There you go. A silent director then. I'll take that. (Should have said 'no visual/vocal active role')

Just on the subject of owning/running your own facility , discussing the cricket from OT cricket ground

This year LCC will turnover 32 million , due to the Ashes a be WC , but in normal years they make more out of hosting Pop concerts and corporate for Man Utd than they do out of cricket , for every Utd game there are 1,000 dining at the cricket ground

Whilst there is nothing we can do about our own stadium unfortunately what we do now have is access to the Robin Park Arena. It's imperative that Wigan RL migrate as much as they can across to the arena (albeit space is limited as only underneath one stand) to maximise revenue.

Now I've not seen inside, nor seen any plans. Has anyone seen inside yet?

If the club had space for corporate dining, indoor bars.. Etc that would be a start.

Wish Lenners would come out and say that the plan is to develop Robin Park as our home stadium within 5 years and that an increase in attendances/season ticket sales would help fund it. Be averaging 20,000 next year.

Praise the lord, brother.

Unfortunately, I feel that if you set yourself that hope seriously, you'll inevitably be disappointed.

Why would we get permission to build a brand-new stadium next door to an already perfectly serviceable one, which we've already been sharing for years?

£175K received in transfer fees.

I trust that doesn't include the transfer fee of arguably the best 2nd row in the world to the NRL. Bateman was worth twice that alone!

If you look at the [url=https://wiganwarriors.com/news/2015-10-20-bateman-extends-contractcontract[/url that was reported at the time, it appears to have been deliberately structured as such that we couldn't just hold out for a very high transfer fee if an NRL club wanted to sign him for 2019. That's not a knock on the club either, they appear to have found a way to keep him till the end of 2018 and still get a six figure transfer fee.

Worryingly poor financial results for a grand final winning season.

Something needs to change

Oh well, might as well go out with a bang and go for glory. RL is a dying sport in the UK. Game has been sterilised. Very little excitement anymore. A player only needs to brush across the cheek of another player and the ref is blowing for a penalty. Scraps were part and parcel of the game and we loved it! Now its like watching ballet dancing with a ball. Crowds will never come back now. Although i like following Wigan and watch when they are on TV, i wouldnt dream of going paying money to watch a game anymore. Not only do i not get the same excitement that i used to but ive got other things i like doing and spending my money on.

The excitement of going to a game and seeing it live by far trumps the excitement sat in front of a TV. I hadn’t been for a few seasons prior to this season, not because of the rugby but personal circumstances. These have changed to an extent I can now go more often, not as often as I’d like but for the times I can’t go generally we’re on tele. Give me going to the stadia anyday. The senses are going, old friends and old playing adversaries and colleagues are there. It’s exciting. Sat at home you’ve got the wife nagging asking how much longer it’s on for, kids screaming, dog barking. It’s little wonder you don’t find it exciting you pleb.

Do yourself a favour; swap your armchair for a seat at the stadium. You’ll soon change your mind.

Otherwise, and with the greatest of respect, f**k off elsewhere.

Not convinced the poster deserves being called a pleb or to be told to F off.
It’s his opinion, he’s entitled to it.
Christ, I know lots of people with the same opinion who 10 years ago I’d have never dreamed that they’d have missed a single game, never mind stopped altogether.

I take it you didn't go tonight. Massive buzz everytime French got the ball, he was sublime. Supporters are quite rightly VERY excited about the remaining games of the season and next season in particular when the probable Man of Steel joins us as well.

Get your backside to a few matches man! (and supporters like you) whilst you have a club to follow.
Don't leave it till buckets are being handed around (Bradford Bulls & Bury FC).

Why?

Fans like that are part of the reason the sport stagnates and crowds fall away. Constant negative attitude about the game. If you don’t like it anymore, fine. But don’t come on here bleating about how crap it’s become and wanting to take us back to 1980’s RL. The game has moved on and we need to move on leaving attitudes and fans like that behind. If that sounds harsh then so be it but it’s the truth.

Completely agree, people’s excuses for not going to games are endless and claim to be fed up of watching yet still regularly moan on forums and you’ll often find the ones moaning the loudest are the ones who don’t go, I’ve followed Wigan since the early 80s and this year have been living in Yorkshire and without the ability to drive it’s been tough to get to some games but I’ve still been to around 20 games and wish I could have got to more, I wish some Wigan “fans” would get off their and start backing the club instead of letting it slowly fade away along with the rest of rugby league

Just why we're on about recovering finances, I thought the fanzone tonight was pretty poor** and a backwards step from previous weeks.


** (I'm not going to judge completely until we head into next season BTW)

Hardly anyone there an hour before kick off, no food stalls at all...etc. Atmosphere was very flat (bit like the Kingfisher pint I had).

I'm hopeful that there will be a massive publicity push from next season to get supporters to migrate into the arena pre-match.

I was told that the South Stand bar was chocker before the game tonight. Brill, but that doesn't bring in any £££ to Wigan RLFC unfortunately.

The South Stand bar is awful, I don’t get why people go in there?

I don’t think anyone has a problem with you disagreeing with them but the language used is uncalled for.
Not sure you’d take it so clever if he called you a pleb, to your face, in the pub?

I’d class myself as someone who should be going more regularly but due to financial circumstances it’s not always been that easy. I’m really looking forward to hopefully getting a season ticket next year after a good few years without one. I’ve been reading the opinions of the Wane-era and winning rugby is better than entertaining rugby but looking at the overall cost to attend a game I can’t say it was easy to justify the style of rugby on offer for nearly £25 a game if you attend last minute. The new signings might change that opinion for some but it’s still too expensive in my opinion. Thankfully, the style looks to be evolving now and will hopefully see the match day attendances rise steadily but like others have said it’s hard to get back into the habit of going back to games.

I’m a lover of the game but having watched games on Sky for as long as I can remember I can’t help think they are implementing some kind of managed decline agenda in terms of production, scheduling and overall experience for the fan and viewer. How are we supposed to champion our game when we had five games on at the same time last night? It’ll impact massively on viewing figures and what kind of bargaining power do we have then? The game is in danger at the moment, never mind the club and we’ll know more when this next negotiating period comes in.

£1.4 million?

What were the Pie sales?

Sales in pies where tough...not as tough as their gravy though.

He did sing, "I'm a bad bad boy". Not as if he was trying to hide anything.

nail on head, the fans(if they can really be called that) appear on the forum when the club is struggling and have their say and some try to make out the fans who go to the games buy the season tickets are mugs.

I don't mind saying it: I'm sick to death of the negative posters. I come on here to discuss rugby, good and bad, because it's my chosen sport and team, not to have that sport and team constantly run down. The moaners contribute absolutely nothing to my life. Nothing.

Are they entitled to their opinion? Yes. Do I want to hear it? Well, let's put it this way, I wouldn't choose to have a pint with them in the pub. That sort of doom monger bores me to tears, quite frankly.

It's an open forum and anyone is entitled to contribute but what really galls me is when otherwise good fans and posters get 'infected'. Cruncher openly admits it had an effect on him earlier in the season and, as someone whose posts I always enjoy reading, I did notice the change. That to me is where the real damage is done. Instilling negatively in genuine fans. The knock on effect of that is there for all to see, not least in the recent published accounts.

If only there was a dedicated site where posters could go and criticise all things Wigan......

cough*Redvee*cough...

I have to agree with that. Particularly right now, when the Club has every reason for optimism looking ahead to next season, and even, amazingly, this season too, which looked unthinkable just a few months ago.