Big Mac it always seems to be "silence is golden" until the next big announcement and promise. St Helens are a major worldwide known club but have never been run as they should be, Knowsley Road should have been looked after and not allowed to slip in the sad state of deterioration it is in now, it is in a disgraceful condition.

Anyway there is Wednesday, Thursday and Friday for the announcement or we could be up to Four!

Three in eight months it is, information overload!!! By the way, would you take the blame for an outside contractor not providing what they had said they would? You seem to be expecting the club too. And McManus can hardly be blamed for the previous 30 years of lack of investment.

I've no experience of the building industry, but I wouldn't think that an announcement along the lines of 'Well I was told everything would be signed sealed and delivered, but someone is f*cking around and trying to maximise their profits so it isn't' would be best received by either the developers or contractors.

The club have dealt with this poorly, adding the caveat of 'We hope that...' would have stopped a lot of these complaints, instead of attempting to be overly positive about it being finalised, I just don't think the club are the ones to be blamed for the delays.

:j3zkollr

Mr Rogues, can you please enlighten us as to when (or if) Wigan RLFC will make any announcement in relation to developing their [u:j3zkollr[uown [/uground, is it still Edge Hall Lane or the Mecca Drome??

Probably MUCH cheaper to rent widnes than plough even more money into KR.

Exactly. No information except wrong information.

Possibly; I do worry about what will happen to Saints' attendances at Widnes though if they are not under-pinned by healthy season ticket sales. I hope they have got their estimates about reduced revenue right.

If the new stadium is complete by August (I think that's the latest estimate) will season tickets be sold with dual-seat allocation ie pick your seat at Widnes plus where you will sit in the new stadium (could make it a treble and throw Everton in as well apparently)? In fact this could be a good ploy to sell more tickets as there will be a rush to get the best seats in the new ground to keep for years to come.

I reckon the biggest threat could be if no definate news on the new stadium has been released come the time for season ticket sales as the un-certainty of where all fixtures are to be played is bound to effect sales.

Do you know the reason for that?

Obviously not. The club haven't told us!

i actually agree with you here, i've had a season ticket every year since i was 16, but i'm very unsure about next season

Well, considering the club are reliant on others to get the information about the progress of the build. Why blame them, when the information they are given turns out to be incorrect?

I've yet to see a post querying what Langtree are up to as developers.

The club will know exactly what the situation is with regard to the build of their own property which their money is being spent on. To suggest otherwise is just daft, or obtuse. At no time would Saints have been put out to keep the fans updated on either problems or progress. It's no big effort for them to engage the fans but they clearly don't respect the fans enough to do so.


Indeed. Because we are not fans of Langtree but Saints RLFC, and it is the Saints ground we are interested in, not Langtree or, for that matter Tesco, who actually have and do hold up these joint ventures, sometimes for years. The only interest to fans of Saints RLFC is Saints' stadium. Therefore, it is to Saints club that we have looked to for updates.

In todays st helens reporter it says that your only playing a 2/3 games at widnes but most people who have been up to the site KNOW it wont be ready this time next year when the paper suggesting its goin to be ready by april.

A friend passed on his programme from last Friday night's game and I could not believe that Big Mac made that statement! does that go down as statement number Four - LOL - a couple of games at the start of the season, what land is he living in, unless the flat pack is ready built and ready for moving?

We're probably only playing 2-3 games at Widnes because we're playing the rest at Leigh.

Well if that should become true, at least if was TRUTH! so how many games at Leigh, will Big Mac tell us?

Langtree are the developers of a complex project that encompasses a number of stakeholders, and a number of income sources, over a number of sites. This project is not just about the Saints stadium, it's about the project as a whole. It's about the building of a superstore, the sale of Knowsley Road, the renovation and building of the site where Tesco currently sits. Why would Saints know everything about the project without it coming from the developers first? Saints as a club are reliant on Langtree for information, because Saints are not the developers.

You may have a point if the project was just about the stadium, but it isn't. As per usual your ignorance of subjects that can not be painted black and white is highlighted for all to see.