The gates have fallen by that much when we've won trophies - the club can't win.

Correct
Falling gates have as much to do with our own fans slagging our own team off and creating a perception of negativity as it has with thebperf9rmnae of the team.

People wont pay good money to watch star names leave and be replaced by lesser names or kids. People want to see the team strengthened not weakened.

My two friends didn’t renew their season tickets last year because of the style of rugby that Shaun Wane coached. They didn’t think that winning trophies was the be and end all.
Even though we have a new coach this year in Lam, they are still staying away.
Unfortunately, once fans are lost it’s difficult to get them back again.
Sadly, we have lost about 4,000 fans in the past few years.
Star players attract fans. It’s a pity we have lost Bateman and Tomkins but Hardaker is a good signing.
Other ‘stars’ at Wigan are Greenwood, Manfredi, Burgess, O’Loughlin and Williams with the latter expecting to leave and O’Loughlin retiring soon.
With this in mind I can’t see attendances improving.
But I will carry on renewing my season ticket. I can’t imagine life without my passion for Wigan.

You can keep blaming fans but in the end it’s under investment in star names that people want,they aren’t fools

we have a higher av attendance than Saints and wire but they can sign star players. The fans not turning up is

I'm not clear what point you making, but for me falling attendances are less about a perceived lack of star players, and more about general leisure trends. People don't go to watch rugby (or football, I'd argue, saying that the Premier League is atypical and a bit of a special case) matches so much these days. Just like they don't go to the pub so much, and so many have closed. How much did superstar Ben Barba put on Saints' gates last year? Not much.

I mean people go on about penny pinching due to less people turning up, I dont accept that for the reasons I put above

At the risk of bringing this back to the main topic, it was a mixed bag for Kibula this afternoon. Admittedly, it's not the sort of conditions that he thrives in. When he did carry the ball in he was a handful and difficult to put down. Defensively he gave away two needless penalties. I'm quite surprised he was played as a second row as I don't think anyone who watches him sees that as a position that suits him. Doesn't have the mobility defensively.

Agreed. It’s obvious he’s a 10 or 13. He’s a very good ball playing loose forward but like you say the conditions didn’t suit him today, he always attracted 3/4 men to him when running but he was always looking to cut back into the middle which showed he wasn’t a-natural second row

Always thought he has had a startling lack of athleticism.

That was highlighted today.

Unless something changes significantly I really don’t see him ever being a first team player at a team hoping to challenge for honours.

The majority of the weight he seems to carry looks like fat, if he can turn that into muscle whilst staying around 17/18 stone then he’ll be a real player

It’s not his weight it is his running style, and lack of acceleration I’m concerned with. He is very lumbering and awkward.

Not his fault it’s just genetics but something I can’t see him getting past. Hope I’m wrong.

Yeah you’re correct he does look slow and awkward but I think with some weight loss and work on his fitness he’ll look a lot better, you can’t carry the fat he does and he fast unfortunately

I’d agree with you,watched him over the last couple of years and I don’t know he doesn’t look like one that you’d say for certain he has that X factor and it’s his running style as you say,he’s a way off being SL standard at the moment,but time is on his side