Just wondered if other season ticket holders felt like I do over this. I invest quite heavily in the club to the tune of 5 season tickets every year, which I am happy to do. We have great seats and the value, I believe, is good. But I feel a bit short changed this season. We paid the same price as last season for potentially one less game. I say potentially, because if we finish top 4 (or 9/10) then we will get 14 home games, but if we finish 5-8 (11/12) then we only get 13. In 2016 we had 15.

There is no way I can afford to go to Australia, it is just a non starter. But I feel justified in asking for the Salford away tickets in compensation, and I've written to Ian Lenagan to suggest this (I'm not expecting any reply).

A second point that I'm not happy about is sending the team to the other side of the world to play a home league game which disadvantages the team over the season because we are playing less home games, in effect than say Saints or Leeds. You don't see Leeds sending their fans to Sydney for a home game (or even worse - to Millwall!!!).

I usually support IL and I believe he is a good and responsible owner, but on this issue I can't get my head around any benefits for the club, who are effectively putting our players in the shop window again and also knackering them at the beginning of a long hard season.

I'm glad we are continuing to test ourselves against NRL opposition, and understand that we have probably had to go over there during the season to make that happen. I'll definitely watch the game and will enjoy it more than many SL games if it is reasonably close. However, I don't really understand why we are playing Hull FC whilst we are out there, that is just taking a game away from both sets of fans for no discernible benefit that I can comprehend.

That's pretty much how I feel. I love to see us playing Aussie opposition, and although I'm not tearing my hair about about "losing a home game", I accept that it's part of a bigger picture. And in fact, taken with the news of Big Nigel's departure, it might just point the way for a more progressive approach from the RFL. It's about time it wasn't left to one club to try to make some waves and bring some interest and money into the game. The Hull board appear to agree, lets hope others do too

[i<looks balefully in the direction of Headingley>
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you have to take away personal grievance. the club is doing this as a business opportunity to make money. its at the fans' expense, yes, but would you rather that or the club post no profits constantly, especially considering what we now know about the salary cap at the club being maxxed out.

they are trying new things. I've heard the trip is due to make the clubs a nice sum of money and although i'm not an ST holder and I do agree and sympathise with your view, at the same time I still have to be positive that the club is doing all it can to market itself well, and in turn the game, and be a successfully run business too which is necessary in this day and age. someone has to feel the brunt and of course its not ideal that it is the fans who are doing so on this occasion, but lets hope it proves a success at least in monetary terms.

wigan rugby may be our way of life but ultimately the club is still run by a businessman no matter what he says about this commitment to the club. perhaps this is the way forward, who knows. we can't really comment until its been and gone and the numbers are in.

Can anyone explain to me the business benefit of playing Hull over there? Surely we are having to pay to use the ground, additional expenses of 30 odd people staying there longer, wouldn't have thought it would get a massive attendance, can't really pick up new fans because they wouldn't be able to go to games. I'm all for trying new things, and glad we are over there playing Souths, just don't understand this bit.

i'm not certain on the numbers but have heard the clubs and tourist boards in question hope to make close to £500k out of this venture. Wigan are doing this because they HAVE to make money, they don't want to put their fans out but this is a quick win. I hear the voices of the disgruntled fans 100%, but if the club is so desperate i'm willing to let it go for the sake of a successful future.

but where does this money come from? Are the tourist board/local authority paying us to play the game there?

Rads certainly seems to suggest so going off this interview: [urlhttps://www.wigantoday.net/sport/rugby-league/wigan-warriors/exclusive-part-2-radlinski-talks-wigan-s-style-of-play-season-ticket-sales-and-australia-trip-1-8951983[/url

I hear what you are saying but half a million (dollars or pounds?) spread between two clubs and two tourist boards isn't actually that much - and is it gross or net?

I really can't see that many attending the game either, so I'm with Grimmy on that one. It won't be such a good advert for Super League if the ground is empty (like Millwall was).

I understand wanting to play against the Aussies, but is it worth jeopardising the first few months of the season on a friendly? I really don't want to be coming on here in March saying 'I told you so' if the season is derailed yet again by injuries and fatigue. People shouldn't underestimate the effects of long haul flights especially when players are supposed to be in recovery after the Salford and Rabbitohs games. I mean the lessons of the last two seasons are surely that we need to look after the players health a lot better than we have been doing.

Anyway my first issue was that we miss a home game which unnecessarily creates difficulty for the team, who will now have to play fewer home games than our competitors. Given that we missed the top 4 on points difference last season I'd have thought we need every advantage we can gain.

