Exactly. Thay are two different things so get rid of the riversiders at the fanzone and have it ran by someone else. If I want to know the players favourite foods and listen to cringeworthy interviews i'll attend a riversiders meeting.

Get rid of the clubs official fan club in the fanzone?

This.

Didn't take long did it. Reserved tables and the worlds most cringe worthy woman with an abysmal knowledge of RL interviewing players and Andy Greg. Used to almost feel the players cringing from the back of the south stand bar as she asked them ridiculously embarrassing questions. Give it a few months and it will be back to square one.

Nailed it here. Bang on.

I went in for the first time pre-match on Sunday. I like the concept but something about it just isn't quite right.

The Riversiders should have stayed in the South Stand Bar and this "Fan Zone" (I'd change the name to the Leagues Club or something) should be aimed at a different target audience. I'm sure the Riversiders would be happier with that anyway.

If you are a group of mates in your 20s or 30s, the game day experience has always been pretty terrible, location of the ground is the main reason for this to be fair. I was hoping this Fan Zone would improve things and provide a decent option for a few beers. It just seems to be a rebirth of the SS Bar with a band on. The idea of live music is a good one but it was much too loud for the room and didn't really work.

Hopefully the club will take people's feedback on board and the bar will evolve as time goes on.

The girls and I ended up not going on Sunday after reading this thread and hearing other anecdotes through our friends. Which is a real shame because we were throwing drinks down our necks like they were going out of fashion from midday, which could have been pocketed by the club if they offered something we wanted.

I mean, what 18-36yo wants to spend time in a creche for kids and hexagenarian boomers? Let's have a few scoops surrounded by kids, selfies with the players types and Ellgren tracksuit clad super fans, said no one ever.

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...