That must have been why the East stand concourse was the quietest I’ve known since the stadium opened before the game.

Hope this takes off. Good initiative by the club!

Anyone know if there’s any plans to have a bar inside the new Robin Park facility? The fan zone is great for these summers evenings but it would be fantastic if the club could have somewhere to host events and for the fans to have pre/post match drinks in the colder months.

Agree. We said this on Friday, it's not often you get a nice balmy evening where you can stand outside with a cold beer. Therefore there needs to be facilities for an indoor bar (and coffee/tea area) with lots of space for those cold evenings.

It would be good if the club consulted with fans on what THEY would like to see. I think there has been a disconnection between club and supporters over the last few seasons and this is there chance of recovery.

In my opinion the indoor bar facilities need to be open most nights (rather than just game day) to make good money. Somewhere where supporters can meet regularly for a beer and chat, plenty of ideas from:

Coffee shop open during day with couches includes old Wigan books on shelves for reading.

Bar open most nights, big screen showing last week's game / classic matches.

Quiz nights with two teams of three made up of current players & one supporter versus to legend players & one supporter (bit like question of sport).

Pool table (pool balls in Wigan colours - Red home and blue away Norweb shirt), chargeable table.

Events - Riversiders, Fans Forums, Press conferences, meet and greet new signings... Etc.

Museum - All Wigan trophies and photos on show for fans to visit. There's a lad on Facebook with literally thousands of Wigan RL memorabilia. I'm sure he would allow such items to be put on show.

Photo opportunities with trophies won (with a player). When we win any finals in future put in an evening with the trophy and some players - chargeable.

On game day have a marquee in the car park to allow home and away supporters to congregate, inside the arena you can only fit so many inside and it will be viewed as a 'boys club' if access is limited to the few.

Just a few ideas, have loads more.... if anyone from the club wants to get in touch with me let me know haha!!

A supporters club/bar is something Lenagan has mentioned from as far back as when he first took over and it really needs to come to fruition in this new facility. It will just make the DW/Robin Park area feel more like home. The stadium has never felt like it’s ours but a supporters bar decked out in cherry and white would really help.

Cheers Brian, just this second edited my post with a few more ideas. Will look into it, anyone up for a meeting (Anvil - for old times sake) to discuss? Ha.

Fully agree. The supporters have been crying out for our own clubhouse for twenty years now. By doing this it accomplishes two things:

1) Re-connection between club and supporters.

2) Increased revenue (okay there will need to be initial layout, but hopefully has been part of the refurbishment specifications). Many of the ideas I've laid out won't actually cost much to put on.

Who knows by doing this could increase our attendances again. So it's a win-win.

But something needs to be done (which it looks like it will), the worst thing in business you can do is 'nothing' and just hope people turn up to matches cause they always have done.

We do have a large % ageing fanbase so we are desperate to keep the young people rolling in.

I was thinking about our ageing fanbase the other night, got to expect that has and will comtribute to falling attendances. Said it many times on here and other platforms, the club need to engage with the fans far better than they currently do. It makes no sense at all how little effort they put in to do this, the fans are crying out for it!

Think the club should consider incorporating ‘Max’s Club’ in this area too if not already done so. I would like to experience the fans zone but the kids do enjoy Max’s Club too so it can be difficult to get to both at the same time.

There is space to do this in the actual building it self in the viewers area overlooking the 100 metre sprint .Been in there on Council meetings and can even get a bar in there it is a large area with adjacent rooms of it. In fact would make a perfect museum cum bar area .

Great idea, the club used to be in the North Stand when my lads were younger. Something else that gets the families in.

Went to the fanzone again before the game on Thursday, noticed a couple of improvements on the game prior which was good to see.

It seemed busier with glorious weather again allowing the fans to mingle under the arena stand (maybe word is getting out more).

A couple of streetfood vans (fish and chips, gourmet burgers), ice cream man was missing this time though? They had a young lad on guitar providing entertainment which was good plus fan competition (free beer as prizes).

Quite a lot of young rugby kids in their club colours (maybe they had a game on the field earlier on)?

One thing I did notice was that what I assume to be young Wigan Harriers athletes were running round the track in training, which seems to indicate that it's business as usual for that side of things and Wigan RL will have no impact on them going forward.

Will be interesting to see what pre match will be like once the cold nights hit and we are moved inside. The large glass front structure (reception?) was on view for the first time and looks pretty impressive.

Let's hope for good things.

It would be good if the club released a short video on their media channels explaining the work going on and the plans for Robin Park. The investment, how this will benefit the club, what facilities will there be in the long term - indoor fans’ bar, museum, restaurant, etc.

That, however, would involve them having to engage and be open with the fans and we know how much they hate doing that