Shame. You can hardly expect either side to be firing on all cylinders for the first game.

That said, assuming we don't pick up knocks, should be a good way of getting up to speed for the WCC.

Regardless of it being a Thursday night there should be no reason it doesn't sell out.

From a Wigan perspective how good will it be to shout the first rendition of "Championees" in front of them?

Especially after the season they had!

The game will be played at Saints. In the last four non Good Friday games there attendances have been, 14,061, 13,138, 16,692 and 14,202.

I think first game up in 2019 will beat those, probably sell out.

Does Langtree Park have undersoil heating ?
Prime game frozen off time of year.

Its a marketeers wet dream.

I suspect Robert Elstrom will have influenced this

I'm sure it will have, but isn't it normally the area around the ground that's the main issue at that level? I.e people slipping on the car parks, stairs etc. I'll be looking forward to it. Hopefully they play it at Langtree Park and get two sell-out derby crowds instead of just one.

I don't think the rugby on show will be as good as it could be, but that maybe gives the losing team a reason to think they'll win the next one and build anticipation for the rematch on Good Friday. There is potentially a danger of saturating the fixture if we drew them in the cup though as we could play them 3 times in 3.5 months. I wonder whether Wire at the DW was considered, Grand Final rematch, potential to sell out the DW for if they really pushed it, no traditional date when we play them, so they could leave a decent gap till the reverse fixture.

Saints away, then Leeds home , then the WCC.
Great start to the season, and should be big crowds.

Dunno about that. But it has undersoil Wigan shirts.

The joys of summer rugby

Great start, can’t wait.

Let’s get Langtree sold out

20000 + against Leeds

And a full house for the Roosters game

I hope the club market the hell out of the Leeds home opener and get a monster crowd. Anyone buying a WCC ticket gets a fiver off a Leeds ticket. Let Leeds flog them for a tenner a ticket and fill the North Stand. Parade the SL trophy. Set up promotions with employers in town like they did with Heinz, fill the place.

In reality, they’ll probably just send an email promo to the database with Lam’s face and a strapline like New Era...

Saints ground didn't have under soil heating when built. Whether they've installed it since I don't know but I doubt it.

Despite all the negativity from fans we still have Thursday night games throughout the season.........................very disappointing albeit not surprising.

Give the local amatuer clubs 500 tickets each to sell and let them keep £5 for each ticket sold.

Was having a similar discussion at Anfield on Saturday in relation to international tickets. The lack of a link up with the amateur game is really poor IMO. The clubs should be given tickets and coach places to sell with incentives for how many they can shift and some sort of prize for who does the most (The England squad maybe training at their ground or holding coaching sessions with all the age groups).

So much more could and should be done.