They are building it much faster than I thought they would!

not the same firm who were building Halifax

The basic steelwork and concrete steps takes no time at all.

What takes time is the fit out.

I think your stadium will be finished before the end of the SL season. Even if they say its only due to be completed by November.

Anyone know when the steelwork is starting at Saints? Some troll was really boasting on here a couple of months back about the new St Helens stadium being well ahead of Salford's.

I have tried to look on their stadium website on occasions but their webcam doesn't seem to be working. The latest update was about the piling on February 21st and there are no images showing steelwork on the Saints stadium forum.

I know it's totally irrelevant and not a race but I do find it a quite amusing that Salford's appears to be progressing quicker after the poster came on here really gloating about their new stadium being well further on than our's.

Steelwork going up today as scheduled , piccys on RedVee
cant be bothered with a "my stadium is going up quicker than your stadium" arguement myself we both need new homes and we are getting them

Quite true as I said in my previous post it's totally irrelevant and not a race. I was just surprized that a Saints fan came on here and made the effort to boast about something like this. It was childish and a bit like a kidd going na na na na na!

Excellent progress being made. We will be in our iconic stadium before we know it.

Iconic?

Perhaps he's being Ironic?

so we'll be in our ironic stadium. That sounds much better

Glad you said it. Sick of hearing all the rubbish about our "iconic" stadium. Well, I suppose that depends on what you believe the word "iconic" means.

(Not getting at any contributors on here. This is a word used frequently by the club so it's understandable that others will use it too.)

I think the word has since changed to 'Noniconic'

but who cares it's a new stadium in a great location and still looks half decent compared to the tiring old lady.

Agree matey. I would've loved us to have the old stadium we wanted, but I'll happily settle for the new one It's just a shame it's not that little bit different to make it stand out a bit.

Don't get me wrong I think the main stand will look fantastic with all the glass on view from both outside and inside the stadium. It's just a shame that the other three sides of phase one will look a bit naff in comparison.

I think one thing that will make the stadium stand out from others is it's location with tens of thousands of people seeing it from the motorway everyday. A bit like the Reebok but closer to the motorway and on a much busier stretch with an elevated view from the bridge. It will certainly put the name of the club in a lot of people's minds as they pass by.

Cool. One day we may have a profile as high as that of Walsall FC.

Let's hope that if the west stand seats are to be visible from the bridge they get the word "SALFORD" across them.

So you don't see the potential of being in a location like this in comparison to the back streets of Weaste?

Walsall have always been hampered by the fact they are competing against four other big football clubs nearby who have a much richer history than themselves. Villa average 42K, Birmingham and Wolves 30K and WBA 25K. Would you want to watch Walsall if you lived in Birmingham?

Do you honestly believe Bolton would still be in the Premier League if they were still playing at Burnden Park?

No probably not, but I don't think the positioning of the stadium next to the motorway helped them increase their attendance either. At least not with drive by's thinking "hmmmmmmm I might just pop in there and see what it's all about"

That's the key point though. The Reebok is so eye catching. It's aesthetically brilliant whereas Walsall, despite being in a prime location have a stadium that fails to impress. Furthermore, Bolton also compete against some pretty useful clubs in GM and unlike Walsall, have achieved relative success due to the combination a genuinely iconic staduium in a prime location.

Oh, I don't know. I reckon the location of a leisure facility in combination with way it looks is a big selling point. The TC and Chill factore are two examples of this.
I reckon it's a case of planting the seed visually so that when we advertise to the potential newbies, as we do at the Willows, they immediately determine that "yes, it's easy to get to and yes, it looks like a place I'd want to spend Friday evening."

I think it's very different for the TC and chill factor especially. I mean Look at it It's just plain weird and it has snow in it. Thats enough to get people wanting to go and look at it. It's something very new and exciting that they normally wouldn't be able to do.

A square RL stadium or even Boltons for that matter will only encourage people with a passing interest in that particular team/ sport. And footie/ rugby being quite tribal in origin/ nature it won't encourage people to come along unless it's their own team playing there.

If it was the iconic stadium being built , but belonged to Swinton or even Sale sharks would it make you want to go?
I think we all know the answer is NO.

I am sure they must have attracted some people who never went to Burnden Park. What the Reebok did for Bolton was raise the profile of the club which helped them attract more sponsorship and a better caliber of player. It gave them something to sell that was sellable.

And there's where the hope lies in the assumption that we can't tap into a completely new market. There are a sizeable number of people with a passing interest in Salford RL. As we're all too aware from the countless debates on here regarding conversations we've almost all had with people that used to watch Salford. Unfortunately, people in general prefer the edge of town retail park style entertainment venues. Places with no real character but plenty of parking spaces and fast food outlets.

Suppose the question remains as to whether a square stadium can draw the passing interest back or not.

It certainly didn't do Warrington any harm.

Just to add something to that: Warrington had already increased their attendances significantly at Wilderspool before moving to the HJ. It's a fallacy that the new stadium doubled their attendances overnight.

I appreciate that some progress was being made whilst at Wilderspool but it's a fact that their attendances increased by 60% when they moved to the HJ. Warrington added about 4000 to their gates. Hull's gates increased by 72% and 4700 supporters when they moved to the KC.

This isn't something I've dreamed up it was from an article I read in the Rugby League World magazine last year.