Was also there. Great scenes, well done Town. A far cry from the days of 60 people there in the early 90s. Shame they ran out of programmes and pies by 1520, but hopefully a bit of cash was raised with more to come in the next round. Here's hoping for a London or South east team away, would be the first time WT have been down south since the 87 cup run...

If they got a big tie, would they look to move it to the HJ?

Warrington Town are number 53 in the draw. If they get a "good" draw I hope that Wolves do step in and offer the HJ to them. Its always a shame if a team has to move away from home for a BIG game but at this level Jessie J got it way wrong......it IS about the money.

Is the HJ ready to host a fixture though? Given that it's currently out of season I assumed the pitch would be getting relaid.

Considering that when the stadium was being proposed, much was made about it being something for the community as a whole - I think it would be only right then to offer its use to a venture that is bringing some positive coverage to the town for a change.

As for it being ready for use, well didn't we used to let Liverpool's reserves use it throughout the winter once? - I'm no groundkeeping expert but at the end of our season, the pitch didn't particularly look in bad enough condition to require a relay... A bit of work here and there, but nothing that could be massively disrupted by 90 minutes of football.

The pitch would be more than capable of holding the game. Haven't seen anything about being relaid this winter (infact HJ is holding the game V Widnes this xmas so probably no relaying being done).

The only things I can see against any game being held at the HJ would be
a) would WT really want to give up home field advantage in exchange for a few extra quid ...suppose it would depend how much extra and
b) is there any "politics" going on. Peel holding will be doing up the area where cantilever park is as part of their Ocean gateway project. All of Towns efforts are in promoting a move from CP directly to a new stadium at Gemini. Surely, until they get big enough a ground share at HJ would appear to be better solution. KC etc show that the two games can co-exist........as long as the landlord doesnt favour one sport over the other.

Still technically 'at home', in town, majority of the fans behind them and not going the other side of the country to make more money.

A friend of mine who is a Darlo supporter told me on Friday night that Town will have already have done well out of the cup run with sponsors prize money having already netted them about £18,000. A good first round draw could put them on a pretty sound financial footing.

I don't exactly know the rules on standing in a stadium, but if The Wire progressed to where a premier team was involved and we are drawn at home, then the away fans must only be allocated in the seating area?

If adequate seating is not available then either you can't sell them tickets or you switch home advantage?

I really don't know the rules and it may well be very unlikely we draw Man Utd but so far The Yellows have surpassed dreams already and there are still some 8/9 tier teams still in the hat so it could happen.

You probably answer your own question there.

Warrington Town need all the money they can get in order to promote themselves and a move to a new stadium - The chance to play at the HJ in front of a massively inflated crowd, bringing in much needed cash, would surely be too good a opportunity to turn down?

Standing in cup games is fine, it's only if they were playing in the Championship and above (I think) that they wouldn't be allowed standing.

I believe that the regulations on all-seater stadium apply to stadiums used in the top two tiers of FA football in the UK. If Warrington Town were to play say Man United at the HJ, the HJ is not a stadium designated as all seater and so they could probably sell terracing tickets (subject to getting the necessary safety clearance). One exception was when the womens Euros were held at the HJ. Under UEFA rules the game had to be played in "all seater" stadia so this was accomplished by only opening the seated stands (then the separate North and East) at the HJ.

Cheers GHfan
one thing that has become apparent, there is a healthy appetite for competitive semi pro football in the town.

Unlike many of the Pieaters, we can embrace BOTH SL and football and support them as representatives of our town. Whereas they do one and hate the other.

Well it's often said we are a football town. Hopefully a lot will go along as a one off and end up catching the non-league bug, I'm all for having a successful football team in our town as well as a successful rugby league team.

A nice concept, but is there enough money in the town to support both?

Biggest problem for the football club is that while Warrington could easily call itself a football town, most football followers already have a team that they are loyal to, usually one of Man Utd/Man City/Liverpool/Everton.

It would take a massive long term project, mainly working on young kids in schools, to convince people to follow the local side... It could be done, but I have my doubts.

we aren't pulling in anything like the crowds that we should be at the HJ. Maybe it's selfish but let's focus on ourselves and leave them to it. There's plenty of money in soccer, if the powers that be don't choose to circulate it properly then that is their problem not ours.

Out of interest, you say we don't pull in the crowds we should do, what sort of attendances do you think we should be getting?

Spot on there Dita.

Your point about working on young kids. For the last three years every player who pays for Warrington Town juniors has been given a free season ticket which also entitles them to take two adults for a fiver. I don't believe this has made a jot of difference for attendances and they've not given any away this season.

For my tuppence worth, I don't think there's been a significant increase in attendance proportionate to the growth of the town / outlying dormitory area. We picks up a few with the move from Wilderspool to the HJ but rarely are we full, given the modest capacity.

With a population of around 200,000 I don't see why we shouldn't be getting a full house every week. The club needs to do more marketing, I never seen any promotion unless on social media but then that only reaches current fans so doesn't do enough.

Short sightedness by the club, they won't spend the money on marketing as they won't recoup the costs straight away, forgetting that marketing is not just about initially gaining money back, part of it is infecting the psyche.
McDonald's advertise yet who doesn't know about McDonald's, they advertise Big Macs yet they've been making them since probably before I was born. 

Marketing is a concept of interesting consumers in your product. Once you have gained that interest the real work starts by keeping the comsumers both loyal and interested. Rugby League is very good at doing neither. The sport rests on its laurals and is becoming more and more dependant on the CC, Magic Weekend and the GF. In reality the clubs are no different with the chance that a club may advertise once a season to push a big game. Considering Mr Moran's empire is built on promotions our effort is woeful.

Bulls and Leeds were excellent at promotion and perhaps Leeds still are probably the best.

I know a little about the Marketing 'department' at the Rugby club. It's one person attempting to do it all.

I had a meeting with them about possibly taking me on but finances are relatively tight, I even offered to volunteer but they were too busy with the playoffs etc.

I said "why dont we have promotion leaflets around the town?" Along with pretty much all the issues raised here time and again. Their response was that they dont have the time & resources currently, I would've been doing that kind of thing had I have been taken on, going into town and handing out leaflets etc.
Even though I'm not working there and have another job now, I hope me mentioning the issues has done at least something to help the one person to convince their boss to take someone else on to help out.