Quote: WARRIORCRAIG "I thought Wigan were getting it about right around 2010-2012 but it's gone a bit awry of the last couple of seasons. We got up to about 11k ST holders and managed to settle on an average of about 16k. This was helped by initatives such as the Big One, Heritage Day and St George's Day (admittedly all of which involved free/discounted tickets), alongside our big draws such as Saints, Warrington and Leeds. Since then ST holder numbers have dropped, our average has dropped by about 1500-2000 and the marketing initiatives seem a little less prominent.
There is a growing apathy amongst fans to the current league system, and I think a lot more fans are picking and choosing games rather than getting a ST. Moving games to first Mondays and now Thursdays for Sky won't have helped (the most recent one Wigan have had announced is HKR away which will likely see less than half that would have travelled for Sunday afternoon). '"
I'm sure you're right; after all no-one knows better what affects a side's attendances than its own fans.
What I've often wondered about Wigan's attendances is to what extent the apathy towards the regular season following your 2013 play off exit turned off non-core fans. The feeling that regular season fixtures were utterly pointless must have been hammered home to them in a big way. Likewise, I've also wondered whether it might have been a factor in players deciding to move on in the last couple of years. After all, in a rugby town like Wigan, players can hardly be unaware of fans' opinions.
