Im fairly sure all clubs do look at their figures for crowds and do their best to maximise them. Wigan are helped by the fact there top of the league and have only lost two games.

I bet they got an even worse surprise when they found the game had been played the previous evening

What about 2008 and 2009 we were rubbish.

Wigan's average crowd fell in each of those years

From 2007 which was a great year for crowds due to playing saints at home twice and wire in the first game.

Wigans marketing helps them no end but because of the salary cap and the fact they have massive crowds they have a lot more disposable income than most teams.

Wigan are in a great situation really

Quite possibly. Lenagan has stated on a number of occasions that the rental agreement with we have with the Stadium Company is mind blowing such is the low amount. He mentioned (at the fans forum after the playoff saga) that despite all our thoughts re: Dave Whelan, he would not allow him to be bad mouthed such was generosity of the deal.

That kind of blew away the supporters suggestions of a separate stadium right away. It must be pretty good then.

HaHaHa........and you wonder why Quins never bring any away fans except the 30 or so hardy travellers

5.30 to get to a Friday night game means that your average 9 to 5 worker is fine......try taking half days every second week to get to a Friday game, booking hotel rooms at the same time as the trains stop early up north...or driving back and getting to bed at some ungodly hour having not had a beer........5.30 departures are a luxury to London fans.....

This is my point. We're not giving the 'distance' teams a fighting chance. Sky dictates our sport.... end of! It's come to a point where the tail is wagging the dog. We need bums on seats to promote our game, especially for Crusaders and Harlequins, as developing teams

They really should arrange the fixtures so that we always get the best possible games to promote the sport. Common sense would say that when Crusaders play on a friday night they should play Saints, Wigan and Warrington. Same for teams like Hull, give them a fighting chance of pulling in a crowd and give away fans a chance to get there.

Isn't that a bit unfair?

Crusaders cant even beat a side like Harlequins so how are they going to manage playing 3 of the better teams at the same time on a Friday night?

So your crowds go up when you play the local teams who bring more fans and down whe nyou dont, your marketing team have a great effect dont they

Explain the 18K for Quins.

I don't mean just play the teams near you and no-one else. When you have a friday night fixture, play the teams closest. Then play the teams furthest away on Saturdays or Sundays so that people can at least get the opportunity to attend.

Correct........but it will never happen.

Cheaper Tickets
the idea is to draw people in with the price and get them coming back with the quality of the product, looking at the crowd for the next home game it didnt work

If crowds were determined on the quality of the product on offer Harlequins would get about 40 turning up.

Thats including the 34 players and 2 coaches

and the sharks would be playing behind closed doors.....oh, hang on a minute, they are

Barry McKenzie has noticed the Sharkies crowds have got lower since he arrived at Sydney Airport with his rucksack and boarded Qantas flight 31 to Heathrow.

I wouldnt be arrogant enough to suggest that crowds used to come to Shark Park to see the Dalai Lama of footy himself.....but it does make you wonder.......

Wigan are looking favourites to top the attendance chart this season, so long term I'd say it's starting to work.

Quote ="Barry_McKenzie"Barry McKenzie has noticed the Sharkies crowds have got lower since he arrived at Sydney Airport with his rucksack and boarded Qantas flight 31 to Heathrow. I wouldnt be arrogant enough to suggest that crowds used to come to Shark Park to see the Dalai Lama of footy himself.....but it does make you wonder.......'" was that the same time your CEO resigned for making disgraceful remarks to a female employee www.couriermail.com.au/sport/nrl ... 5733462102 or when your longest serving player had his captaincy stripped for making racist remarks? No wonder the fans have had enough.

Quote ="Barry_McKenzie"Barry McKenzie has noticed the Sharkies crowds have got lower since he arrived at Sydney Airport with his rucksack and boarded Qantas flight 31 to Heathrow. I wouldnt be arrogant enough to suggest that crowds used to come to Shark Park to see the Dalai Lama of footy himself.....but it does make you wonder.......'" was that the same time your CEO resigned for making disgraceful remarks to a female employee www.couriermail.com.au/sport/nrl ... 5733462102 or when your longest serving player had his captaincy stripped for making racist remarks? No wonder the fans have had enough.

*waits for the 'Oh in Cronulla that would be percieved as a GOOD thing' type posts*

Quote ="Sheldon"was that the same time your CEO resigned for making disgraceful remarks to a female employee www.couriermail.com.au/sport/nrl ... 5733462102 or when your longest serving player had his captaincy stripped for making racist remarks? No wonder the fans have had enough.'" ....you neglected the standard of footie on offer at sharky parky.....oh, hang on a minute, so have to coach/players....

Quote ="Sheldon"was that the same time your CEO resigned for making disgraceful remarks to a female employee www.couriermail.com.au/sport/nrl ... 5733462102 or when your longest serving player had his captaincy stripped for making racist remarks? No wonder the fans have had enough.'" ....you neglected the standard of footie on offer at sharky parky.....oh, hang on a minute, so have to coach/players....

I agree with what your saying to an extent but lets be honest, with regards to away support, I don't think what your proposing would make much of a difference. Regardless of the day/time, there are only a handful of teams in the league that take a respectable following to away matches, and it's been the same for a while imo. Without doubt travelling to matches on a friday night is no easy task and I can understand that a lot of people find it hard to attend for this reason. However, I think a lot of fans just use it as an excuse more than anything. We (FC) took over 2000 fans to Wigan earlier on in the season (on a friday night) yet the biggest following we are used to seeing at the KC is around 1/4 of that figure (barring KR). Wigan played Cas last SUNDAY afternoon and about 300 Cas fans where there.

And in all honesty I think that even if we played all of our home games on a sunday afternoon, you wouldnt see much of an improvement in the away attendance.