do the kids still not have maxs club in the north stand?

I think reading this thread, it becomes apparent that it’ll be tough to please everyone.

Not true. It’s clear that the new bar should have targeted a new audience rather than catering for the riversiders brigade who already had the south stand bar.

Sort of highlights my point though, they then wouldn’t be pleasing those guys, presuming that they wanted the move. I go with a group of 5 or 6 people, none are involved with the riversiders or even know anyone who is. Their involvement isn’t bothering me in the slightest but it’s clearly concerning some other people and that’s fair enough.

I’ll continue to go, have a pint or two in the warmth with a few hundred other Wigan supporters in there, in the knowledge that my money is going to the club and that will do for me. In the warmer months I’ll watch the 18’s playing and bob in and out for a pint. Happy days IMO.

Yeah this is me. I will continue to support the fanzone knowing revenue is going into the club before and after games (gave up spending money in the DW last season).

During the summer will the 18's game be played just before the first team matches, sounds great if so.

I'll still be going in, but the loss of silly questions and people being 'sushed' wont go amiss

Looking again I think that may have just been me putting 2 and 2 together after seeing the 18’s fixture were Fridays at 6pm. Skimming that fixture list and the first team I think there’s only 1 or 2 that fall on the same night and are both at home.

Would’ve made sense to me to run them alongside each other but then we don’t play at the DW for a good spell in May/June.

Don't let them sell anything for mine. Separate the 2 concepts entirely. A quick look around any given section of the East Stand on match days shows that we have a real issue with the average age of our supporter base. A venue where there is a bit of music and things like the trailer bar, maybe pop up food vendors etc gives the kind of vibe that may start to appeal to the vast majority who stay away from the stadium for their pre/post match drinking and socialising - myself included. Keep the SS Bar for folk who want to run raffles and try and complete selfie bingo with the entire squad. It's fine to acknowledge that the Riversiders contribute something in their own way but at the same time the format they seem to bring to everything they get involved with, certainly to myself and it would appear to several others on this thread is cheesy and dated and much more suited to the 60+ age bracket.

what audience? people who go to the game and want a drink like the south stand or people ho want a drink and have kids like the north stand?

Fair point.

Definitely needs to attract a new audience.

We’ve got plenty of older fans and we cater reasonably well for the youngsters with cheap tickets amongst other things.... but what exactly have the club ever done for the 18-35’s bracket. They’re all out spending their money elsewhere on other leisure activities.

The new bar is close to being what we need but it’s ruined by the south stand bar cringey vibe.

Send the riversiders back to the south stand bar and let the new bar develop its own audience.

do the riversiders not run maxs club also? the best concept of all SL clubs by a mile for any young fans for home and away fans

+1 don't let them kill this off, it could be good!

Isn't the bar doing well? From the social media I've seen it always seems to be packed with all that money going into the club which, unless I'm missing something, is the whole point of the exercise. To those advocating it being aimed at the 18-35 age group; how many do you think it would be attracting if they did this? Again from what I can see this is not a major demographic that goes to matches. And before anyone suggests it, putting a pre-match bar on is not going to suddenly attract too many more (if any) to start going to games when they clearly can't be bothered.

BUT The Riversiders raffles contribute thousands of pounds to the club each year, hundreds of thousands over the years If the majority of fans go to the fan zone then selling those tickets in the South Stand Bar isn't going to generate the same revenue for the club which is something IL will not want.
I'd like to see a different guest each week, and also a fans forum in there with different players, referees, staff etc maybe once every couple of months.
The venue itself reminds me of the Long Bar at Harlequins and is something that should be developed.

The raffles don't bother me, as RG says they make thousands for the club. The players appearing in the bar can be a great insight into things if the right questions are asked and not the nonsense we currently get. Just a few pearls of wisdom that spring to mind are after just losing an unbeaten home record that lasted over two years "at least we've got that monkey off our backs" and having just lost two semi finals rather embarrassingly to surrender our title "lets forget the last two weeks"

The riversiders have monthly meetings with players so use them for the questions and blaming the referee for every loss and use these visits for decent material. As for Andy Gregory, there is only so many times you can hear his stories bring in a different legend each week.

Exactly, it’s a bar that needs to be all inclusive (not like that, even though it would be nice

) and not start saying x group can’t come in. I’d like to see them get the Wigan fan tv lad (Sean is it?) to take over the interviews or get the guy who commentates for the club to do it and as pointed out get different guests in each week. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the Riversiders fund raising or having a couple of tables reserved IMO but maybe I’m missing something. I don’t even know which people are the Riversiders tbh, so they’ve obviously never bugged me.

In terms of feedback and things to improve on, I think it’s the logistical thing like the sound system, the food and drink options etc that should be a priority firstly.

All inclusive... there's an option that needs exploring!

What we thinking, 2 hours before kick off for £20?!



Be rolling people over to the Stadium.

Once did 20 pints in 2 hours at a larger roadshow in Bradford so that could work. Not sure how much of the match I'd see after that though...

Nothing wrong with the age of our supporter base and indeed the game as Rugby League crowds have a good cross section of supporters from all ages and from both sexes compared to football crowds which are mainly made up of the male sex.

Look around the stadium on game day, it's obvious to see that we do have have a large % older supporters. That's no shock as it's been discussed many times on here before. Over the last 10-15 years we have lost a lot of younger supporters to football in the town however there has been a bigger push with season tickets this year to tackle this problem (free to u8's... etc).

That's your opinion but not one I share. I have a 13 yr old who goes to a prominant rugby playing school in Wigan who has got his first ST this year but he doesn't know one other kid in his year that goes to matches. I made a point of looking round me Sunday and the mean age of our row and the ones behind and infront was well over 50. I know the club have identified this and is a reason they have made an adjustment to their ST prices to keep junior memebrs into early adulthood.

Great and work they should continue.

To me this is why it should be aimed at this age group. The attendances have dropped worryingly the last few years and the matchday experience is very stale and cliched. Either getting fans to return who followed as kids or attracting floaters who are put off matchdays by the bland matchday experience has to be a target over the next couple of seasons to arrest the decline.

But this is just more of the same that is already catered for with Riversiders meetings. I get that this appeals to some folk but why just recreate it in a different format?