When's the announcement on Newmarket?

Do you mean when do Wakey fans find out if it's got the green light? Report submitted to Secretary of the State on March 17th approximately, although this will be subject to change and will formally be announced after the end of the Inquiry, I believe.

cheers fella

If you look it says the same for all the listed sites. What that is all saying is that with the others WR has been rejected for housing to be placed in the SPA, i.e. Wheldon Road is now part of the Castleford Riverside 'project'. This means WR, along with all the other sites listed, can be used for either employment opportunity or housing, not specifically one or the other and the area will be developed for both. And in this case it clearly states it would meet part of the housing requirement. It doesn't mean WR has to become housing but part of the area covered will as Wakefield council HAS to find suitable land in the area to build housing on. So whichever site gets in for the more profitable employment side first then the chances of another site in the same area also being granted planning permission for employment are greatly diminished and so housing would be more likely. And as you'd imagine every site want to make the maximum profit from their land so all are after that holy grail, especially with land prices for housing so low. So right now there is a major battle going on in the area with some big hitters involved and competition is fierce with expressions of interest on many of the sites.

Season ticket holders were given their first opportunity to see inside Saints new stadium on Friday night. Langtree Park was opened up for two hours and the team did an open training session for the second hour (getting battered by hail, snow, rain and wind in the process!).

The fitting out is still ongoing but the shop is now finished and open for business. There are clearly teething troubles - one of the roller shutters for the turnstiles failed to open for instance - but I guess testing everything is one reason to have a ramp up event.

A few thousand STH turned up and we were free to wander around the ground as the concourse is continuous. There were no services available as they weren't ready in time (this event was required by the Council for H&S rather than initiated by Saints) but the flashy new bridge was finished with its fancy lighting. Very impressive and a superb entrance on to the whole site.

The stadium itself is awesome. It feels huge inside and the pitch is pristine. I'm in the standing end but a relative who is in one of the seated stands told me there is ample leg room and space between seats. We have toilets now too! And they work as well!

I'm really looking forward to the first match there.

I was working in St Helens last week , that bridge is a ' sexy ' design , big chunk of bent wire holding it up

If I've got this right, Saints new stadium is 18k right?

Have they built it so if and when it needs expanding, it can be done pretty easy, or is it always going to be the new capacity it is?

Cheers.

There would bo no need what so ever to increase the stadium capacity as it will only be filled maybe 2-3 times a season.
Capacity is spot on for me with the average attendence next year should be pushing 14-15000 as we've nearly sold 9000 season tkts so far?

The one good thing in this stadium is it belongs to the club and any money that the stadium generates goes to repaying our debt? BUT ITS OURS

Sounds good mate and I think they'll average 14-15k myself, but just say they start averaging 16-17k, what then?

I'm sure it's a problen Saints won't mind having if the stadium isn't big enough.It would be a wonderful achievment to average 17K

Bloody oath it would and I hope that happens.

Does anyone know if the foundations put in are able to withstand an upgrade?

What about Salfords new ground while I'm at it?

The capacity at the moment is a projected 18,000 but I believe it could be increased to 19,000 plus.The end terraces have around 3900 stated capacites to satisfy H&S regs but apparantly these areas are big enough to take more spectators than currently stated.

Saints are erring on the side of caution here because Warrington's first attendance when the HJ opened was 14,200 but got reduced to 13,024 after the first match due to a few overcrowding problems.

Cheers mate.

It's designed to be expanded, with two extra possible phases. Up to around 20k if I remember rightly - not a chance we'll need that much, though!