IT’S been more than 13 years since the idea of Saints departing Knowsley Road for a modern stadium was first suggested.
Since then the long journey has sometimes been a rocky road, with Saints witnessing a change in regimes, enduring frustration, financial hardship and friction over the project along the way.
At times, to outsiders, it seemed the stadium dream was running up a blind alley.
Finally, though the goal that some cynics said would never happen has been achieved.
And in an interview with the Star at St Helens Town Hall, the triple driving forces behind the stadium - Eamonn McManus, council leader Marie Rimmer and John Downes, of the developer Langtree - hailed it as a testament to teamwork.
McManus said: “Nine or ten years ago we were sat in this room and had this conversation and made a pact that this stadium would be built.”
Councillor Rimmer added: “It is unbelievable really that it’s here, knowing all the hard work and all the obstacles that have been there.
“Right from the first time I set my eyes on Eamonn I knew this man was about our town and our people and about Saints – and I trusted him right from the word go... and it was dark days then.
“We have a stadium befitting the town, its people and the team. I remember Eamonn telling me ‘I’m not a quitter Marie and we will not be moving from Knowsley Road unless it is really up to it’.
“He’s saved that rugby league club, make no bones about that.”
Both Rimmer and McManus were effusive in praise of Downes, whose team’s meticulous planning and decision to bring in the company that oversaw Arsenal FC’s Emirates stadium is credited with delivering an arena rich in quality.
Downes dismissed suggestions there had been “knife-edge” moments when the plans had teetered on the brink of collapse.
He described the project simply as a “hard slog”: “The word partnership can be overused but not in this case - it has not been dented at all. We’ve had some good luck as well as good management, but it’s hard to get across all the pieces of the jigsaw that you need to pull together.
“To bring a project of size and complexity in on time and on budget is no mean feat.”
Rimmer added that she hopes the St Helens public will now “get behind the place like we have got behind the town”: “We have delivered the best. You feel it as soon as you walk into the place – it’s superb, beyond expectation and already feels like home.”
McManus hailed a “momentous time” in St Helens sporting history: “The financial package (I announced last week) reflects the board of directors have backed this and done so because of its quality.
“There are some big numbers involved here and you don’t do such things unless you are absolutely convinced in what it is and what the future holds.
“We don’t look at is as investment, we really look at is as something we want to see succeed and be associated with.”
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