Agree they probably won't, but if 70k just on the marketing element for one game excluding the general management and running of the club that has to be covered anyway. Assume the hire of the venue is an extra cost. So quite a bit spent over a few weeks to market one game. If Wigan continue to be a dominant force and continue with this and the capital challenge against skolars they will probably reap the rewards corporately which longer term might out weigh their costs. I hope it goes well for them but I have yet to be convinced that Wigans commercial acumen will necessarily provide any direct benefits to London RL, either Skolars or Broncos.

I didn't ask about LB's previous expenditure, as nothing directly on topic (there's a surprise) as not relevant to this aspect but if Hughes was spending 40k a week just to make the bills meet on running a club like hiring a venue, funding training facilities, first team squad, travel, accommodation for away games and homes for players, academy structures, support staff and even the lack of marketing commonly identified after all the Sky money received. We're talking about what on top of this weekly figure to provide the right level of marketing for a year. Another 10k a week perhaps, or say £500k extra a year on marketing, though that sounds far too small an amount to make the sea change difference for Broncos require to make an immediate impact from where they are now?

Lenagan knows the importance of a Capital presence, Wigan ironically 'prolly have more of a presence in London than the Broncos do, during their halycon period they were here once a year every year in their thousands in Cherry and White Hoops, I wouldn't mind betting more Londoners know who Wigan are than the Broncos.

Lenagan is merely keeping the Wigan brand in the spotlight in the City, now that the SL era has removed some of their dominance, he and his board 'prolly feel it's important to keep up appearances. The Catalans game is 'prolly ideal, few travelling away fans (so its 'prolly their lowest home gate anyways) and they might be able to tap into London's visiting French Tourists, and a bit of the ole' "It's an English Club v some foreign club" mentality.
I think it's brilliant!

Well done to Wigan in attracting 8.101 this afternoon, reported as the highest Super League attendance for 9 years in the Capital.

Have to say it looked less than that to me. Suspect a few non attending season ticket holders were included. Little evidence of Londoners buying into the event where I was. Hopefully it worked well enough for Wigan to return or I fear we have seen the last ever Superleague game in London.

Sadly you may be right.
Maybe I'm oversimplifying matters but a decent team with a decent coach, youngsters coming through the ranks, a stable home base and some money spent on promotion/ marketing/ engagement with the London public was what London needed. Hardly rocket science but yet Mr Hughes .......

No way was there 8;000 in the ground.

Looked like the sort of crowd Broncos got at The Stoop.

The Den worked well as a venue though.

Wonder if St David of Hughes ruled it out because of his Charlton connections?

A Wigan friend thought it was accurate? remember The Den holds 20,106

The Cold Blow Lane End was pretty full but every where else was sply populated.

My guess is circa 5,000 bums on seats.

The top tier at both ends were closed. One end lower tier was sply populated, the other was fuller. The Dockers stand was quiet, especially upstairs. Barry Kitchener stand lower was reasonably populated in the centre but empty on the ends. I couldn't see the top tier but I gave no indication of being rammed.

I spent ten years in South London and have watched football there often enough to be highly suspicious of the declared gate. Even if I hadn't been before I'd say it was nowhere near heading towards half full sadly. I texted a friends saying 4-5k, probably nearer the lower figure, before the gate was announced. A family of Wigan fans next to me burst out laughing when it was.

Yes indeed that`s disastrous really for Wigan playing all those miles from home and only getting 5000 turn up in London to watch them if infact it was that low in the first place.
Why on earth did Ian L not seek advice from Hughes to guarantee a sell out.

Good to meet up with you again Paddock . Glad to see you still hold Union in such high regard lol .

Might catch you at the England oops. (sorry) New Zealand match in November lol .

Regards , EW

Actually it is possibly disastrous. Not for Wigan, this match was never about bums on seats for them. This was about corporate schmoozing and we have no idea how that worked. However if a known name like Wigan, with decent press, PR and marketing struggle to get southerners through the door what exactly is the message to anyone interested in "investing" in southern RL?

There was a serious attempt to put a consortium together to take on Broncos within the past 18 months or so. It didn't get off the ground, there was no formal bid. If Wigan decide not to return that will send a huge message out to anyone approached now. I have no idea whether the main man behind the consortium is even interested now but with London out of Superleague, gates down to 250 -350 and the clock ticking on David reducing his financial input it's fast approaching now or never.

I know a bloke who works for Millwall and will be able to put in a more accurate guesstimate of the crowd than most of us. I have some photos of the crowd on my phone. I should see him next weekend. If he reckons it looks like an 8k crowd I'll post that as it's only fair on Wigan.

Good to see you all as well.

I enjoyed my day out. Travel was easy enough by train from Kent. Bumped into some other Bronco followers, they said they didn't go to Broncos matches often if at all nowadays. The ground was good, game was entertaining up to the last 20. Even had a bite to eat in Peckham Rye on the way home. I'd go again if the Den was used for SL.