Re: The "let's all laugh at Widnes" thread : Fri Aug 10, 2018 11:00 pm  

I for one hope that Widnes turn it around....the game needs strong clubs and Warrington benefit from a strong local rivalry.

[Uncle Rico]

Re: The "let's all laugh at Widnes" thread : Sat Aug 11, 2018 10:57 am  

Oxford Exile wrote:

I for one hope that Widnes turn it around....the game needs strong clubs and Warrington benefit from a strong local rivalry.

I agree and I can't stand Widnes. The difference here is that if they go down they could quite easily fold they wont galvanise like HKR did recently and that can't be good in anyone's book, can it?

Sure, a 'luminary' like Jonno might not be able to contain his joy if the roles were reversed, but, we need more and better competition not less. I get that say TWP might come in and do that, but, IMO a 12 team premier division is too few and the likes of them, Toulouse, London, Halifax together with Featherstone Leigh and Bradford should be pushing for and being ready for the top not scrapping it out at the bottom of our sports 'barrel'

That said, IF they go down they deserve it but I won't be laughing.....too much

Re: The "let's all laugh at Widnes" thread : Sat Aug 11, 2018 11:29 am  

Looking at it selfishly, it does us (the club) no favours.
1500 Wids turn up, spending their £23 turnstile money, that's £35,000 the clubs coffers are down.
We won't get that with Toulouse, Toronto, Cats or London.

Expansion is good in many parts, yet it has many cons, too.

Yes, we'll titter at Jonnothegreat, for his general muppetry, but the fact is, another old name will be teetering on the brink. Bradford and Fax show no sign of making a return soon. Leigh and Salford are on dodgy ground.

Let's make no bones about this. Widnes are where they are, for one reason. THEY'RE POOH. They've won 3 SL games, this season, the last one being before the clocks went forward. It's their own fault. Survival of the fittest, etc. They had 23 opportunities to sort it out, so no sympathy from me.

In my time of watching us, we've had 3 scrapes with relegation. There'd have been street parties in other towns, HAD we gone down. Wigan went down in 80 (and should've in 06 but for them cheating), and we laughed.

Tough.

Re: The "let's all laugh at Widnes" thread : Sat Aug 11, 2018 11:57 am  

Wire vs Widnes one of the few games with an edge in the season, together with Wire/Wigan and Wire/Saints. Collectively our big ticket games.

I get the expanionist dream, but there has not been one sustained success. Catalans were already a well established side in an RL heartland.

I'm really worried about our game it cannot afford teams like Bradford, Widnes etc to be lost in the doldrums.

Re: The "let's all laugh at Widnes" thread : Sat Aug 11, 2018 4:04 pm  

I doubt we would get the same compassion from our scouse neighbours if the situation was reversed. Let's just rejoice in them losing sleep and worrying themselves sick before they just escape relegation by the skin of their teeth.

Re: The "let's all laugh at Widnes" thread : Sun Aug 12, 2018 2:44 pm  

lefty goldblatt wrote:

Looking at it selfishly, it does us (the club) no favours.
1500 Wids turn up, spending their £23 turnstile money, that's £35,000 the clubs coffers are down.
We won't get that with Toulouse, Toronto, Cats or London.

I don't want Widnes to get relegated, but why don't their fans turn up for home games?

An average attendance of just over 4,000 is pitiful.

Re: The "let's all laugh at Widnes" thread : Sun Aug 12, 2018 3:37 pm  

FireWire wrote:

I don't want Widnes to get relegated, but why don't their fans turn up for home games?

An average attendance of just over 4,000 is pitiful.

Widnes population is 60,000.

Warrington's population is 202,000.

Statistically they do better than we do in generating attendance from local population.

Re: The "let's all laugh at Widnes" thread : Sun Aug 12, 2018 5:39 pm  

Yes but don't forget that many Widnes fans live in Warrington, very few vice versa. On my last trip home from the council house after our derby there were almost as many Widnes cars turning off at Penketh as Wire fans.

Re: The "let's all laugh at Widnes" thread : Sun Aug 12, 2018 6:13 pm  

lefty goldblatt wrote:

Looking at it selfishly, it does us (the club) no favours.
1500 Wids turn up, spending their £23 turnstile money, that's £35,000 the clubs coffers are down.
We won't get that with Toulouse, Toronto, Cats or London

£35k sounds like a lot of money - and I certainly wouldn’t mind it in my back pocket, but it’s part of a £7m total revenue for the club. Those Widnes speccies in isolation provide just 0.5% of our anual revenue. A drop in the ocean really?

The only way an overseas club like Toronto or Toulouse can add real value to the competition is a domestic paid TV deal that they can add to the pot. IF they can supply that, the Widnes money would pale in to comparison.

Personally I think a two tier competition would seem the right one, with 24 professional clubs spread between them. But that can only be achieved with a French and / or NA TV deal.
Personally I think the likes of Widnes and Salford are displaying all the traits of a second tier club at present.

Re: The "let's all laugh at Widnes" thread : Sun Aug 12, 2018 8:34 pm  

I hope Widnes stay up as our neighbours. I don't get involved in unclassy topics(unless it's Saints). That's all I'll say on it.