They stream it live and people sit through 10 minutes of stupid questions, they'll moan.

They record it, edit out the crap and they moan it wasn't live.

Literally can't win.

I expect the presentation will be shown in full and that was the key part of the night not the 18th question about the stadium and someone talking about the hall of fame.

I think we need to be clear what you mean when you say "you can't win". Basically it's pandering to a small minority who will complain regardless.

You can't/shouldn't not do things, because we have a moaning element of our club tho. There's plenty of reasonable fans, season ticket holders, Wigan TV subscribers etc who, at this moment, don't seem to be deserving of an update from the club.

Would it have been that hard for them to say something like, we'll be recording the event and if will be on Wigan TV within a week?

I don't think its something worth getting wound up about - I'm sure events will be reported soon in one form or other. One thing I think most would agree on though is that its not ideal for the club to state that they will give regular updates on social media and then give none. Promising something and then not following through without explanation is never going to go down well in any walk of life.

Oh no, I’m gutted now. I read a tweet from someone saying there were a handful of a tickets left in the early afternoon so I just assumed they’d gone.

Any word on the financial stability of the club and the relationship with the football team?

INOUT

And as SP said I never said you were (you weren’t) nor did I imply you were either. I think I made that quite clear at the bottom, obviously not clear enough so if it did offend you, genuinely it wasn’t meant to. I actually meant those on Twitter but didn’t make that clear so I do apologise if it offended you.

I still stand by that though as I also stand by the elitism comment but again that is confined to Twitter rather than posters on here who if anything have been quite informative.

I'm not offended

I'm genuinely amazed that over a situation like this I.e. supporting a rugby club someone could imply (and you compound it by using it "Genuinely sounds like"icon_wink.gif what you are implying

You could have said its like x,x or x without implying people at the club are what you said. And, that others are complicit in it when using that analogy.

I've had to deal with situations surrounding this area in the past, and the number of people on Facebook or twitter for example who drag innocent bystanders into the argument, whos reputations are brought into question, who have lies told about them who are nothing more than people going about their business is beyond belief

I'll leave it at that, I would just say your choice of words are on the extreme, albeit I understand your sentiment behind the situation.

IL always bangs the "Wigan is a global brand" drum . To impose the media blackout that he did last night he did himself no favours imo. He created a what's he trying to hide conspiracy theory that in a honesty he should not have and probably didn't exist

I do not dispute any of the facts that certain posters have posted here (thanks for that) it will all come out in the wash but it does make your mind work overtime as to the make up of the audience and what % of the usual suspects were in attendance.

Regards EW

I suppose given that we can all drop a gaffe or two when speaking I can understand them not showing it live but to not tweet about it does seem a little odd.

They have social media use it surely?

Obviously its difficult to give exactisms under the current circumstances
But

I think it would be fair to say that they went extensively into the impact of covid etc over the last 20months.(and not just financially)
The projections for 2020 were for a small loss and they had worked hard to get thisbunder control in the previous 2 years whilst still paying up to salary cap etc and having marquees, I think we all know that the last 20 months have had a serious impact on that.

They explained how that funding gap had been covered short and medium/long term.

And even though some of the number in the face it look bad, comparatively to other clubs and sporting organisations they feel positive about the future.

There are still unknowns, (inc SL/RFL issues and TV deal) like will crowds come back to pre pandemic levels for 2022 onwards (and before anyone says there was a whole section on markettig and what their intentions to rejuvenate the crowd situation both in terms of numbers and fan age) but they have plans based on a/ if they do come back to 2019 levels or better and b/ if they don't.
After the event i spoke to itchy nals lads and their mates (only recently made the link that they were his lads, I've never met itchy i dont think?) And we all ahd a little say, and one ofnthe thigs was hiw do we get the hundreds and thousands sat in pubs spenidng £25 back to the game spending £25? And for me short term that is the big question and I think like NK has previously said weve some green shoots last couple of home games (notnin terms of results may i add)

As for the relationship with the football, Rads said that he and his counterpart have a good relationship, other than that im not going to expand.

What inwill say, and try to be light hearted about, is I dont knownwhy people waste their time asking why IL doesn't build a stadium, even last night someone asked and received an answer, and then 2 others virtually aksed the same question over na dover again.

I’m sure there were more pressing questions on the night but I’d love to know if anyone asked about the obvious downturn in communications from the club on platforms such as Twitter. The total lack of coverage on u19’s games now is poor, with just the odd one being covered live and all away games not being covered, even in the form of tweeting team news, score updates etc (other than maybe a retweet from the home sides feed) It is another element of how things are being run that gives an impression that costs have been cut to the absolute maximum, so whilst it may have not been covered as an individual question, I wonder if it was covered under the umbrella of general running costs/cost cutting.