Look who we play first week back Warrington away.

I applaud the club for trying something new and hopefully they will make a few quid out of it.

The concern I have is the effect the traveling will have on the players at the start of a long season.

and Hull have Castleford away

I'd decided to get a season ticket this season after quite a few seasons of just buying on the gate (for various, mainly work-related reasons), as it would just about make financial sense and the convenience would justify it. However, the initial marketing email I received saying "price freeze" while I would actually be able to watch one, possibly two less games, left a bitter taste in my mouth and I decided to not get a season ticket.

I understand the reasoning in taking a home game to Australia, but as a fan I want to watch my team in the flesh and not on TV ideally and I refuse to pay X amount to watch a home game in Sydney. The fans are getting disillusioned with the club, whether it be Thursday games, fixture rescheduling, announcements that everyone knew about made after Christmas or playing home games away from home. They need to think carefully before chasing every last penny.

Without fans attending games, the sport/club will die.

I don’t have an issue with missing a game here tbh. I attend enough Home and away matches to not feel to down about one game but I get that some people maybe just attend home games and we don’t have enough of them in the early season as it is. If the trip makes money though then it’s easy to see why they would do it.

My main worry is what’s already been mentioned in that we play Wire on a Friday on our return. We’ve zero chance in that game now imo and that’s poor considering that you’d imagine Wigan and Warrington may be pretty close come the end of the season. If Wigan are taking it upon themselves to go and promote superleague down under, I’d have thought we could’ve requested a Sunday game at home to at least give us that bit of extra recovery time.

Salford away, then Hull at home, a two week break, then Wire away and I'd be reasonably confident of three wins. Like other posters on here I have zero confidence of three wins as it stands, especially as we will quite literally get smashed by the Rabbitohs.

Of course the Wire game is on TV and as Wigan/Warrington is usually one of the highlights of the season we couldn't expect TV to leave it so we could play on a Sunday. But for the sake of the players health that is exactly what should happen.

Yes I agree. It seems that Wigan are always first to get involved in these ventures, whereas Leeds, the sports most successful club, just concentrate on playing. I always feel that at Leeds their fans are worth extra points to their team, whilst at Wigan the fans mostly seem disgruntled, possibly for the reasons you have mentioned.

Though to be fair Wigan's away support is unrivalled.

I just don’t understand this whatsoever.

Is it a game to promote Super League? I can’t get my head around that. SL doesn’t need promoting in Australia, nor do they give a toss about Wigan v Hull/Souths.

I just feel that this is a mistake of epic proportions and we’ve missed a beat with Canada/USA. If we really wanted to promote the game and make a few quid, why not go to Toronto/New York and play a few exhibition games there to help get it off the ground properly?

That’s long term effects. Not some poxy tour to Australia at the start of the season. I can see this being an utter farce.

I get why we want to try new things and I admire that we are adventurous, but this idea is simply ludicrous and may well be detrimental to our season which isn’t looking to great to start with anyway.

Wigan want to be the Man UTD of RL; with fans all over the world. I.E. they simply want to be successful financially and they are pushing this to further increase the popularity of their brand. Aussie folk may not turn up to the game but it will be a talking point and any news (ok, most news) is good news for the sport in this day and age.

i'm expecting to be pleasantly surprised by this venture no matter the results and impact. from what I hear the club needs the money as IL is pumping his own money into the club now which is not what he wants to do. he is a businessman, he wants the club to operate with profits but I can't see this kind of venture subsiding until the club is doing this on its own again, so get used. us mere mortal fans will just have to enjoy the ride best we can!

Cant help but feel the same,

Like it or not Toronto will be there or there abouts next seasons,a blank slate on a continent that could well embrace the sport, if the Wolfpack are to be emulated, surely is the right way to go, this has all the hallmarks of another Millwall,and we know how well that turned out.

You keep pushing fans you will lose them and in this day and age at a time where there's endless opportunity to spend leisure time and money you won't get them back simple as that.

I think there are far more positives than negatives. Promoting the club in Australia will just showcase that we are a professional, ambitious and progressive club and if a decent Aussie player fancies a dabble in Superleague then ventures like this might just edge them to sign for us rather than an opponent.
Add to that the financial benefits to the club as well as all the free marketing in the worlds biggest RL supporting country and it seems to me a very worthwhile venture for the long term.
This fixture was arranged well before the SL fixtures were sorted and it’s just unfortunate that we have Warrington the week after. We can’t expect to be given special dispensation, nor would we want any.
We have a good squad and if used correctly, 3 wins is entirely possible (albeit unlikely).
I like the whole idea and it’ll be interesting to see if there are any benefits longer term.
I’d much rather do this and get rid of magic weekend, the concept of which I hate!!

