I hadn't heard that, and again it's a long way from the town centre.

I do!



They were awful most of last season and brought hardly any fans to the DW and we still saw a crowd of 16,426 in July.

Now that the Whinos are champions we can expect a few more of their fans to make the apparently long trek across the M62 and I think more Wiganers will turn out to see us take on the champions than turned out to see us take on an apparently bad side (though the game marked the beginning of the Whinos return to form).

An increase of only 10% will take us to 18k (18068.6, to be precise).

Simple.

Wigan
Wire
Saints
Widnes
Salford
Leigh

All clubs with top class stadia built and available for Rugby League matches in 2012, venues only Hull FC and Huddersfield (with possibly Halifax & Doncaster) to match.

Leeds still have improvements to make. The fact five thousand people stand uncovered in the rain in 2012 is disgraceful IMO.


Bradford
Hull KR
Cas
Wakey

Not up to scratch.

in 2006 we got 17,800. in 2007 , a year leeds where crowned champions the attendance was 14,557. in 2008, a year the rhino's where again crowned champions, the attendance was 14,911, In 2009, for the first ever "Big One" if I remember correctly, we did a great job and got in 20,000, the last 2 years its been 17,000 ish. also "that" playoff game got 12000, although not a great indication as we all know a lot less turn up for playoff games.. Even if we get an increase of home fans that doesn't suggest to me that we would be out of place in an 18,000 seater stadium.

I hope attendances do continue to grow to the point where we are getting 25.000 every week. But i just dont think it will ever happen, not in the near future anyway.

I'm not saying I want away from the stadium. It's great having a large stadium to use. But it isn't "our" stadium. And thats why what saints have done is great. I cant think of any modern stadium built just for rugby league that has a bigger capacity with the facilities saints now have. You could say hull, but again thats the same as the DW in that it's built with a football side who have been in the premiership in mind.

good friday shall be a good day! looking forward to it already

Agreed, Leeds, Bradford and HKR still have big improvements to make and Cas and Wakey need new grounds altogether. Nice to see all the sides on this side of the pennines in modern facilities though!

Talks are ongoing with Leeds city council ,the RFL league ,Leedsrlfc ,and Leeds united AFC about building a 50.000 all seater stadium on the Vacant Tetley's brewery site,this will be the rfl national stadium.Leeds united would play at the stadium ,but Leeds rhinos would be the main club and the rfl HQ would also be situated there.the only thing would be it would be south of the river and a little too close to Hunslet.The hotel that is being built at Elland road is only an investment for the owners of the Stadium because all that area is up for developement in the not so distant future.Do not slag me I am not trolling I am only repeating what is going round

If it's true what your saying and it is at the discussion stage it would be around 7-12 years till the stadium is played in, would be a massive boost to the sport to have our own national stadium shame it would be in Leeds though.

Obviously I dont live in Leeds now,but I am still very much in touch.The cheif excecutive of Yorkshire county Cricket club has sold out from his company which would give him funds to pay of the loan debt to leeds city council to buy their part of the ground and possibly have enough to buy out Caddick for the rugby side.I am not trolling only going what is going round .Leedsrl were disappointed when the had to scale down the plans for the south stand so its put on hold?people are putting two and two together

Nice to See Stains FIOS again with this sharing their ground with a football team stuff.

We share with a Premier League team (for now)

They'll share with a non-league NW Counties team.

Saints don't share they rent the ground out to gain income. Same as Warrington did with Liverpool reserves.

Yup. Wigan/Leeds Andy is a bit slow on the uptake on that one. He can't quite get the difference between sharing a ground and a glorified pub team bringing in revenue to the owners, who are Saints.

Seriously how much income do you think St Helens Town are going to generate? It goes back to quite a few years ago when Stains sold the football club's ground, all here - [urlhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2007/aug/01/saintsshowlittlecharityfor[/url

A number of points:

1. Our crowds have been slowly increasing over the last 10 years. The overall trend is clear, although it is a bit erratic from year to year. There's no reason to think that attendances have peaked. Our marketing can still get sharper. And don't forget, we've retained Sam for next season, he will be a big draw.

2. If you want to get an average attendance of 17,000 (a modest ambition since we had an average attendance of over 16,000 last season) you need a ground capacity bigger than 18,000. You just aren't going to fill the ground every game - many clubs bring hardly any fans to the DW (most of the Yorkshire clubs these days) and let's face it, it's always going to be a struggle to get 15,000 fans to watch Wigan v Salford or Wigan v London.

3. As I said, we only need a 10% increase in attendance compared with this year's fixture to hit 18,000 for the Leeds game. The Leeds turnout was desperately low, at the time Leeds fans were boo-ing their coach and team and it wouldn't have looked a particularly appetising fixture to the casual Wigan fan I would suspect. I'd be surprised if IL wasn't planning for a bigger crowd in his 2012 business plan.

Stains have had the revenue already as shown above. I hope the business plan wasn't based on St Helens Town generating much income.

Income is income regardless of how much as long as its going into the club.

What is it with Wigan fans just because other clubs Like Warrington and Saints build their own grounds they have to slag them off for pety little things.
I'm sure deep down you would prefer your own ground whatever it looks like or who you get rent of.

If the income doesn't cover the costs of opening the stadium then it's not really worth bothering - as stated the club have already had their pound of flesh, many years ago. Seems like some people are getting a bit defensive about having to have the pitch messed up by a bunch of non-league cloggers.

I'm not arguing that our average attendances aren't growing, All im trying to say is that if we where in the position st helens are in, I'd be more than happy with the stadium they've got, Likewise had we moved from central park and had our own stadium built, something like what they have would have been more than adequate, especially with the possibility of being able to extend when/if the average attendances do grow. We are very lucky in being able to play at the DW. But had we needed to build our own purpose built ground, from a business point of view. We wouldn't be paying however extra million it would cost to have a 25.000 seater stadium for the sake of 3 matches a year.

as for point 2, why do you need a ground bigger than 18,000 to get an average of 17,000? the only reason things are like that at the moment is because 25,000 people will turn up for wigan v saints and then half that amount will turn up to watch against lower league sides, The marketing team should focus on making the match day experience so great that those fans will want to come to most if not every match rather than 2 or 3 big home games a year.

You must be bored. Or obsessed! I can't decide which.

Now have a little think. McManus was a big cheese at HSBC over there in Asia. He has led Saints from the brink of administration to the glory of owning a brand new stadium. Do you seriously think such a bloke, with millions to his name, is going to create a business plan that has anything remotely to do with a little pub soccer team? Nah. I thought not!

Just think of one word: Tesco!

There, you have your answer - for the likes of Wigan/Leeds Andy anyway.

Whoooooooooooooosh! You never disappoint.



Makes you wonder why the club are letting a pub team spoil the shiny new stadium - the clue's in the article I linked to by the way.

Glad to be of service.



And don't forget, as I said to you on the Saints board, I'm sure Saints will let Wigan play at their stadium, for a fee, should they find themselves homeless in the future.

You'll need to make sure it's ok with the football team you share the ground with first.

Good thing is with tesco they built our stadiums and knocked down wigans and left them with nothing.

Well, let's just get this bit clarified. They didn't build our stadiums. Their presence meant that the sites on which our stadiums were built could be developed.

I don't want Wigan/Leeds Andy accusing us of sharing our stadiums with Tesco!