We haven't been in a stadium with decent, revenue generating facilities for over 20 years either (quite the opposite, we've been in a cash draining ramshackle pit), so not sure what your point is.

When did Wigan last post a profit before moving to the JJB? Or Hull before moving to the KC? Or Wire before moving to the HJ?

History suggests that better facilities for fans = more fans and better facilities for corporates = more corporates. Both = more cash.

The poster who mentioned Saints dwindling crowds is also wide of the mark - in 2000 and 2001 we had sub 9k attendances. In 2009 and 2010 we had over 11k averages, 2010 was up over 27% on 2000. Of course the attendances have dwindled at Widnes, but it didn't take a genius to predict that.

A 12k plus average at the new stadium is VERY achievable and is plenty for Saints to turn a profit, given the other revenue generating facilities on site IMO (not least the fact we will start to see a return on match day catering etc which we didn't at KR).

Some good points being made here amongst the Saints/ W/L Andy (why I am not surprised? ) bickering...

£2.5m is cheap in terms of the cost to acquire a great stadium (albeit on the small side).

The £2.5m does look challenging though to clear in 10 years. Even assuming the £1m directors' loans don't carry interest Saints would be paying interest of 90k a year on the £1.5m balance (assuming interest at 6%) even on an interest only basis. To then repay capital on top as well looks challenging to me, given that Wigan, with the same SC to work with but much bigger crowds is only going to make £75,000-£200k profit this season. Having said that, Saints may be able to generate more revenue from owning their own ground (but equally over the longer term will face more costs than Wigan because of the maintenance and upkeep of the stadium).

The fact that what is a relatively small sum in the commercial world could cause Saints real problems is a damning indictment of the weak financial state of the game.

Finances apart, it does look like a very nice stadium. Are both ends terracing?

Sell outs against us and you v saints is a given.

Both the HJ and Saints sell out and we are usually not far of at the DW lately.

There's a real passion for the games with each other. Hopefully Widnes fans will start coming out the woodwork now they're in SL and their boss being able to spend at cap limit should see them challenging in a few years.

Aye this side of the pennines is certainly dominating the sport at the moment, the games between the 3 teams are huge at the moment. Hopefully it will stay that way and Widnes will tap into that. I hope they spend to the full cap, that should mean some huge games between the 4 teams.

Widnes naturally will benefit from the great away support of the North west clubs, i guess they would be looking at 3-4k wire fans, 3k wigan and 1.5-2k saints fans every year. This alone is a decent boost to the finances. I think Widnes will use the full cap next year also, as the owner has said (previously) that hes willing to splash the cash.

More than that from saints, they will be used to going to Widnes, they will take loads!

Hopefully they will get saints or wigan as the first game at home so they can get a sell-out. Same for Salford.

I agree entirely fella, just making the point that even at approx 12k I would imagine we'd have a profitable club. I would expect 14k+ average in year one due to novelty factor.

I actually think the fact we've been at Widnes may mean the crowds jump even more - everybody is desperate for the ground to open and can't wait tt set foot in it, even more so than when we were at KR (as the stadium threads on rlfans and redvee testify). The anticipation is enormous.

Exciting times, gutted I live down south and won't be able to go to every game in season 1

True, but the counter argument would be that we didn't get the crowds our success deserved, in no small part due to the cackhole we played in (some people didn't go to KR but would go to away games, my mum included, for facilities reasons).

That said, I've always been of the opinion that the town doesn't support the team in the manner it should, so I suppose it's a big question mark until next October when we can look back on the first season there.

Hopefully we'll get a historically poorly attended fixture as our first league game there.