Cheers mate

Interesting point, as that was going through my mind both pre and post event
Conspircy theorists

Without going into the whole thing as we could have a full blown discussion/argument i find that it's almost like "you've told us this, but what haven't you told us" attitude to be rife in society
I agree that lack of communication can lead to conspiracy theory, but i can't for the life of me understand why people themselves seem to enjoy turning things into one. Thats more about life in general than this situation if I'm honest, but as someone who has dealt with the 5G rollout and the Complete rubbish spouted over the last couple of years about it and, and this is serious, the engineers that have been physically harmed, the damage these people have done physically to people and infrastructure is frightening, and I can't for the life of me how people end up thinking like that.

Anyway, I suppose that horse as bolted in life in general, and its uo to people which way they go with that.

I won’t quote any posters on both sides of the argument because I can understand to a degree both sides of the debate.

For my two pennies worth the date seemed quite rushed and they should have streamed it live on Wigan tv or at the very least they should have updated Twitter as they promised.

My single biggest concern is the long term viability of the club particularly with the new owners of the Latics, the financial issues caused by COVID-19 and the reduced value of the deal with Sky.
To a degree the standard of play pales into insignificance with the overall financial situation of the club.
From the brief chat that I had with my sons these areas were covered but my concerns haven’t been abated because other than a new Head of Marketing they didn’t tell me about any other plans to kickstart the club.

We need some new energy within the club and if IL and KR haven’t got the energy or desire they should step aside. If they need some respite after a very difficult 18 months then personally I’d been fine with that as long as improved communications commence form today because for the last 18 months there hasn’t really been any.

On the coaching front I’m caught between bringing back SW and total new start with potentially an unproven coach. What I don’t want is this siege mentality between the club/coaching staff and the fans that has existed off and on for about 7 years or so.

The lack of activity in schools, amatuer clubs and the still unresolved issue of declining numbers of young fans needs to addressed immediately. IL should be paying top dollars for the best Head of Marketing and I suspect that would mean a 6 figure package would be the minimum to attract the best available. I’d be interested to know who they are using to help them with this recruitment.

You're not asking for much, are you?

Obviously they'll step down at some point, but given that it's a job they're both pretty attached to, and have done very well until the Covid crisis threw everybody's cards into the air, I wouldn't hold your breath.

Double post

As I typed that I thought that it could be seen as a bit callous but my meaning is that IL could handover the reigns to his son(s) or sell the sell club and KR may decide to move on to pastures new because I suspect the last 18 months or so would have been mentally and physically exceptionally draining.

I don’t wish either of them any ill on the contrary, there is a massive job to be done in still very testing times and to keep picking yourself up can be soul destroying particularly if you don’t see things improving anytime soon.

What if there isn't a good buyer? Look what happened to Latics when Whelan just sold to whoever was willing to buy.

Jukesays, I explained that I copied a series of text messages I was sent from someone in attendance, nothing more. I also made the post to anger any prying eyes from the club about their clandestine meeting being leaked.

Having spoken to the person that sent the texts and others in attendance, I feel it's clear this was a face saving exercise where Bill and Ben have thrown everyone they can under the bus and by spinning bigger lies than we'd already been told.

It appears to have appeased the happy clappers with vague promises of moving in the right direction, while the more critical fans have been left even more bemused than before.

For example: Why did it take them 2 contact extensions to realise Lam was a clown? I knew for a fact that Burgess was crocked before he signed. I heard a very different version of events about Edwards that Bill and Ben unwittingly corroborated while getting lost in their ever-widening web of lies.

Conditions on the ground change. It's hardly a shock move to extend a coach who finished top of the league and took us very close to winning the GF. I want him sacked now but that doesn't mean it was wrong to give him the contract at the time.

Well it sounds like Danson won’t be a potential buyer and I’d be amazed if anyone else would buy us therefore, IL would have to pass on to his son(s)

So what is the point of Danson, then?

BTW thanks to Jukes and others for efforts over and beyond the cause in explaining all this, Like many, I'm far from convinced that not live-streaming was a good idea, although I can see arguments for the approach they took.

I know you're not one of the bad guys. I don't want to be adversarial about this either. We're all on the same side.

But it seems to me there was an awful lot of bile poured on here last night, the main cause of which was certain people's frustration that they hadn't got tickets to the forum. I wasn't there either, but from what I hear from those who were, it wasn't a disappointing event.

I've always believed that IL and KR are Wigan Warriors through and through. It's true that we've not seen any of the extravagant spending that Mo indulged in during his first tenure, or heard any of the types of ridiculous promises that Dave Whelan made. But Mo was operating without a salary cap and Whelan didn't fulfil those promises. In contrast, IL, supported by KR, has always been a realist and yet has also delivered lots of silverware. I know I'm telling folk something they're already aware of but I think we sometimes need reminding.

