If Wigan did anything, we'd be up in arms! Just going to their place and paying a penny into their coffers means arms are guaranteed to be up! Besides, we often have to pay more at away games. Wakey charges £1 more than Saints and their ground is possibly even worse than ours.

But when one of our lot can clearly afford to stay in a hotel but whines and whinges about paying an extra fiver because of a local arrangement made by another club it is plain embarrassing. Most Saints fans won't give a toss and hopefully people on the London end won't take what has been said by the few on here as representative of the silent many.

It's the principle of it, and I do not blame Saints fans for being annoyed about it. I can afford to stay in a hotel for your games, it doesn't mean I would be happy to pay £50 to get into your ground.

There seems to be plenty of Saints fans who do give a toss already, in fact you seem to be one of the only people desperately defending it.

Spot on.

If we forced people to pay £25.00 for a Wigan/Latics double header then RLFANS would go into meltdown, especially on Red Vee.

For once we agree.

And also, don't forget that although we get poor gates, there are plenty of home supporters who are being forced into paying an extra £10 to watch their team. Smart move. I wonder if St Helens supporters would be fine with a St Helens/Sale double header.

I can see the point that the original poster is making and have some sympathy, but isn`t the argument getting a bit OTT. Quins RL cannot do anything about it as we are just tenants at an RU ground, as has been pointed out oh so many times by fans of other clubs. If it makes the away fans feel any better, Quins RL fans who are not season ticket holders are also expected to cough up the extra.
No point in comparing the `matchday experience` or facilities/entertainment available at each grounds as this argument falls on deaf ears.
Sorry to say that this thread like so many others has just degenerated into a `Let`s have another dig at Quins RL`...........for those Saints fans that do decide to attend......sorry about the extra expense but there is naff all we can do about it and I hope you enjoy the day.
Jesus.....even the Quins RU fans are having a go at us now on their message boards about our crowd numbers!!.....if they were to put a toe in the water, give the RL side a chance and attend a match or two, perhaps we would not be in the position we find ourselves.......AAArrrrrggghhhhhhhhh

So what's happened is that the Union club, under the fake guise of "Rugby United", have taken control of our match-day and Quins RL are being forced to comply. I'm afraid that the partnership type agreement under which we first moved to The Stoop is dead and buried.

Arguments about value for money at Saints ground have nothing at all to do with this.

Is this debate or whinging from Saints fans now getting a little Over The Top? it is £24 for a good seat in the stand at Knowsley Road, just £1 cheaper? - again we Quins RL have handled the situation badly, just wait for next weeks rugby press letter pages!

This is the part i cant understand if there is as claimed going to be close on two hours between games, then wont 90% of the union fans been gone by then.
Lets be honest we are all upset about watching a game that 80% of us dont follow(100% in St's case), but i read on the union forum that a fare few of them wont be hanging a round for our game anyway and i expect leeds fans who they playing that day wont be hanging round either for reasons of travelling home.

What i like to know is union away fans in the same stand is away fans are for our games . If so lets be honest again i wouldnt think they(Leeds) have the greatest away support (im not sure on this im just going on fact that Leeds is a League city more then a union). So if they dont have a big following then surely that stand would be by the time our game starts about 80% empty.

If all above is the case then i cant see why if Saints fans who only want to turn up for league game cant get in for £15. the club only have to do what they do now and let them use the one gate for away fans at that end of the ground. And all those who have hotels booked im sure can find something to do until game time (i.e pop in a pub and watch grand national).

And before anyone asks i dont think i will be at both games. Its not because i dont like union, its because im a disabled season ticket holder and i be better off waiting to come to our game for simple reasons of trying to park (never get a parking space anyway as is always full but thats another story ),but the main fact will be that i never get in the disabled balcony with the union lot being there. so they better be gone when i get there.

Other thing that worrys me about this game. Is fact its on Sky, i just wonder how bad its going to look half way though when the union lot who do stay get fed up or need to get going home and all you can see on tv is fans looking as if walking out, that surely not going to look good for the Club.