I hope the fans (both clubs) that travel over to Oz have the trip of a lifetime and that everything goes to plan .

Can't help feeling tho that the club is starting to ram this trip down the throats of they many that could not afford to travel also the others who don't travel for other reasons. The teams performance against Wire on return if not up to scratch could cause a bit of fallout with many fans (i hope not) especially if we take a tanking. This trip might make money but at what cost .

safe trip to all

Regards , EW

This to replace Magic Weekend? Give over. The MM is absolutely brilliant and a fantastic weekend and method to showcase the sport,

You’ve mentioned about edging Aus/NZ players to sign for us rather than another SL side - I see that as completely irrelevant, SW wants a team of homegrown/developed players and he is quite near to getting that. Furthermore, if this is a other reason for the tour then it really is farcical.

I just cannot fathom why we go on this tour when we needed a big season off the back of what was essentially a poor season last year. I’m also flabbergasted at why we as Wigan feel the need to take on SL promotional roles - this tour, Millwall, Capital Challenge (aware it was Broncos before Wigan). That isn’t our job or our responsibility, it’s the RFL’s.

It's not often you and I agree but I do agree with the above. There is obviously one home game less whichever way you look it at. If we get the "extra" home playoff game then had we not gone to Oz we'd have had the Wigan v Hull game at home as well! For me the worst aspect of the one less home game scenario is the way the club tried to pass it off as not the case [iif we got the extra home playoff game[/i and that meant the price of season tickets this time were in effect frozen (as the extra home playoff game = same number of home fixtures overall) when in fact due to one less home league game they have really gone up in price. I can't remember the exact words but they really were disingenuous are were taking fans for mugs.

The reason why the club is doing this? Money. The club expects to make £400K out of it mainly from sponsorship. Probably will make a profit as well because if a loss was forecast I just can't see the club going ahead and I'd have expected it to be cancelled or just not got off the ground given the club made a £600K loss last season.

Is it part of some grand plan for SL and not just Wigan? I don't think so. It's opportunistic in that there aren't any Auckland 9's this year and so there is a gap in the calendar and therefore an opportunity there for a fixture and the friendlies.

Which brings me to the worst aspect of this mini-tour and that is the completely pointless friendly. What a complete and utter waste of time that is. Just an opportunity to pick up injuries and add to the fatigue of the trip in a totally meaningless game.

Maybe the club have reasoned that even if we lose to Wire on the teams return one loss won't matter in the grand scheme of things given the league structure. That might be true but if so it disrespects that fixture and just reinforces what I believe is a growing view that the league is a badly devalued part of the competition. They must surely have considered the effects of travelling and the friendly on the Wire game and have deemed it worth the risk.

At no point did I say this should replace Magic weekend. I’d rather this than magic weekend which I really hate. The concept of it is in theory a good one but I despise the imbalance of the fixtures which is more likely to impact on a clubs season than playing a home game on the road.
I don’t subscribe to your ‘Shaun Wane only wants home grown players’ theory though as the club has clearly demonstrated that we will bring in players from anywhere if we can afford them and more importantly, if they will improve our squad. The fact is, it’s financially beneficial to have home grown players and we can’t get away from that in our salary capped sport.
I think your view on the Sydney fixtures is narrow minded but time will tell. If the club makes a profit in the long term then it will be worth doing and if not, it won’t.
As for promoting SL I disagree on that too. If the RFL aren’t doing it properly then we all as RL fans, clubs etc have esponsibility to promote the game as best we can. We can’t just sit back and let the RFL drive the game into the ground.

I agree with your views on the Magic Weekend. I don't think it's ever made a profit (though I am not entirely sure about that, just recall reading it somewhere maybe in relation to something about Nigel Woods departure) and it stopped being a vehicle to expand the game after about two seasons once the novelty outside of RL circles wore off. The extra fixture is just daft.

I also don't think Wane or IL want an entirely homegrown squad. I also don't think in recent years we have been very successful in scouting for overseas players but I don't see this Sydney game doing anything to rectify that. It's a one off game that will be forgotten once the NRL season gets into full swing.

As for promoting SL the actions of individual clubs are never going to do that and certainly not by taking a game to the heartland of RL in Australia.

There is only one motivation for this trip and it is money. All the others mentioned, helping recruit players and promoting the game are at best an afterthought but more likely just dreamt up to help excuse the fixture and give it a more laudable reason to take place other than money.