Massive backward step for me. Hope it's not a permanency. I was sold a season ticket on the basis of an open concourse whereby I could meet up with others at half time and before the game. Much as I like the Saints Gold I might just be persuaded to take my pre match drinkies elsewhere such as The George or Witherspoons.

Cricket grounds allow free movement, as do rugby union grounds, the stoop being a fine example.

Wembley stadium allows you to walk around the stadium.

Only soccer due to its hooligan problem has for a long time penned people into certain parts of the ground.

I hope these barriers are just there for certain matches, as i see no reason when there are only 11k on v the likes of Catalan and Harlequins that free movement isnt allowed.

Doesn't that show how far we've come already, when we talk of a crowd of 11,000 as being 'only 11k'.



At the stadium tour last Saturday we were shown what looked like big gates at the North West corner that had not yet been fitted, rather than just the webbed barriers I'd seen previously.

Nearly 15k sold according to redvee's tweet. Compared to KR it's excellent I suppose, a couple of thousand increase on your usual opening day, but I was hoping for a sellout.

If you've not bought your ticket yet, or are considering staying at home because it's cold, but a ticket now FFS.

I know its not in your nature to be positive but as I posted on Red Vee to my knowledge this will be by far the biggest home gate for a fixture against Salford probably in [uover half a century[/u. When we consider that Salford appear to have sold less than 300 tickets its augers well for when the bigger and better supported teams are in town. This is for a game televised live as well which is usually a factor. A crowd of over 15,000 guaranteed already is a magnificent result.

I can't understand where the extra 2000 places are. I went online to buy mine 3 weeks ago and wanted one for myself and my wife but there were only about a couple of dozen scattered about in the alloacted seating sections meaning we wouldn't be sat together so I had to go for the unalocated sections which is not what I really wanted.

The spaces will be in the unallocated seats, especially at the North-East and South -East of the ground and in the East terrace. In the Widnes friendly no one was sat there until they moved people from the West stand into those sections.

Cheers. I'll just have to go early which is not in my nature, used to getting there just as the teams come out. lol

Over now 15K according to the club email.

when I was at the ticket office earlier in the week to pick up at long last my season ticket, they were telling a couple of old dears that they only had East stand tickets left and that was on Monday!

We will do 16K easily now.

It has been suggested elsewhere that 200 were moved from the West stand due to overcrowding during Widnes game. Total attendance 11924. 200 as percentage of this = 1.6%. Such a minority of errant supporters and we end up with gates round the concourse. Sledgehammer-nut!
Bloke from Liverpool went with my brother to said match never been in an RL ground before and first thing he commented was "there couldn't be another Hillsborough here with all the room round the concourse and escape routes"
Health & safety think again.

Lets not forget we could still have a couple of hundred turn up on the night. (not everyone checks the net). They will all have to go to the ticket office and buy before entry.

Ok it may not be a sell out, but when you have a double first night, Widnes Salford, people will pick and choose which one they go for, not everyone at Widnes will be there tomorrow night.

It's all money in the bank the widnes game is a nice little money spinner as season tickets did not cover it so there is £240k in revenue before anyone touched a pint or ordered some fries.

Essentially they've moved the Salford fans into seats instead of the East (away) terrace and have kept that stand for non season tickets holding Saints fans who want to stand, the West (home) terrace being limited to season ticket holders for this game. They will presumably do the same when we play other teams with a low number of travelling fans i.e. london, catalan.

As for the segregation, as I have mentioned before on other threads, I think once the novelty of the new ground and the subsequent desire of fans to see it from all perspectives, wears off, there won't be a problem with stand swapping. If they stuck a couple of stewards at each vomitary on the concourse side either to check tickets or as a simple visual deterrant they won't need barriers imo.