A few times last season and in the past the "official attendance" given during games has sometimes looked a lot different from the number of people attending. I have a question does anyone on this forum work for the club and knows how the figures are accurate e.g. lets say there are about 9,000 season ticket holders but about 7,500 turn up sometimes does that missing 1,500 get included in the official attendance? In the friendly game last Sunday it was 3,700 but some people think the crowd was about 4,500! I was there in 1987 crushed tight like a sardine for the World club challenge game when there was a capacity of 36,895 but looked

from looking at the highlights on youtube of the game and there could have been well over 44,000 that night!

Id say the manly attendance was probably correct because when we played widnes in a championship decider at wigan in 1991 the whitbread stand was being built and there was 30,000 on that night and probably for the manly game was about 6000/7000 packed into the pavillion end pre Whitbread stand

For crying out loud can we stop banging on about bloody crowds.

Bring back the silicone injected players chat

please dont encourage them ....

Going slightly off topic but still crowd related, IL has stated that season tickets numbers are 'likely' to remain the same as last season despite the new signings. https://www.wigantoday.net/sport/why-wi ... 1-10212347

Going slightly off topic but still crowd related, IL has stated that season tickets numbers are 'likely' to remain the same as last season despite the new signings. https://www.wigantoday.net/sport/why-wi ... 1-10212347

Quote MattyB="MattyB"Going slightly off topic but still crowd related, IL has stated that season tickets numbers are 'likely' to remain the same as last season despite the new signings. https://www.wigantoday.net/sport/why-wi ... 1-10212347'" I think the match day experience is a lot more important to attendances than the quality of the players or the price of tickets. I'm not saying I know how to improve that, but it's certainly the area I'd be targeting from a financial point of view. I remember someone suggesting 'sandwiching' away fans into South East or South West corner to create some back and forth, not a bad idea as long as the stewards are up to dealing with the odd incident. They need to do something about the beer situation too; in the south there seem to be issues with the pumps causing queues every single game.

Quote MattyB="MattyB"Going slightly off topic but still crowd related, IL has stated that season tickets numbers are 'likely' to remain the same as last season despite the new signings. https://www.wigantoday.net/sport/why-wi ... 1-10212347'" I think the match day experience is a lot more important to attendances than the quality of the players or the price of tickets. I'm not saying I know how to improve that, but it's certainly the area I'd be targeting from a financial point of view. I remember someone suggesting 'sandwiching' away fans into South East or South West corner to create some back and forth, not a bad idea as long as the stewards are up to dealing with the odd incident. They need to do something about the beer situation too; in the south there seem to be issues with the pumps causing queues every single game.

Quote MattyB="MattyB"Going slightly off topic but still crowd related, IL has stated that season tickets numbers are 'likely' to remain the same as last season despite the new signings. https://www.wigantoday.net/sport/why-wi ... 1-10212347'" Massively concerning IMO given the investment in the squad and the fact u8’s can now get a free season ticket. I’ve got one for the first time in years and one for my 7 year old for the first time ever and I honestly expected a decent boost in numbers. The club need to do more IMO but the people of Wigan need to do more as well. The people why call out for Lenagan to spend more with a promise they’d then attend more, need to do just that. Some will but plenty will just move on to the next excuse sadly (and I don’t mean people’s finances, work shifts etc). We’ve had the ‘I’ll go when Wane goes’ brigade and the ‘I’ll go when Lenagan puts his hand in his pocket’ calls but yet the crowds continue to dwindle. I myself said Lenagan was running the risk of tainting his legacy by not investing in the squad properly for 2019. I wanted him to either invest in new talent or admit he couldn't and actively look for someone who could. He did the former, brought in some exciting players like French, Hastings and Burgess and I felt compelled to back that and get a season ticket. He must be sitting there at the minute wondering if it was worth it.

