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I was a season ticket holder from circa 2004 to 2017.
I could probably count the number of games I’ve attended in the last 3 years or so. No single reason for that. A mix of life moving on and Wigan/rugby becoming less/not appealing to me and my close family (5 or 6 of us have all sloped away in recent years). It’s by no means all Wigan Rugby Clubs fault.

However…
As a season ticket holder for a number of years - probably up to around the point that attendances started to decline - I do find it surprising that the club don’t make much effort to either
A) attract me/us back (I mean by way of email or traditional post marketing
or
B) canvass previous season ticket holders (or regular match day attendees) on their thoughts and opinions as to why we no longer go and therefore gain an understanding of attracting back that ‘warm’ sale.

I’m not saying I’d have an awful lot to say myself, becuase as I say, I view it that my life has moved on and I no longer have much interest in spending my money on the club/sport v’s other things.
But some of the family I mention might do. And I know a good 5 or so other families or groups of friends who went around the days we did, who no longer do, who’d have a thing or two to offer.

Just a thought.

very much in the same boat / thought process

i had season ticket until 2020 season, when i knew i had something else on and would either not attend any / many games, so decided that the money would be better spent on the challenge i had set that summer. For the previous 2 seasons i reckon i could count the number of games i attended on one hand each season, so my enjoyment was already diminishing. Roll on covid etc, and i atteneded 2 home games v Saints and Leeds last season (couldnt have picked 2 worse games to attend) with zero desire, attacking rugby, flair or anything on show to make me want to buy another season ticket. As it happens, the event i was training for in 2020 got pushed back to 2021, and i didnt complete it so and doing it again next year, and the training has already started for it, so i will poss pick a couple of games to attend late summer.

as with many things i attended with my dad, eldest daughter and took a couple of her friends. The girls got into exams, university etc, so drifted away. My daughter loves rugby league, and i am hoping that she'll get back into it, if she moves back home (really hope she doesnt become a dirty leeds fan ). If she does, that may be the trigger for me getting myself back into going to home and away games every weekend again, but i just dont know at this moment in time

as you mentioned, i havent been contacted to ask why i wasnt renewing or any marketing to me directly saying as an (ex) loyal fan why not invest in a season ticket for 2022. i appreciate that there is stuff but onto social media / club website (assuming thats been updated), but for fans that drift away, sometimes a little thing can be the difference between doing nothing or actually getting us back to the games. Our names are in the database, so why not send an email with season ticket details on to us directly and see if it tempts any back?

That’s the very point I missed on my OP - but was likely obvious anyway.
they have our details in the database…

Not defending the club in any shape or form on this as the communication between them and the fans is worse than abysmal but when the client codes were changed the other year were a lot of email addresses not lost in the change over

Unfortunately, something like the change of client codes should be so simple, but i agree that there is a good chance that it could have caused some loss of data

in my line of work, one of our tasks is data migration, and we are talking hundreds of thousands / millions of records migrated from system to system. Whilst is isnt always perfect due to all softs of circumstances, we can say that we have migrated x% accurately, with some minor fallout to resolve, but know exactly which records havent migrated and resolve them as a post migration activity. This is why i believe, that creating a new client code for say 20k fans, shouldnt be that difficult.

I don't suppose the Latics going bust and the Ticket office information/Admin being difficult with us could have created any problems???

This was my thought as well.

I'm sure the Latics new system doesn't include any previous purchasing history etc from what I've read. To get tickets for certain games it was GM Police / club policy that you had to have a previous purchasing history with the club - from what I've read that data doesn't exist on their system anymore. Not sure of the reasons why but I wonder if the same issues are affecting Wigan RL?

I'm not excusing the club - Because they should have had a data dump from the old systems etc. for our own purposes
However - I do know that the Ticket office systems are basically starting from Blank - And the issues the ticket office were having were in turn having massive impacts on our ability to function last year - i.e. We had to basically sell our own tickets until the ticket office sorted all the Latics stuff out

To be fair to the staff in the ticket offfice they are very helpfull with little or no previous ticket booking history to work with . I had a query regarding Magic Weekend tickets (friends and family purchase) for this year that were purchased 2 years ago and the lady in the office persevered over a couple of days to retrieve the information required although it was not readily available

Let's not forget the GDPR ruling that came in 2018, meaning historical customer information held before this date had to be removed from company systems.

fair point, and that could be the sole / main reason, but my general point would still stand, unless we were not able to gain any access to the database, but given people could renew, that would mean that the club did have access to the data (database)

i held a season ticket up to the 2020 season, and purchased tickets online for the games i attended last year, so i dont think i am being unreasonable with my earlier point. Whilst i may not purchase a season ticket this season, a simple email or contact to the people who have drifted away, may just sway some to purchase one for this coming season

Don't disagree

As I've stated a couple of times - marketing etc I don't really have an opinion on, obviously I want it to be Very good and I get from what people are saying that maybe it isn't and average at best. It's just that I'm getting my tickets no matter what, I know where to get them from, and I don't need a letter etc. however I did get the Auto Renewal packs and then a week or so after I got the letters about Renewal & New ST's as well (Which I presume is aimed at me in case anyone else in the family wants to buy them).

My original point was based on Price
I'll say it again - Price is not the issue - And dropping them to anything cheaper than what they are is not the way to go

yep, i agree with the season ticket pricing. I held my season ticket for around 15 years in the East stand. The auto-renewal is a cracking scheme and value, with the full price ticket very reasonable for a professional sport (although we can all have a gripe about it now and then ).

i dont know the solution, but like myself, plenty of others have drifted away from watching Wigan on a weekly basis over the last few years. if i was going to get a ST i would be happy at the early bird price available, knowing i would get it cheaper on auto-renewal next year. the club need to workout why we have dropped off, how they get some or all of us back, plus attract new fans to the games

Nice