Indeed. There are still too many grounds which don't meet any kind of modern standard, in reality.

It's good to see those west of the Pennines taking a bit of a lead.

The new place looks very good indeed.
I'll reserve judgement until I've been.
I do hope the terracing is not too shallow where you are always faced by the back of the head of the individual in front of you.
KR had shallow terracing as has Leeds. The HJ West stand is very good and I hope Langtree Park will be similar.

I think its more a case of Wire being critical of ours when theres is a soulless lego brick stadium. Its still great compared to most of Yorkshire facility wise just that its a bit plain and bland.

short sighted how? Next season I would expect the Saints, Leeds and Wire matches and whichever game is selected as the Big One to be over 18k. That's actually quite a significant percentage of our regular season league matches.

IL has set out his long term goal of increasing our average crowds significantly over the 16k we already get.

We couldn't do that with Saints' stadium, and it isn't short sighted to point that out. And the bigger club thing is just a fact.

credit where credit is due the stadium looks brilliant and there is no comparison to nosey road, which to put it lightly was a tired hole.

Both teams deserve the better surroundings that they are both in and it is good to see clubs giving fans better facilities.

I think you have a pretty valid point with regards to the size of the stadium not suiting Wigan. However, i think it it had all the corners (I dont believe langtree does) this would give say another 3k, so a total of 21k which i think would be great for Wigan.

This, I imagine, would mean higher income for wigan as no rent and all hospitality earnings etc, and would only lose out on around 4k literally a couple of times a year.

I think most wigan fans would love that. out of curiosity, is there anywhere to build such a venue in wigan available?

We have the biggest and best stadium, as befits the biggest and best. We can't fill it so often, but then, you can't you fill yours.

We have done this to death on this board, much as we would like our own place, it ain't going to happen, and we all know this.

The only two places that I know were mooted were by Junction 25 of the M6 and on Billinge Road Pemberton.

Both IMO would be unsuitable as they are too far from the town centre.

The Langtree has two corners filled in (they are the family areas). One of the other corners has the big screen and scoreboard and the fourth is an empty space with big gates, being left to facilitate events stuff to get through. I would imagine that will include all the runners in the St Helens 10K on 11 March 2012 (in support of Steve Prescott Foundation plus others) who will be starting and ending the race at the stadium.

You dont "have", you pay Mr DW to play there, Mr DW has it.

Biggest, probably, best? Nope, league table and more importantly (sadly) grandfinal says otherwise.

Can we fill ours, not all the time no but i never said we could so dont really see the point in that little dig. My point was i think an alternative wigan ground would be better and just asked if there was a location that would fit the bill.

I don't know why leeds is in that group. In the last few years there's only been one leeds game with a gate over the 18,000 mark which was actually the first big one in 2009. Undoubtedly Saints and Wire games would get 20+.

Lets be honest about this... Had the DW stadium been built just for the rugby would it have been a 25,000 seater stadium?.... I personally don't think it would have been. Why spend so much on a stadium thats going to get filled twice a year.

I think its great that we do have such a big stadium that can accommodate more fans. And IL has rightly so made use of it with the marketing and things like the big one. Having the average attendance that we do have now is great, but i don't ever see it going up dramatically from the 16k that it is now. certainly not above the 20k mark anyway. as awesome as it would be, i just cant see it.

I thought the whole point of this thread was too congratulate saints on getting a great new ground anyway rather than arguing over who is the biggest club.

Wasn't Aspull talked about a good few years back? I did hear they sized the area when talking about building the DW.

Is a great ground, the one thing i dont like about the HJ lack of corners, i know we're half way to sorting that but i think it will make it look so much better when all four are done.

Even the name of the saints ground is good, doesn't sound like corporate sponsorship.

I hadn't heard that, and again it's a long way from the town centre.

I do!



They were awful most of last season and brought hardly any fans to the DW and we still saw a crowd of 16,426 in July.

Now that the Whinos are champions we can expect a few more of their fans to make the apparently long trek across the M62 and I think more Wiganers will turn out to see us take on the champions than turned out to see us take on an apparently bad side (though the game marked the beginning of the Whinos return to form).

An increase of only 10% will take us to 18k (18068.6, to be precise).

Simple.

Wigan
Wire
Saints
Widnes
Salford
Leigh

All clubs with top class stadia built and available for Rugby League matches in 2012, venues only Hull FC and Huddersfield (with possibly Halifax & Doncaster) to match.

Leeds still have improvements to make. The fact five thousand people stand uncovered in the rain in 2012 is disgraceful IMO.


Bradford
Hull KR
Cas
Wakey

Not up to scratch.

in 2006 we got 17,800. in 2007 , a year leeds where crowned champions the attendance was 14,557. in 2008, a year the rhino's where again crowned champions, the attendance was 14,911, In 2009, for the first ever "Big One" if I remember correctly, we did a great job and got in 20,000, the last 2 years its been 17,000 ish. also "that" playoff game got 12000, although not a great indication as we all know a lot less turn up for playoff games.. Even if we get an increase of home fans that doesn't suggest to me that we would be out of place in an 18,000 seater stadium.

I hope attendances do continue to grow to the point where we are getting 25.000 every week. But i just dont think it will ever happen, not in the near future anyway.

I'm not saying I want away from the stadium. It's great having a large stadium to use. But it isn't "our" stadium. And thats why what saints have done is great. I cant think of any modern stadium built just for rugby league that has a bigger capacity with the facilities saints now have. You could say hull, but again thats the same as the DW in that it's built with a football side who have been in the premiership in mind.

good friday shall be a good day! looking forward to it already

Agreed, Leeds, Bradford and HKR still have big improvements to make and Cas and Wakey need new grounds altogether. Nice to see all the sides on this side of the pennines in modern facilities though!

Talks are ongoing with Leeds city council ,the RFL league ,Leedsrlfc ,and Leeds united AFC about building a 50.000 all seater stadium on the Vacant Tetley's brewery site,this will be the rfl national stadium.Leeds united would play at the stadium ,but Leeds rhinos would be the main club and the rfl HQ would also be situated there.the only thing would be it would be south of the river and a little too close to Hunslet.The hotel that is being built at Elland road is only an investment for the owners of the Stadium because all that area is up for developement in the not so distant future.Do not slag me I am not trolling I am only repeating what is going round

If it's true what your saying and it is at the discussion stage it would be around 7-12 years till the stadium is played in, would be a massive boost to the sport to have our own national stadium shame it would be in Leeds though.

Obviously I dont live in Leeds now,but I am still very much in touch.The cheif excecutive of Yorkshire county Cricket club has sold out from his company which would give him funds to pay of the loan debt to leeds city council to buy their part of the ground and possibly have enough to buy out Caddick for the rugby side.I am not trolling only going what is going round .Leedsrl were disappointed when the had to scale down the plans for the south stand so its put on hold?people are putting two and two together

Nice to See Stains FIOS again with this sharing their ground with a football team stuff.

We share with a Premier League team (for now)

They'll share with a non-league NW Counties team.

Saints don't share they rent the ground out to gain income. Same as Warrington did with Liverpool reserves.

Yup. Wigan/Leeds Andy is a bit slow on the uptake on that one. He can't quite get the difference between sharing a ground and a glorified pub team bringing in revenue to the owners, who are Saints.