Re: New Format (Well old, actually) : Thu Sep 20, 2018 12:32 pm  

muttywhitedog wrote:

IMHO Thursday night games is the largest contributory factor towards declining attendances. Games are played in almost-empty stadiums and the number of ST sales will have fallen simply because we have every chance of at least two of our home games being switched at short notice to a day we cant make.

There's a multitude of reasons our attendances have fallen gradually over the past few seasons (given to me by friends who no longer attend), including but not limited to:

Thursday night games.
Introduction of Super 8 fixtures.
Moving home games to Millwall & Sydney.
SW's predictable and boring rugby style (although a few have admitted that this season it has improved, excluding the poor run).
Overall feeling that the sport continues to be run by fools and the sport is in decline.

One thing I have thought about, had IL taken his eye off the ball over the last couple of years? When he came in he was a very vocal chairman for a good number of years. However he did move across to become the Chairman of the Football League a couple of years ago, during this period he was extremely quiet when it came to Wigan RL.

It's only until recently (Lam/Edwards announcement, spearheading the Ellstone campaign for changes to SL) that he's regularly been back as the face of the club. It also co-incides with his decision to resign as the Chairman of the EFL two weeks ago.

Does anyone else think that he's done that to take back a bit of 'day-to-day' control of the club? ie to address falling attendances, structure of SL, staff re-structure? He did state 'other business interests' as a reason for resigning.

Obviously I'm aware he has a number of other businesses away from sport, so maybe a case of me adding 2+2 = 5.

Re: New Format (Well old, actually) : Thu Sep 20, 2018 1:22 pm  

MattyB wrote:

There's a multitude of reasons our attendances have fallen gradually over the past few seasons (given to me by friends who no longer attend), including but not limited to:

Thursday night games.
Introduction of Super 8 fixtures.
Moving home games to Millwall & Sydney.
SW's predictable and boring rugby style (although a few have admitted that this season it has improved, excluding the poor run).
Overall feeling that the sport continues to be run by fools and the sport is in decline.

One thing I have thought about, had IL taken his eye off the ball over the last couple of years? When he came in he was a very vocal chairman for a good number of years. However he did move across to become the Chairman of the Football League a couple of years ago, during this period he was extremely quiet when it came to Wigan RL.

It's only until recently (Lam/Edwards announcement, spearheading the Ellstone campaign for changes to SL) that he's regularly been back as the face of the club. It also co-incides with his decision to resign as the Chairman of the EFL two weeks ago.

Does anyone else think that he's done that to take back a bit of 'day-to-day' control of the club? ie to address falling attendances, structure of SL, staff re-structure? He did state 'other business interests' as a reason for resigning.

Obviously I'm aware he has a number of other businesses away from sport, so maybe a case of me adding 2+2 = 5.

We need an announcement

I agree and do think there will be some further changes announced regarding the move to Robin Park. I believe some building work will commence in October/November. IL has always wanted a rugby league museum in Wigan and this maybe part of the Robin Park arena. I would imagine he would also be looking to put bar/food facilities there similar in many ways to the Aussie Leagues clubs to increase matchday revenue for the club. It'll be up to the fans then to support it.

Re: New Format (Well old, actually) : Thu Sep 20, 2018 3:31 pm  

Rogues Gallery wrote:

We need an announcement

I agree and do think there will be some further changes announced regarding the move to Robin Park. I believe some building work will commence in October/November. IL has always wanted a rugby league museum in Wigan and this maybe part of the Robin Park arena. I would imagine he would also be looking to put bar/food facilities there similar in many ways to the Aussie Leagues clubs to increase matchday revenue for the club. It'll be up to the fans then to support it.

Yep, you can go back up to ten years ago with his museum comments, that would be a good start and long over-due.

Having a bar and food facilities is the right way to go. It makes sense that everyone migrates away from that bar under the South Stand before and after each game.

A good start would be to put that Warrior IPA on Tap, something the supporters can identify with (similar to the Saints beer they have), supplies by local brewery Wily Fox.

A couple of months ago there was a big van selling Kingfisher which was pretty bewildering.

If you can get 1000+ supporters to shell out a few quid before and after each game that’s pretty good revenue into the club (and away from DW).

Re: New Format (Well old, actually) : Thu Sep 20, 2018 6:42 pm  

Does this new structure allow for players to renegotiate contracts such as say, Anthony Gelling? I couldn't see Widnes earning an immediate promotion if they do get relegated, so perhaps he has some grounds to tear up his contract?

Re: New Format (Well old, actually) : Thu Sep 20, 2018 10:09 pm  

Mash Butty wrote:

Does this new structure allow for players to renegotiate contracts such as say, Anthony Gelling? I couldn't see Widnes earning an immediate promotion if they do get relegated, so perhaps he has some grounds to tear up his contract?

Much like Bryson Goodwin when he had signed for Leigh prior to their subsequent relegation it will be up to Gelling, his agent and Widnes as to what is affordable or desirable. If as expected Widnes are relegated and decide they can't afford the contract then they will seek to release him from it, if he decides he doesn't want to play in the Championship he will seek a release from it. If one party is happy to see the deal through while the other isn't then they will probably look to get a SL club to pay a transfer fee.

Whether or not he could tear up the deal if Widnes didn't want to without repercussions depends on whether it contains clauses stipulating that it only applied to playing in SL.

Re: New Format (Well old, actually) : Fri Sep 21, 2018 8:49 am  

wiganermike wrote:

Much like Bryson Goodwin when he had signed for Leigh prior to their subsequent relegation it will be up to Gelling, his agent and Widnes as to what is affordable or desirable. If as expected Widnes are relegated and decide they can't afford the contract then they will seek to release him from it, if he decides he doesn't want to play in the Championship he will seek a release from it. If one party is happy to see the deal through while the other isn't then they will probably look to get a SL club to pay a transfer fee.

Whether or not he could tear up the deal if Widnes didn't want to without repercussions depends on whether it contains clauses stipulating that it only applied to playing in SL.

Thank you for the good example