I'd never pretend that all in the British RL garden is rosy. It's far from that. But beware of falling into the nostalgia trap.

Central Park would not have lasted much longer without major work being done on it, which would have caused huge disruption and given how broke the club was, would probably not have been possible without Whelan, who - being the arch schemer he was - would then have forced us to share it with his football club (imagine that). Also, things weren't always great back then. Facilities were often poor, and winter rugby was terrible a lot of the time, with foul weather, no covers at some grounds (Leigh, Cas, Wakey for example), and pitches that turned into quagmires.

There are issues now for sure, mainly about finance, and a lot of that can be put down to the mismanagement of the RFL, who's agenda seems to have been to maintain the M62 corridor at all costs and to keep certain clubs 'professional' who really don't merit that status. The salary cap has been a disaster in my view. As you say, the best players in the world once graced our pitches. Now, we can't even keep hold of average players. But that's not the worst problem; more damaging is that it's allowed the minnows in the game - the tail that relentlessly wags the dog - to keep trundling along without feeling any need to improve their situation, thus pegging the rest of us back until we've become the poor man's game.

The SL breakaway can't come soon enough for me, but I feel it may be too late.

Just go into the pubs around the Wigan area on Thursday. You'll see and hear all the experts giving their opinions whilst supping their cheap bitter. Then if Wigan lose they will be the first posting on social media about poor performance and lack of atmosphere.

It's very frustrating. I alone know maybe a dozen guys or more who used to be Central Park regulars and yet who haven't been for years now. And when you ask them why, they can't really say.

I still think there are certain signings that would make even that group sit up and take notice, but they aren't possible in the British game's current climate.

Wigan attracted big support from the Swinley area at Central Park. I know loads of Swinley folk who think it's a trek going to Wigan Central for a pint and have not/probably never will venture down to Marsh Green for the rugby. Most insular district of Wigan bar none.

It's a 20-minute walk tops.

Like my mates who don't know why they don't go anymore, I'd treat that excuse with the contempt it deserves if I were you.

But shouldn't the Swinley based fans have been replaced with those from Marsh Green, Pemberton, Norley Hall etc as they are closer to the New Stadium.
As Cruncher has said, excuses, excuses, excuses!!!

If there was no salary cap, most of the clubs would find it harder to continue playing as like in normal life, you cannot pay out more than what you are getting in income. You would also have a situation where the best players would be playing for just three or four clubs, more so than at present with a salary cap.

As for not being able to attract top players in this country, that is because of Rugby Union going professional in the mid nighties which stop the flow of their top players coming to League as a result of getting far bigger TV contracts from Sky and the BBC which our game will never get even if the was no salary cap.

That was the era you appeared to be harking back to in your OP. Fair enough if you've changed your mind.

Thought that myself?

Most of the people I speak too are just not interested due to the format of the competition, regular league fixtures just don’t mean that much in their eyes and so they wait until the end of the season and attend the key knock out games.

No disrespect to you, but the problem seems to be that fans DON'T attend the play-off fixtures.

Edited for accuracy

Absolutely. Crowds for playoff games are shocking but then they all come out for the final.

You are probably right.

Too tight fisted to pay for non season ticket games is now the norm for many!

Except, when the club gets in a final!

tight fisted but paid for a season ticket? really?

Easy fix, just treble the current TV deal

so we can have a properly funded 14 team league, home and away fixtures and whoever comes out on top are champions and have the CC Final two weeks later.

15,040 on last night, the biggest attendance for a Wire home game for four years. A pity it was on Thursday as I think it would have been closer to 17 - 18K on Friday,Saturday or Sunday.

Decent attendance last night. With regards the play off games they need to incorporate those games into the season tickets so if your team is lucky enough to finish in the play offs you get those games on your season ticket as a bonus.

I dont think you can as they are RL events

As pieman says they are RFL events so we can't

But if we could

That would mean losing the revenue from the 5/6/7 thousand people who do go and giving them.away for nothing.
If we increase the ST just in case we make play offs then dont people will complain about ST prices and not getting anything for the extra money.

IL has already stated that despite getting equal, maybe slightly more ST holders this year then last the income has gone down due to initiatives theyve tried (Free for u7s, cheaper ST for juniors in east stand etc.).

The club need to make more money not less

And I'm not sure how having more Specators on for less money is a good way to move forward when your cheapening the value of it.

our tickets might seem expensive but they arent, its the same price as Leigh and look at the difference in standard

3,100 Warrington fans in the north stand made up the crowd

so they should, we take plenty everywhere and boost all crowds

I was surprised at the free admission age going up to U8. I paid for my grandson last year and it's free for him this season.
Hopefully the RP Arena match event for fans will bring new money into the club. Was good last night.
Recommend it for anyone who didn't go in there.