This is a problem, especially as we can't get people to the games at a lower price anyway!

What the club should do is allow for tickets to be sold on the gate for £15 if they are purchased after a set time (E.g. when the Union game is over) - however this wouldn't work for those buying in advance from St Helens etc.

The hard part for the club in their defence is how do they know which Union season ticket holders or even casual Union fans will decide after a few beers that they'd like to stay for the League fixture too? This is the problem with any double header...they assume that £25 is a good deal for 2 matches (which in theory it is) However, as already mentioned on here, not everyone wants to see both games. Where do they draw that line? I'd suggest if someone has a practical solution that they recommend it to the club (not just a general email or telephone contact - send it to the entire club board) so that something can be done now...instead of just complaining about it.

I personally will be watching the game at home on Sky, not because of some protest or anyway...its just a hell of a lot cheaper in these hard financial times (on that note, anyone got a balaclava and shotgun I can borrow??) I however do fear for another bumper crowd like we saw against Hudders though!

I made a comment on one of the other boards (VT I think) about this. I am not a Quins fans or a Saints fan but to me it seems more to be a case of Quins RL getting ill treated than Saints fans. You are supposed to be in a partnership to benefit both clubs. The 2 hour gap though will virtually ensure that the Union fans don't stay to watch the RL so you miss out on a potential group of new fans. This seems to me a way for the RU club to do something that on the face of it (a double header to get fans to watch both clubs is how it is billed) benefits both clubs but that pretty much ensures it will fail for the RL club's purposes. They maintain the impression of an effort on their part while actually doing next to nothing other than making what may have been an expansive and open game be played on a cut up pitch in front of a TV audience with an attendance figure announced that for all to see will not be wholly accurate thereby hurting the reputation of your club.

From what I have seen most of the Saints fans booked on coaches wont even get to the ground to see the Union match but still have to pay the £10 more than normal.

After this the sooner QRL get out of the stoop the better.

Actually I forgot to mention that the lady I spoke to at Quins this morning said that the Saints game now kicks off at 5-30pm which means there is only one and a half hours between games and that logistically that is not long enough to separate the games.

And go where? In case you haven't noticed there isn't a queue of people with stadiums at the office door.

Well, yes, but that is because it's Wigan! And soccer! Jeez - that combo is enough to send any Saints fan into meltdown!

The two just don't compare. Honest.

But I'm actually only being asked to pay a measely £6 more than I would to get into my own ground and it's a one-off. If Saints put on a double header with their (newly formed!) girls team and charged £6 extra then would you be mortally offended? It's possible but I wouldn't expect you go ballistic on Saints RLFans board about it. You may be a bit miffed (as they say up north) and you may complain to the club, but I don't think you would get all hysterical and cancel your hotel booking, etc, etc. (Incidentally, we would never do a double header with either RU or soccer because they are all too far away - there is only RL in St Helens, along with an amateur soccer team who rely on their freebie at our ground to keep going)


Don't be persuaded into thinking that the fans on here represent plenty of Saints fans. There are those on RedVee, for instance, who don't see a problem with it. I am sure there will be those who will post on the Saints board here who don't see a problem with it. They just accept it as a one-off. It really is no big deal IMO and to me, when people can readily afford to stay in a hotel but are going ballistic over a pathetic £6 extra, it's just plain embarrassing.

PS: I'm not 'desperately defending' anything. I'm a reasonable person and I think I am responding in a reasonable fashion. I'm one of those people who will not get there in time for the RU match. So I'm even paying for something I have no chance of seeing. However, I'm still not complaining and actually I'm happy to give my support to the London cause (whether or not Quins RL have managed it wisely) while also wanting to support my team. Given the parochial nature of some northern fans - a factor which I think is heavily influencing some Saints' fans' reactions on here - I would have thought you would have appreciated that response rather than criticising it. But I live and I learn!