Well, the £7 discount for ST holders was a great bargain, IMO, so not sure pricing is all that much to blame. In any case, it's an RFL event, not a Wigan one, so it should be up to the RFL to do any marketing; why should the club pay out for advertising when they don't get the revenue from it?

The thought, effort and the magnitude of the marketing that was done for the Big One 5 wouldn't be possible to do for the game tonight. There isn't enough time to do it. Think when the Big One 5 was announced. It was weeks before the game so it was relatively easy for Wigan to market that game. With a week before the play offs we didn't know whether we were at home or away and didn't know who we were playing so there isn't for much for Wigan to market. You can understand why tonight's game got a poor attendance. It's difficult for Wigan fans on a Thursday night never mind Huddersfield fans. If we win we get a semi-final tie and if we lose we get another chance to recover and are still in with a shot of getting to the Grand Final. With the game on Sky the easy choice for fans is to watch it on TV and save cash for the semi final and potential final.
The semi-final shouldn't need to be marketed. Wigan fans should get behind the team and hope we can help them get to another Grand Final with a chance of retaining our title.

Par for the course since we've had this awful top 8 PO structure.

Home POs since 2009:

2009 (wk 1): Castleford (Sunday 7pm) - 8689 (weekly round avg. 14077)

2010 (wk 1): Leeds (Sunday 6.45pm) - 12117
(wk 2): Hull KR (Friday 8pm) - 11133 (weekly round avg. 15723)

2011icon_sad.gifwk 1): Saints (Sunday 2.45pm) - 12893
(wk 2): Catalans (Sunday 5pm) - 6790 (weekly round avg. 16125)

2012icon_sad.gifwk 1): Catalans (Friday 8pm) - 7232
(wk 3): Leeds (Friday 8pm) - 8235 (weekly round avg. 16045)

2013: (wk 3): Leeds (Friday 8pm) - 14600 (weekly round avg. 14544)

2014: (wk 1): Huddersfield (Thursday 8pm) - 8652 (weekly round avg. 14102)

The fans have never bought in to this playoff structure, and the introduction of Thursday night matches will only have made things worse. There's a good chance our semi-final will be on a Thursday night, which will make it 8 times for 2014, more than any other team.

When i read - Wigan have 'secured' a ticket discount it suggests that the price structure is up to the club but reading on the thread it appears its an RFL event? Either way it needs to be addressed, probably the structure of the playoffs (which will obviously change) and then the marketing. I agree there wasn't enough time for the club to get behind this fixture with advertising and that surely stops with the governing body.

Interesting reading on the stats of our crowds, our average attendance now appears to be on the slide and the least said about the Thursday night games the better, not ideal for people rushing around after work!!

I think our next playoff game will attract a bigger crowd for sure regardless of who our opponents are...

Given that last night wasn't the "knock-out" that Waney was trying to pretend it was, I do think that Hudds turned up (barely) knowing that they would have another chance to progress & maybe even hoping to get a favourable bounce & then an easy game on the back of the club-call.

I suspect a lot of supporters took the same stance & stayed away. But you've got to figure in the extra cost, people on shifts, travel (I'm often in London on Thursdays), school night, early start on a Friday. I'm not surprised at the numbers at all & just because I was there (to borrow a set of rants from another thread) doesn't make me any better a fan than anyone else. I missed the Leeds game because I wrecked my back - does that make me a poor fan because I wasn't there (gutted by the way)?

Next year's format may well address some of the issues, although I suspect it might be the 2016 season before results can be measured.

However, it's interesting to contrast the RFL's approach to the play-offs with that of the NRL (rlhttps://www.nrl.com/transport-plans-for-saturdays-semi-final/tabid/10874/newsid/81959/default.aspx?cid). If Red Hall just gave us the cost of a return to OT on the tram it'd be something.