agreed but shouldn't we,the paying public expect decent facilities plus decent customer care ? The best french RU/RL stadium I've found so far is Stade Toulousain - easy acccess from the motorway,good grub,good booze,friendly staff & good facilities,what more could you ask for ?

Better than the other place then , at 5 euro for a can not even a pint

An atmosphere? Something distinctly lacking in contemporary, corporate and clinical stadia.

Better than the other place then , at 5 euro for a can not even a pint

Newest age wise, all the ones you mention are old stadia as you well know, no building yet then...

No rush now eh now Wakeys has been sent for public inquiry.

So I reckon I'll still have my sig until at least the middle of 2012, and I should then be removing it as Saints ground should be ready. I'm fairly confident the Salford Fairy Tale Stadium will not be ready before Saints ground

Complaints to Events Management Catering, think Fax also have them now and they are just as bad there.

I've mentioned this before but it'd be great to see the SMC do things differently on the catering front at the new stadium. A freshly prepared, healthy-ish menu with quality ingredients (eg. the cheese, ham and salad rolls you get at Italian football, good quality bratwurst, jacket potatoes perhaps) with a more imaginative drinks selection (a local ale, decent continental lager, I'm sure there must be a local company that makes soft drinks (Ben Shaws?)) would show a little bit of leadership and initiative, especially if SCC could get involved from a health initiative perspective (yes I know bratwurst isn't the healthiest food but it has to be better than a death burger).

We can do without another identikit stadium that serves boiled hot dogs and over-priced watered down Carling.

Quality idea. With thinking like that you'll go far. Perhaps, perhaps even as far as London...

Quote ="DemonUK"Newest age wise, all the ones you mention are old stadia as you well know, no building yet then... No rush now eh now Wakeys has been sent for public inquiry. So I reckon I'll still have my sig until at least the middle of 2012, and I should then be removing it as Saints ground should be ready. I'm fairly confident the Salford Fairy Tale Stadium will not be ready before Saints ground'" Saints ground should be finished by no later than the end of October 2011. Work at Saints has been ongoing now since the end of August. You can watch the stadium being built on this website. Live webcam. www.the-new-sthelens-stadium.co.uk/

Quote ="DemonUK"Newest age wise, all the ones you mention are old stadia as you well know, no building yet then... No rush now eh now Wakeys has been sent for public inquiry. So I reckon I'll still have my sig until at least the middle of 2012, and I should then be removing it as Saints ground should be ready. I'm fairly confident the Salford Fairy Tale Stadium will not be ready before Saints ground'" Saints ground should be finished by no later than the end of October 2011. Work at Saints has been ongoing now since the end of August. You can watch the stadium being built on this website. Live webcam. www.the-new-sthelens-stadium.co.uk/

Strange that , I drove past 3 weeks ago , and apart from the road works nothing was happening , if they want it finished by this time next year they are pushing things , from what I have been told they wont actually play there until 2013

Quite a lot has been happening on site as the photos from Gruntfuttock and myself show.
Though of course nothing in the past week due to it being christmas

That website by the way is the construction companies website, its nothing to do with Saints.
In daytime once the snow has cleared you can see the base for the pitch laid out on the webcam.

Building the physical stadium is pretty much the straight forward part. That is due to start at the end of January when foundations are laid.
As things stand they have levelled the land, clearing all the toxic materials away. Filled in the mine workings and diverted gas mains and other utilities. This all after they demolished the former glass works.

Putting up the stadium and Tescos itself should not take that long.
Warringtons entire stadium project took just 8 months from clearing the land to finishing the stadium.
Saints stadium is contracted for 14 months starting August 2010. Therefore if they dont finish by the end of next October then the builders will be out of pocket as penalty clauses will kick in.

Despite it seemingly being ahead?

That gives 3 to 4 weeks to complete all of the piling, complete all of the pile caps, install all underground drainage and service ducts then pour the foundations. Your correct installing precast concrete to form the stadium structure is the easy bit and will move quite quickly but there is a lot of work to do before that starts and it won't happen at the end of January.

Sorry bit of a misunderstanding due to the way ive worded things by using the word "foundations", to try to make things understandable to as many people as possible.

Tecnnically its the piling that is due to start at the end of January.

so how do we go about building a stadium with built-in 'atmosphere' ? atmosphere is surely what WE make it ?

try the Gilbert Brutus when the french fans let loose - that's atmosphere ! in their case it's passion (usually intimidating passion) talking - maybe you are confusing 'atmosphere' with 'passion' ?

Before we get into some daft interpretation of language debate, please answer my question as to why the four teams I stated earlier, appear to have less of an atmosphere at their new stadiums as opposed to their old stadiums? If you don't know, just say so and stop deflecting the question.

stadium design, these all have high stand roofs which allow the noise to drift away upwards, a typical example is OT, the visiting fans have a low roof which means that their noise can be heard, the higher the roof at the lower the noise that gets conscentrated towards the pitch.

I haven't the foggiest why the atmosphere is different at these new stadia - you tell me ? I haven't been to any of the grounds you quoted since the 80s so I have no idea how they are nowadays but I'll take your word for it if say there is a big difference.
All i'm saying is that a new stadium doesn't have to mean there is no atmosphere - I repeat Stade Toulousain on a RU matchday is buzzing - Gilbert Brutus has an atmosphere because the fans make it happen
So,I ask you again,what do we do to change the atmosphere at the new grounds ? Isn't the whole idea to improve conditions for players & fans alike ?
BTW,i've been to Knowsley Road in the good old days of decrepit stands and smelly bogs etc when the Saints have had an off day and the lack of atmosphere has been like a graveyard
I think you have romantic ideas of the good old days - face the fact that the game is changing so you either change with it or wallow in the past,smelly bogs 'n all & inadequate facilities and all that

also aided by the lack of prawn sandwich in their mouth



lots of reasons why new stadiums have less atmosphere. high roof, fans more dispersed in seats and not congregated, etc. - but its also about attarcting new people and they might not be so vocal.

In RL in particular, it's about attracting more families who are invariably quieter that large groups of blokes, who had previously been our almost exclusive target audience.

Any updates at all. ???

They were busy on site again this morning when I went passed, lots of heavy machinery and the like...

Anyone know if the pilling been done yet and when the foundations are likely to be done?

Sure I heard there was plans for a webcam??

There are a lot of people here in the staff room looking busy, but I doubt if any work is being done