I'm not going to pretend, by the way, that all is hunky dory.

I've said on here myself that it feels as though there's a malaise at present. And some things have gone wrong that shouldn't have been allowed to. But I'd refute the argument that Wigan are a club in decline. That's the line being pushed by those in the media and on Twitter who want it to be so.

IL has pulled us back from the brink before. Within three years of our famous 'relegation' season we'd won the Grand Final (beating the last bunch of 'Supersaints', who Eddie and Stevo reckoned should have won because it would have been a fairy tale finish to KC's career ... yep, some things never change).

The thing I'm most concerned about, if I'm honest, is the situation with the stadium. I increasingly feel that it's too big for either us or Wigan Athletic, which means there will always be arguments about who gets priority, who pays for what etc. I don't know how long this latest Latics owner is going to last, but through sheer ignorance he seems to have reignited this whole feud again. So yes, these are troubling times.

But IL inherited that problem. It wasn't his doing.

If the guy's had enough and wants to go, that's different of course. But by the sounds of it, he still feels there's a job to do. So I'm still with him.

Do they want to run the club? Would they be better at it than the current regime, which has delivered a lot of success?

Interesting point (and something I've though about long and hard for various reasons)

There was a guy last night who just kept repeating "Sell the club"
Unfortunately, for a few who want this to happen, as I've expressed many times, Multi millionares with say 30/40/50million to spare to buy and then invest over the next 10 years arent falling off trees.

And more importantly, if IL wants to retain the club shouldn't we show a bit of loyalty?
I mean no trophy in 3 years is hardly the biggest disaster to befall this club and again more importantly hes doing something about it, all under the backdrop of him once again investing A LOT of his own money to keep us debt free.
As I've said, they ackowledged their mistakes, they explained why they have stances on certain things that certain people may not like, but I and many others I've spoke to understand why they do it.
Itchy touched on the strain of the last 20months, I'm pretty sure he's been told a lot of whats been said.
But, as part of my statement I Thanked IL, Rads and all the staff for their commitment and efforts over the last 20months in what must have been an absolutely tumultuous episode of events that will have taken its toll mentally, physically etc.
The response to that statement from myself was from what I could tell a unanimous round of applause, because the people in the room could tell the efforts that everyone has gone through to keep the club afloat etc and to be honest i get the feeling that IL and Rads have played prominent roles in trying to keep the game afloat and even leaders to assist and resolve the problems the game has had over this period.

They didn't come out last night and tell us the whole thing is a disaster, they didn't tell us we were going into administration, they didn't tell us we weren't spending pretty much up to cap etc.

They told us that relatively speaking weve got through this thing well, we will be investing in new players (again interestingly enough no one actually replied negatively when he asked about did the fans want to stop the youth conveyor belt and put more money into top signings and was it the right thing to do, I suspect because we all k ow its the right thing to do), they have a plan and want to be part of the future of the club for the foreseeable future. Surely we should be thankful or at least gracious enough to respect that security whilst I admit, always looking to improve and be open minded.

Once again I am sure there will be some criticism of my defence of them, but ask yourselves this, I and others may over defend them, but how much is in the face of others being over critical?

I get that everybody wants to know everything, and I'm not naive to think that those there last night were told any more than 10% of the reality of what goes on or maybe even a polished version of things.
But
I also accept that 80/90% of things we wont know or ever will know the full story.

My frustration boils purely from how the club backtracked without even such as a whimper. It smacked of hiding from proper scrutiny. That might not be the case and I’m not saying it is but that’s the impression I got.

I support IFL, always have and still do. I agree not everything has been right but which owner is perfect all the time? None. I’d rather IFL stay than the realisation of Ruddy’s fantasy and he go (I’m amazed Ruddy has such a vendetta to be honest but that’s a different debate).

From the sounds of it, it was worth it. There’s certainly been no tweets/posts saying it was a waste of time which in my mind is only a good thing. To be honest at the moment my main gripe is the lack of comms and why Lam is still here. The stadium is a medium - long term issue. Both us and Latics should have a sit down together and discuss moving forward (that may have already occurred for all we know). I think the stadium is a bit of a red herring. I also don’t think we’re a club in decline rather a club in transition still from the Wane era. We needed a good, strong coach to steer us through which we didn’t get and instead got a clueless one in Lam. If we had have appointed, for pure example and not saying we should have, a Craig Fitzgibbon/Jason Demetriou perhaps we wouldn’t even be having this conversation.

I’m sat here looking at our issues thinking they seem a lot, but they’re a relatively easy fix. Our squad needs a forward power injection - we’re getting it. We need a new winger - we’re getting one, we could do with a new HB - we’re in the market, we need a new coach - Lam is going and IL/KR need to improve fan communication which they say they will. All that gets fixed and bingo, we’re sat here in 12 months wondering why we were so worried.