Perhaps we will hear summut tomorrow, do they still hold their board meetings on a Tuesday, they should have all the info from Fridays "watergate", surely then we should get some positive news.
Perhaps we will hear summut tomorrow, do they still hold their board meetings on a Tuesday, they should have all the info from Fridays "watergate", surely then we should get some positive news.
I have to almost apologetically add to this, who the hell thought it would be a good idea to design and build the stadium the way it is now?
I mean, what architect or structural designer has thought the 'half-finished' exposed-steelwork look is the way to go in 2012?
The mind boggles at the fact that 'professionals' are taking home money for making absolute blunders like this.
I don't even blame the club so much as I get the impression they've been led down the primrose path by supposed industry 'experts.'
Truly embarrassing.
Spoke to Eamonn today, was at Saints for something unrelated and bumped into him.
Basically, He absolutely agreed about the problems with the cladding and water issues but a few things he mentioned should answer some questions.
a ) I pointed out we are all proud of the achievement, mainly due him, and that we are reporting issues as we want the stadium to be the best in the league, nay country, and that he understand fans comments on the issues related to the stadium, and is thankful for them.
b ) The club are waiting for reports about the problems from both the broken roof and the Widnes game to be prepared over the next week or so BEFORE cladding is installed. It will be done though once the paperwork is completed. This also negates a possible press release or club statement on the construction work done and needing to be done.
c ) We need to be patient, as H&S and the above reports take time to put together and get agreed etc.
d ) A possible reduction of capacity for the Salford game to 17,000.
e ) The list of problems will be looked into by staff at the club.
The conversation was in no way a meeting and lasted no more than 5 minutes, Eamonn was HAPPY to talk about the C word, I didn't have a list of issues or time to go through them with him, and I would think that still needs to be coordinated.
Like Barry, I've also received a similar response from Saints:
Hi Philip,
Hope you are well.
The match was a great benefit to the club and fans as it shows us what we need to do ahead of the Salford game.
The fans now know where they need to go for a beer etc and we know things need fixing.
We will be looking at the PA - it's difficult to know how it will function with a full crowd - but we know now.
The West Stand will be cladded first, followed by the East Stand. This should prevent the wind ripping around the ground. We will then assess if any further work is needed.
I am glad on the whole you had an enjoyable experience.
Mike Appleton
Media Manager
Originally Posted by Despondent Dave
hinted at a possible reduction in capacity, after seeing fans being moved from the West Stand, lets hope the stewards are brought up to speed with fans changing stands, so we can get back to our full capacity.
This maybe why West Stand tickets have disappeared from the website for the first two games when they were on sale at the start of last week. Health and Safety concerns may be resulting in the club taking them off the market for the time being whilst waiting to assess capacity issues.
That's good news and all we can do now is watch this space. The reduced capacity would explain the inability to buy West stand tickets for the Salford game.
Right now how long until the season?? 11days? Come on the saints!!
oh also, whilst I think on, there will (for the salford game initially) be no movement between stands, it was apparant that people bought South Stand tickets only to stand in the west stand (bizarre as its cheaper to buy in the west) this won't be allowed for the Salford game.
Eamonn seemed pretty sad with this as he envisaged movement possible between stands to allow for people to meet up at half time, walk around freely etc.
Perfectly natural that people will do this if they are allowed to. If for example the West Stand is sold out but people want to stand there they'll buy South tickets and then move round to the West. Not good for overcrowding issues but makes sense to me. The amount of people who would do it however shouldn't cause too many issues overall.
Why oh why do we have to take a sledgehammer to crack a nut? If the stewards did the job they're paid for and checked tickets as people enter the stand then there would be no need to prevent movement around the concourse. Very disillusioned indeed if this becomes a permanent arrangement. When buying my season ticket one piece of crucial info we were given was that it was an open concourse and therefore I didn't bother too much when we decided to stay seated and my Nephew and Sister in Law chose to stand. We thought ah well we can meet up for a drink wherever.
He did say only "initially" for the Salford game, I got the feeling he wanted to resolve it properly and not waste the whole point of the open concourse, he seemed hopeful. Remember he instigated the concourse being like it is, and at the end of the day the buck falls with him whether its actually safe to do so or not, this may actually only relate to the South and West stands, to be honest, it wasnt in any detail.
spot on. agree one hundred percent. You couldnt make it up.
To be honest, i always felt that it would end up with the stands being cordoned off from each other. You can't expect stewards to be checking everyone's ticket on the terraces before and during the game or it could cause a dangerous amount of queuing, pushing, shoving and what not.
It's quite obvious that there are going to be some people who try to get into parts of the ground they should not be in. I confess, I did it with no issues on Friday and it should not be so easy.
It might be a shame but health and safety issues always have got to come first.
THIS YEAR LENDING SUPPORT TO:- St. Helens RLFC, Manchester City, Celtic, Alemannia Aachen, Steps 1 to 6 Non-League Football