Quote MattyB="MattyB"Going slightly off topic but still crowd related, IL has stated that season tickets numbers are 'likely' to remain the same as last season despite the new signings. https://www.wigantoday.net/sport/why-wi ... 1-10212347'" Massively concerning IMO given the investment in the squad and the fact u8’s can now get a free season ticket. I’ve got one for the first time in years and one for my 7 year old for the first time ever and I honestly expected a decent boost in numbers. The club need to do more IMO but the people of Wigan need to do more as well. The people why call out for Lenagan to spend more with a promise they’d then attend more, need to do just that. Some will but plenty will just move on to the next excuse sadly (and I don’t mean people’s finances, work shifts etc). We’ve had the ‘I’ll go when Wane goes’ brigade and the ‘I’ll go when Lenagan puts his hand in his pocket’ calls but yet the crowds continue to dwindle. I myself said Lenagan was running the risk of tainting his legacy by not investing in the squad properly for 2019. I wanted him to either invest in new talent or admit he couldn't and actively look for someone who could. He did the former, brought in some exciting players like French, Hastings and Burgess and I felt compelled to back that and get a season ticket. He must be sitting there at the minute wondering if it was worth it.

Wiganers are a fickle bunch. It's not as if Latics are riding high in the Premier League (which we've had to compete with in the past, and us having higher crowds too).

Has the town fell out of love with the sport? Look around the stadium and we do have a high proportion of older supporters.

I just think that Wiganers like to keep their cash in their pockets and still watch the games if they can.

Back in the day some fans preferred to go off to the pub, for the price of 2-3 pints watch the game.

Then other supporters subscribed to SKY sports for the duration of the season and watched it from home.

But now you can get it even cheaper, for the price of 2 months subscription you can stream live games into your home for twelve months (even better if you're a football fan as well as rugby). Works out about 30 pence a day.

Try and persuade an old supporter to get down to the DW and shell out £20-30 to attend a game when they have been used to watching it streamed in live over the last few years. That's like trying to get the same person to spend £10 on a good lunchtime meal at a quality restaurant when 2 x steak slices for a quid at pound bakery fills the same gap in his belly.

Won't happen.

It’s the “I’ll go when Lam goes” crowd now. There’ll always be excuses, I read some on twitter recently and one delightful chap said something like he doesn’t go as it’s not Central Park (but then said he goes to finals

).

IL could purchase the whole Australian National team and make Wigan an all conquering side m, sweeping up for years on end and there will STILL be excuses.

Mine is simple economics; I can’t get to every game and getting a ST won’t be value for money for me. The same for my two mates I go with. We purchase online tickets and go, generally in the East. We’ll be there next Thursday and every game (except Cas and Huddersfield away) until Catalans at home. We’ve opted for the membership option this season.

I'm pretty much the same, I haven't had a season ticket for a couple of years due to work commitments. However if I do find myself available for a home game then that's first choice for me (even if its on SKY).
Managed to attend two thirds of last seasons home games which was more than I expected). If I can manage that this season then I'll be more than happy.

Exactly what I said a week or so ago on a previous Thread
And I will say it again - The town of "Wigan" will get what it deserves - Because if "We" back our club then I believe more often that not we will come out near the top due to the other advantages the club has (Youth, History etc.)
But if the people of Wigan don't back the club and use whatever excuses they want to use then at some point the club will have to respond to that and cut it's cloth accordingly.
Last year they talked about reducing costs, it doesn't appear to be on the playing front so maybe we've cut costs on Backroom staff, youth development, promotions/marketing, who knows?
At some point any of the cost reductions will have an effect on the club one way or another and I can hear all the voices of discontent when we aren't signing the best youngsters, aren't as fit as other teams etc. etc. and who they will blame for that, and it won't be themselves.

Now I will make it crystal clear again, I'm not criticising individuals for their own decisions and circumstances that dictate when they can or can't go or when they choose to go or not.
What I am saying is that those people don't need to criticise the club, the players, the game itself or anything to justify that stance
The people who can go don't need to constantly scream for perfection and the slightest thing that doesn't go our way criticise the club, the players, the game or each other.

I do believe there are things the club could do better, but when we invested in infrastructure i.e. youth marketing etc. individuals wanted star names - They get star names at the expense of other things and nothing changes.

The club has to continue - and if peoples answer to things is lets get a Sugar Daddy who will cover all the costs so we can sit at home, not support the club and it doesn't matter as Sugar daddy will fill all the gaps then I disagree vehemently.

The club has to be financially viable otherwise at some point it will bite us on the arris. (Whilst some will say lets just go get another sugar daddy).

It's down to the people of Wigan if we want a professional club or not.
Sugar daddies are incredibly thin on the ground, especially for a sport like RL. Just look at football, Sky Sports News desperately trying to make a big thing of the transfer window where even the "wealthiest" clubs are just looking at loan deals.