Remind me why we don't play at Central Park anymore?

Ah the "good old days" when average crowds at Central Park were lower that at the JJB/DW. Rose (Cherry and White) tinted glasses everywhere.

There's no Rose tinted glasses. Most people are well aware of the limitations of CP and acknowledge it wouldn't have worked in the modern era.

I'm not sure what the love in that you have with the DW is all about tho?

It's an upgrade on CP in regards to it being more modern & that's about it. Outside of that it's a pretty poor stadium. I find it soulless and, imo, it takes a min of 20k for it to even to start to come alive. All that's before you talk about the shared aspects, which don't appeal to me. I want our home ground to scream Wigan RL and not Latics.

I also think it's too far outside of town to have a couple of pre and post game beers in a decent "Wigan RL" boozer - granted that's not for everyone, but something that I've looked for previously.

The move to the DW was done out of necessity, but that's doesn't mean people have to love it. Nor does that mean people aren't allowed to remember CP and some of the good times we had there.

So what do you proposed we do?

It's a good deal for us, so we'll make do and live with it. I'm under no illusions that it's more than a satisfactory situation and that it works for the club.

It just doesn't mean I have to love it, or make out it's the dogs b*ll*cks either. Imo it's functional and serves a purpose.

I'm not wedded to one idea when it comes to the DW either. Some posters on here have absolute tunnel vision when it comes the the stadium and won't listen to what other fans think - they know best and that's it. Personally I just trust IL. If he wanted to buy the stadium (which it looks like he did), then I'm behind him on that. If he wants to continue to rent, again I'm behind that. If he ever found a way to build us a proper home, then not only would I trust him - I'd be over the moon too.

It's a 10-15 minute walk. It's hardly on the outskirts miles away from civilisation like some modern grounds.

The DW has its issues, but had our entire business plan not fell into ruin after losing one game then who knows whether we may still have a ground of our own or not.

Personally I think that 15 min walk has a bit of an impact, certainly when the weather isn't great. All personal perspective tho I guess.

How many RL grounds are much nearer the town centre than the DW?

Nobody is saying the DW is the ideal, but merely stating that Central Park wasn't the utopia that many remember, and I was one who was there when the ground record of 47,747 was set, but also remember many sub 7K attendances.

btw I agree with you regarding Ian Lenagan, I dread to think where we would be without him.

Starting at the Berkley square its not much further in walking to the Begbies Traynor stadium then it would be to Central Park. Fact is its a pound a piece in a joe baxi anyroad to the iron bridge.

St Helens’ and Warrington’s stadium sit a similar distance out of the town centre and the pubs/bars (granted HJ has The Rodney opposite and The Kings Head down the road). There is a similar travel time from the train station to the stadium and decent pubs to the ground as well.

The DW is far from perfect but if you compare walking distance from The Moon Under Water to CP and The Moon Under Water to DW it’s about the same. The 10-15min walk is too far argument just doesn’t stand up in anyway.

Leeds, Hull, HKR, Catalan, Wakefield, Huddersfield, Salford are all further from their town (city) centres than the DW is from Wigan centre.

I'm not sure where the whole town centre argument has come from? Everyone is different, but when I think of CP and pubs I'm thinking more of Wigan Lane tbh.

My OP was all about drinking in a Wigan Rugby pub. One that isn't built into a stadium, or run by the Riversiders clique.

It's probably just something that doesn't stand up in the modern era, but I know there's a few famous footy pubs that are almost in touching distance of grounds.