WN83

We must ride it at the minute and grow anticipation for the warmer months. I’m worried about these next few home games with them being on Thursdays and would really like to see the club push some incentives to get people in, with the ambition that if they see Field and Mago entertaining like they have been doing and with the promise of French to come, they’ll want to keep coming back. I remember the buzz at Castleford in 2017. People just seemed to be waiting for the home games to come around so they could get down to the games. I’m not saying we’re playing like that or will have a season like that but hopefully we can get the place buzzing like that. I just hope these next three home fixtures don’t put a pin in our chances. It doesn’t make more people want to get down looking at a ground with sub 10k on, in poor conditions. The club linked up really well with the community clubs last season to start growing the crowds again, by offering cheap tickets they could sell to their players and families. It’s something I hope they consider in the coming weeks to help build the good feeling and buzz about the place but it’s not something you can do forever.

Well, we’re certainly not a problem for the league as such but we’ve done better and will do again with any luck. We just need to get through these next three Thursday night matches, likely to be played in poor-ish weather and then hopefully build them up as things improve and we play Fridays or Sundays. The side carrying on building on this attacking start should help.

I think the crowds you speak of were in the middle of a real boom for us. There were averages of less than 10,000 twice in the three years prior to moving to the DW in late 1999 (it went as low as 8,800 in 1997) and it took until 2004 before we averaged above 11,500. It was a funny quirk that it took us hitting rock bottom on the field in 2005 and 2006 for people to galvanise behind the club and the averages jumped up above 14,000 and kept going up until 2011 when they peaked at just over 16,000. Those crowds were built on good marketing but also a bit of a perfect storm of hitting rock bottom, fighting back and building slowly but with a real peak of Maguire taking over and fans starved of success loving how we were playing. They’ve declined gradually since then but I wouldn’t use that 15k mark as a realistic mark of what is a success for us. The great Wigan sides of the late 80’s to mid 90’s never averaged above 15,000 and that says a lot. I think success for us is to get the averages back up to 13,000-14,000. We’re a way off that at the minute but if we can keep playing some good stuff it’s achievable. In the short term we really should sort the positioning of the away fans out and make the place feel more atmospheric.

I recall reading Shropshire Bull call Wigan one of superleagues three problem children, along with Huddersfield and Salford when it came to attendances and I nearly fell off my chair but after looking at the thoughts on crowds recently it would seem that is down to the amount of empty seats we have in the stadium and not the actual crowds and I do get it to a point. I think we can overly focus on the amount of empty seats over the actual crowds that are turning up but you do have to try your best to give a certain perception to TV audiences and I don't think all clubs do enough. I look at Wigan in particular as I know the set up of the ground and how both clubs have allocated the seating over the years and I think we need a shift in how we're setting the ground up and have done for a while. I see the North Stand open for 95%+ of games and don't understand why. It needs to be open for Saints games and possibly the odd Warrington one (and Leigh games when they're in Superleague) but in the main I would be putting the away fans in the East Stand facing the cameras. I'd do it for that tv perception but also for atmosphere. Ideally I'd like for away fans to be housed at the South end of that East stand and they would then be sandwiched between home supporters in the East stand and then fans in the South Stand. Yes they would then need fans of both clubs to share facilities but it isn't a problem at Saints, Leeds, Cas, Wakefield, Catalans etc, so I don't see why it's a problem for us. It's a quick win that would improve the look of the games on the TV and it would improve the atmosphere ten fold and for the games that need it the most (i.e non Saints/Warrington games).

It was great to see long queues to get in at HKR on Friday night. It really is a cracking ground in terms of atmosphere under the lights. Saints crowd was a good one but tough to judge how good as I believe Home Bargains had given free tickets to their staff (I presume they were the people behind the posts at the usual away end). Leeds I guess will be disappointed with their crowd. It’s a funny kick off time that one though, so maybe that played a part. I’m hoping Wigan’s crowd won’t be too disappointing on Friday. I don’t think it’ll be the 15,000 or so we’d have got for this type of opening fixture a few seasons back but if we can get 11,500-12,500 or so it’ll be a step in the right direction from the numbers that came back post covid.

We go and see the missus family in Falmouth once or twice a year, so the lucky lady will hopefully get to take in Cornwall vs Swinton this year in late July. I love Cornwall and rugby league, so it’s a win win for me and I’m really looking forward to seeing how they get on and getting to a game. They quietly look to be building their squad and I hope it’s something they can make work and build foundations to grow from long term. The locals passion for all things Cornish should help sell them and the game.

It’s great you can make a case for so many clubs making the top 6 and Salford would be one, certainly based on the backline you’d give them every chance. I think it’ll be the forward pack and in particular the prop department that will hold them back. Looking at the squad numbers and having Akouala and Burke at 8 and 10 would worry me as a Salford fan. They’re certainly not as strong there as when they had Dudson and Mossop.

New Wigan Sponsor announced as Open Exchange Inc, some tech firm from the USA, with offices in London, Hong Kong and the US. I can't say I've heard of them and if they're going to be a good sponsor, here for the long term etc, who knows? It's just nice to get it sorted after the mess with Iconiq.

I was going to post something similar. I really fancy them to have another top year, put it this way, I'm extremely nervous about Wigan going there on the opening day. They have one of the best spines across the league for me in Coote, Abdull, Lewis and Parcell. It looks well balanced and has a bit of everything. You add in the experience they have in other positions via the likes of Hall, SKD and Linnett and the versatility a guy like Takirangi brings and they'll give it another good go. As for the rest, I'm probably not quite as sold on Catalans now being a regular top 2-3 contender as plenty of others. There's no doubt they're strong on paper but I'd like to see if they can start again and back up last year. I'm sure I'll change my mind if they're flying after a month or two. I think Powell will really kick Wire on and Leeds look strong. As noted above, Wigan are an unknown quantity really. Our NRL signings weren't really regular starters, so is that because they weren't good enough? just unlucky? victims of immense competition? I hear really good things about them all but we'll wait and see. I'm confident the new coaching set up will get the minimum 20% every player left in the tank last year out of them but the league looks really strong this season. I'll go- 1-Saints 2-Warrington 3-Leeds 4-Catalans 5-HKR 6-Wigan 7-Huddersfield 8-Castleford 9-Hull FC 10-Salford 11-Wakefield 12-Toulouse

Presumably they’ve had some money out of them or I doubt they’d carry the logo again.

Iqoniq were on the shirts last season and at the time of announcing their sponsorship, it was said to be a ‘multi year’ deal. We just like being extra slow on everything.

Covid has been a brilliant excuse for the NRL clubs to hide behind for two years now. They will continue to ride it for as long as possible. What a depressing time for rugby league.