Surley in this week of all weeks you cant count someone inside the ground if they are not there.

The RFL allows attendances to be counted on pre sold tickets, football is counted with turnstyle clicks. I don't know if that's a Taylor report requirement afterall terracing and alcohol are still alowed in RL.

At the KC this season I was even stopped by a steward when I stepped over a line on the concourse as I could just about see the pitch, the game hadn't even started and I was finding a better viewing spot for the TV placed on the back wall with the pitch to my back.

Ridiculous.

That seems like a fair assessment to me.

I haven't brought the subject up, but quite a few people have said to me that they're losing a bit of interest and don't seem as excited as they used to be.

They'll probably get their interest back as and when the team start to display some form and the club actually demonstrates some level of dynamism.

It'll happen.....just a question of when

Having said that my brother only watches the game (whoever is playing) on Telly ...he is physically unable to attend......... and a couple of months into the season he feels that the whole competition has gone a bit flat....the cup game between Leeds and Saints being the sole exception thus far

I think the Wigan crowd in general are getting fed up. Year after year of rubbish is finally grinding down the loyalest fans in the competition. Now that there's no relegation battle - which we'd be in the middle of yet again - there isn't even the consolation of some excitement at the bottom of the table.

For this reason, if no other, we desperately need to put together a run of form and win a string of matches. Just being in with a shot of the play-offs would galvanise the fans. But at present we aren't even going to have that.

What worries me is that we've seen this once before - back in the 1970s. After decades of success and domination, the team gradually slipped into mediocrity. The club seemed to slip with them, either being unwilling or unable to remedy the problem. And eventually the fans slipped too. In the late 50s, Wigan had often played in front of 30,000 + crowds. By the late 70s, they were playing to crowds of 4,000. This then became a self-fulfilling prophecy: "We're crap, and we know we are. The lower end of the table is our rightful place. So why should we bother?"

I thought it was dear for 1hr 5mins journey.

Imagine my look when i got out by the West/north stand corner and heard the tannoy announcer say the words "Look Dire" i thought, yer not wrong pal

End of thread.

Do you think id phone a cab for a 40 odd mile journey and not ask the price?

This may seem odd but if you finish 7th bottom you get into the play offs (8th place) which i would take at the moment.

Excitement comes from challenging for the title and play-offs or battling relegation.

Eight teams go into the play-offs, that isn't a challenge, the regular season is now meaningless therefore it's difficult to entice new fans.

Unfortunately I think quite a few of the Wigan team would too.