We had one corporate hospitality box empty last year, but have filled them all this year.

I personally think the amount of wonga that we will get from gates will fall in relation to other income streams, which will become more important going forward. I like the idea of the hotel, it would compliment the business conferencing that we currently offer. Yes it would be nice to get bigger gates, but I think we are living in the past if we think they are the key to a more financially successful club.

At least the plans are in place should the need arise, a business should always be planning for growth. A 3% increase in attendances every year for the next ten would give an avg attendance of just under 15k, so in that instance a capacity increase would be required for the bigger games - 22k is ambitious though. Not that there is anything wrong in that!

I think the most important plans are for the boxes and the hotel. Are they planning on including an additional tier of seats with the boxes?

The hotel seems a good fit and would work well with the conferencing & banqueting facilities already in place at the stadium. What size of hotel would they be thinking of though? The footprint in the NE corner doesn't seem all that big...?

Am I right in saying that the stadium doesn't hold a license for concerts?

Yes I seem to remember something similar when we were goin through the planning phase. Not sure if this can be changed at all with another planning application....?

Growth doesn't just happen in the future because it happened in the past. It gets harder the more you grow.

Bradford went from 4000 in 1995 to 15000 by 2003. You would have thought they could be in the 20000s by now but they are nowhere near.

Bradford had a great team but when a lot of players left at the same time, they did not replace them with players of the same quality. When a top coach left, they didn't replace him with a coach of the same quality.

Of course Bradford had a famed marketing machine but the wooly bully generation started to lose interest. You can't magic up new fans if your product on the field is not as exciting as it was before.

Lets hope Warrington aren't going to lose guys like Morley and Briers without having players of the same or better quality lined up, else the dream of 20,000 fans is going to be a hard sell.

I like Gatcliffe. I even like his cheesy "sexy" stadium comments he makes. I think it's great that we have someone like him at the club wanting to push us forward.

Going back to attendances and fan attraction; one thing that does suprise me is how poor our club has become at game-day entertainment in general. The in-game product itself we have spot on through the excellent team we are lucky enough to have, but pre-match, and half times entertainments are now very poor offerings for me.
I have nothing against the community dancers - they do a great job, but we are a far cry from the Peter Deakin days of the Starlights and the sort of match day package he brought to the club.

People may turn up their nose at cheesy matchday entertainment, but there's no doubt it brings people through the doors.
In my opinion, we need to bring that family package back to Warrington. Make it a day out rather than just a game of rugby.

The club could also embrace social media much more to it's advantage, with better fan interaction. Why can I not vote for my man of the match at a game for example? There's lots that can be done at the club to improve the offering on a Sunday afternoon.

Bradfords problems are well documented, their main problem is the antiquated Odsal stadium and the massive financial black hole it creates....draining resources away from the team. If you don't maintain a very competitive team, challenging for everything , every year, then the crowds will drift away.

We are not in the same postion.

We have very good, solid financial foundations built around a modern stadium. The continued investment in high quality playing staff should be sustainable against this backdrop. You have to have a good product on the pitch....its the number one reason people turn up week in week out. To achieve this you need a very good coach and the necessary money to invest in players. We have both at the moment...and we should be able to attract another top coach when Tony eventually moves on.

Attracting top players doesn't seem to be a problem (apart from the chasm between earning is Aus and here..something out of our control at the moment).

I agree that the likes of Briers and Morley need to be replaced by individuals of at least equal calibre...thats about maintaing the product on the pitch....they are big big boots to fill....hard but not impossible.

We have to show ambition in everything we do...and lets have some confidence...some self belief. For many many years I had very little confidence in the club....but I still rolled up every week....now I'm more confident than ever and our position in the top echelons of the sport can be maintained for many many years.

I don't think names like that matter in getting new fans to turn out. When I started watching I hadn't heard of either. What's more important is creating the sense that the stadium is the place to be, win lose or draw as the heart of the community. For me, growing up on the west side of town it felt like we had no connection to the club or sport and I am sure that is the same for many others still.

Take for example when Andrew Johns came, it doesn't get much bigger than that yet as far as I can remember none of my friends or family knew a thing because unless you follow the sport it means nothing. I'm not quite sure how it should be done but Warrington has a population of 202,000 and I would love to know how many of those people have watched a game at the HJ. With soccer ticket prices and Sky Sports subscriptions continuing to rise, surely there is an opportunity to win some more people like myself over?

I think if they do the hotel idea it will be built outwards to wear the disability parking currently is. You never know they may relocate that parking or Tesco may allocate some of theirs to them since that carpark is never full. In that case the hotel can stretch the entire way around that area; it also may be built over the East stand so the hotel forms part of the second tier etc. I reckon yo could fit a 100 rooms easy in there and you already have the conference rooms and hospitality to be used as the food and drinks areas of the hotel as it is.

BIG MONEY!

The sumo challenge would put at least 3k on the gate.

That is something we are way behind on. Most clubs these days provide fans with an instant response, where as it is rare for Warrington to reply to people, which is annoying as every little thing said on the internet in relation to the club (including these boards) gets read. It is the little things that make the big things happen!

I didn't say they would. But it might help as part of a wider, community focussed marketing push. What about a loyalty card type approach like the supermarkets do? Points for buying stuff from the shop, points for buying a season ticket, points for buying match tickets, points for introducing new fans etc. But as PART of a wider scheme, it wouldn't work on its own.





Thats a very defeatist way of looking at it. Thats like saying there can't possibly be any new business ideas out there because if there were they would have already happened. Look at Leeds and Wigan - they are both extremely visible in the local communities with a huge number of amateur, junior and school teams playing RL compared to Warrington. That is a large part of why they get bigger crowds. And its why football clubs in smaller towns get bigger crowds - because it means more to more people. Lots of people in Warrington know nothing about RL and rarely come into contact with it.



But, as others have said above, selling RL to your community isn't about top class stars. Youngsters will look up to professional sportsmen regardless of how famous they are. Obviously the higher profile of football will always be a draw - but lots of football fans don't actually attend matches as its too expensive. There is no reason why they can't follow football on TV and attend live RL matches as well. If you embed RL in your communities through school teams and local clubs, people will want to support their town team too providing the club has good relations with them.

I know none of the above is easy, the point I'm really making is that I do believe Warrington has the potential to be a much bigger club as there are loads of under-tapped areas nearby (Lymm is a classic example). But it will only be achieved by a joined up, long term strategic plan, not just by telling your existing fans that we must sell out our matches.

Quote: Alf7 "Yes I seem to remember something similar when we were goin through the planning phase. Not sure if this can be changed at all with another planning application....?'" Maybe there is a way to get permission for live music events ............. www.infusefestival.com/#!battle- ... bands/cv3v

Quote: Alf7 "Yes I seem to remember something similar when we were goin through the planning phase. Not sure if this can be changed at all with another planning application....?'" Maybe there is a way to get permission for live music events ............. www.infusefestival.com/#!battle- ... bands/cv3v

Was in earlier to pick up two tickets for the south stand and maybe the away shirt while they're on sale.

Was told I needed to provide information i.e. name, address etc - asked if I could have the tickets without providing this information, was told no. Left without the tickets.

Guess they're not that bothered.

A half time game, we are sponsored by HJ, win a car.

Make it something difficult/rare but do-able, place the ball on the half way and you have to hit the crossbar from a place kick.

Each player has his own number, have a text voting system for man of the match, the club can even make a little money off that.

Anyway they can get the road closed at the side of south stand on match days? Have something going for the fans like at Magic weekend?