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.

Yes, 3000 either end.

No, you honed in on my PS. That wasn't the point of my post. The point of my post was the bit I highlighted in bold and underscore. From the quote Rogues claimed was taken from the Council website (using a link which didn't work), there was a specific link made between the sale of Knowsley Road and the bridging loan of £2.5 million. We don't know from the quote apparently lifted from the Council website whether that loan was ever taken out or, if it was, when it was taken out. The existence of directors' loans are public knowledge. The sale of KR and the directors' loans are financing the building of the stadium. The Council, NWDA and Tesco are taking care of the rest of the site (plus the bridge, which is going to look stunning).

But moving on ...

The major selling point of Saints new stadium was its potential to regenerate the town, not just in terms of providing employment but also by providing opportunities for events, corporate and otherwise, which in turn will bring business people and visitors into the town. There was also supposed to be a Council run youth facility in the stadium. Whether that is still going ahead with all the melodrama of the cuts I don't know (I say melodrama because the Council have swayed between claiming 4000 redundancies and up to 100 redundancies as a result of cuts - so far I haven't read of any redundancies, but they may have happened anyway). But that was the plan. There is also a sizeable function room in there and there is the possibility of the club obtaining a licence to hold concerts and the like also. The idea is for the stadium to be open and offering something or other for seven days a week, much like the HJ and perhaps the DW. So while its primary function is as a rugby league stadium, the club will have opportunities to generate income that they couldn't even dream of at KR.

As for the fans ... I've no idea whether a new stadium will boost fan numbers because the people of St Helens bemuse me. I'm still trying to fathom out why a couple of guys I stood with for years at Knowsley Road flatly refused to travel to Widnes this season, simply because it was Widnes and not St Helens where Saints were playing. They were annoyed that they were being asked to go there, thinking Saints should have moved straight into the new stadium (like Taylor Wimpey almost going bust was the fault of Saints!). They didn't seem to care that not going to Widnes was depriving the club they claimed to love of valuable income. Nope, they weren't going to budge. There are some seriously weird people in my hometown!

Whatever the point of your post was (I'm still not sure) you said a number of people didn't know what they were talking about and did the same, by not understanding what the quote was saying in terms of loans/debt, and more specifically the relationship between the two.

You've just done it again BTW, the bridging loan wasn't quoted as £2.5m it was £8m. The total debt of the club, including the interest capitalised from the bridging loan was expected to be £2.5m.

I'd love a RL only stadium but it sin't going to happen. The atmosphere at JJB is totally flat sometimes, but I put that down to the lack of away fans. The last two home games against wire andstains have been great, getting more away support is the key for me.
The stadium itself is a great facility with good views and access. The shadow of the 'tics does bother me still after the play off debacle but I'd like to think lessons have been learnt from that to prevent it happening again, which means I'm probably happy with what we've got, because Central Park can NEVER be recreated.

I do have one wish though. Just one. Another bridge over the canal please.

Like I said, that wasn't the point of my post. I was interested in when, and it was in response to Rogues. But you carry on deliberately missing the point just because you want to play childish games.

Link fixed
rlhttps://llpgport.oltps.sthelens.gov.uk:8080/portal/servlets/AttachmentShowServlet?ImageName

But you already knew about it from here

rlhttps://www.redvee.net/forums/showthread.php?18054-Cost-of-staging-games-at-Widnes-CC-Cup/page2rl

Because you commented
"Heck. That sounds frightening! £2.5 million over ten years. It's going to be a long, long time before anyone sees any return on their investment."

Interesting to see that Saints were basing their Knowsley Road financials on losing £300K per year when their last two year published losses £863K and £449K.

It might not have been, but if you go around telling people that they don't know what they're talking about and go and then do exactly the same, don't be surprised if people highlight it. Nothing childish with pointing out the facts, but as we know from some of your previous posts, facts are things that sometimes you have a fairly loose grip on, instead preferring the "if" approach.

Re: the terrace/seating argument if we had stayed at CP it would have been changed into a 20,000 all seater ground anyway, so we wouldn't have had terracing there either. Anyway, if you want to stand, go to the back where everyone else stands. It does happen.

As for Saints, fair play to them, its great they have a new stadium and it doesn't matter if they are in debt as long as they can pay it off and the normal working class folk of St Helens aren't being fleeced to pay it back. Hope they get big crowds cos they would be great for RL.

Tonight's game couldn't have been played at a more souless venue.