I went for a pint in town with my lad before the game, then got to the stadium at about twenty past seven. We were talking to a young bloke in the queue who said all of the staff behind the bars were asked if they were Saints supporters at the interview. Whoever hired them was worried that Saints supporters might sneak off to watch the game instead of working. He also said they had been given just one hour of training before the game. He could be right because several of them weren't used to pouring a pint by holding the glass at an angle. They'll get the hang of it in time. The concourse was wet, but I saw no puddles. We queued for 25 minutes, which I'm certain will be reduced as the staff become more experienced.
Once in the West Stand, it was pretty full and preople were standing in the gangways. The stewards, who I thought did a fine job, asked us to move to the North Stand, which we did. The view of the pitch from the West and North stands was very good. Just like at Widnes, Warrington, Hull, Huddersfield, Doncaster, Leigh and Wigan in fact. The more good stadia in rugby league, the better. What is very good as far as I'm concerned is being able to walk to the bottom of our road and being able to get the bus to St Helens town centre. We'll definately be back!

Staff will learn, no big issue there, except one did forget to ask me for any money, which was nice, shame i'm to honest!

The concorses were pretty bad to be fair, proper puddles. The concrete has been layed so that it doesnt fall to the grids, which isnt bright.
If it does get mostly cladded it'll be much better

on the whole though, its bloody brilliant!

Which bar was they giving out free drinks? I'm less honest and ail take anything for free.

around the middle of the north stand, i got 4 fosters, they asked if there was anything else, i said "you could always take my money!"

I'm not going round the north stand, to wet round there and to open to the weather for me, I'll stay in my nice dry posh seat in the south stand.

come to the darkside, we have free beer!

To wet over that side.

I don't see any problems with people moving around the concourse before the game and at half time. That's the unique nature of the stadium. It's the stewards job to ensure that you possess the right ticket for the right stand/terrace. As I understand it you could scan in at any turnstile allowing you freedom to roam. I want to be able to migrate and have a pint with others that I know in different areas of the ground. Granted if there were hoards of opposition fans wanting to move around the concourse to cause trouble then implement crowd control measures but generally most RL fans are a reasonable bunch.

It seems strange both West and East terrace tickets are no longer available online.

I suspect this is because they are reviewing the actual terrace capacities after the stewards decided on safety grounds to move people from the west terrace into the North stand.

It appears that the West standers all decided to stand in the South West corner( which is fully clad), to ensure they kept dry, rather than brave the exposed North west corner. As a result the Southern part of the stand was overcrowded, while the Northern side had room to move around.

Such things can reduce the stands "S" factor and therefore its actual capacity.

Wouldn't surprise me if the stadium capacity is reduced by the safety authorities for the Salford game to 16k, with the terrace design capacities cut by 1000 each, until Saints can show they can adequately manage the terraces to their design capacity.

I imagine the various parties have been sat around a table arguing things out as to if it was a case of stewards being over cautious on first night, and thereby doing a good job, or if it was that the stand cant take its design capacity, which is a more serious issue.

Warrington are a good example, they had massive problems on opening night with people locked out of the ground despite having tickets, and lack of room on the terraces. As a result they had the capacity cut for safety reasons from 14500 to 13k.
I think it might therefore be better to go with a slightly reduced capacity for the Salford match. Then show they can meet that capacity, before ramping things up a notch for later games once they have shown they can handle such crowds in a safe manner.

There is lots of Free parking after 6pm on well lit streets in and around the town centre,,,,,within a 10-15 minute walk to the ground.

You will pass plenty of pubs and food outlets en route to the ground,,,,,KFC (Nr Matalan) for home fans or McDondals for the Away fans ( South side ) .

I struggled to find a programme seller ( not very visable) , and no clear outlet for that great RL swiz the Golden Gamble.

Cues for Beer/food were busy to say the least and not much room left for folks simply needing the loo,,,,,Also the loos under South stand were very crowded at half time and a bit diss organised ,god help us when their is a full house if you want a slash and a pint...

Why are there no sweet/popcorn/soft drink outlets for kids ( FFS Cineworld in town charges £4 for a large popcorn which costs Sweet FA to produce ) or are we not catering for youngsters/ new blood/ future supporters ?

My kids will be new comers to Rugby Leauge and were excited with what they saw,,,,so my choice to buy a season ticket for us was not waisted after all.

Regards,

Jock,,,

PS, We loved to see the history posters inside each concourse but how about covering the outter bar walls with murals of players from the recent past.

First game experience 8/10

CM, is it possible the capicity could be reduced permeament if the health & saftey there on Friday feel we didn't perform or handle the game well enough?

Abosolutely, and think it probably will be and a good thing too, I think we need to get it right before someone is injured. Especially the southwest corner problem, of course if they put in the cladding in the west stand first then they be as far round as the northwest corner by the match, ifs and buts which might stop the problem occuring.

I think it is more the case that the turnstiles are in the southwest corner where the majority of fans walk in and up? I certainly did, i didn't pick that corner because it had shelter i just walked up the first lot of steps?
If the turnstiles were in the middle of the West stand they would not have had a bottleneck in the southwest corner as shown on Friday night?