I can't put my finger on why we haven't sold out. I get the "it's only a friendly" and all that, but we haven't played a proper game against an NRL team since 1997 and this will be a proper game even with no medals or points at stake.

I genuinely don't know why anyone responds to that troll and am amazed he has survived on here for so long. His obsession with all things Wigan is pathetic. Stick him on your foes list and life improves a little.

Wigan and Wire seem to have suffered from a small drop off in crowds over the past couple of years and that'll take time to build again I suppose.



I was really shocked with our away support at Widnes on opening night and our Huddersfield crowd wasn't great (for a first home game) either.

I think a lot of clubs attendance from the weekly rounds are season ticket holders and with the Wigan and warrington World Series games basically nothing games, so I'm not surprised they have small ticket sales. The challenge cup gates are a good reflection on crowds when season ticket holdsrs don't get in.



The price the Wolves selling tickets at certainly doesn't help!



Wigan have done unbelievable to sell 15,000 tickets. It's no shock to me as Wigan are well supported team every single week.

Why have the crowds dropped in what has been pretty sucsessful periods.

The groupon offer had seen the figure jump to that from 12k in just a couple of days.



It's a difficult one for Wire because with a much smaller capacity they can't really afford to start selling 2-4,000 tickets at reduced prices. We can do that with the capacity we've got and I'm glad we have. 12,000 at the HJ looks great whereas at the DW it looks(and feels) pretty poor.

Down to the old format IMO. I've always been a every home and every away game man until the last couple of years. The fact that I felt like we weren't really putting full effort in most weeks made me pick and choose my games a bit more. I think attitudes at Wigan, Wire and possibly Leeds changed over a period of time from when Leeds won it from 5th.



Saints have had the ground move in that time that always adds a few to an average gate.

Be interesting to see if Warrington make their £170k back if they don't sell out. I'm guessing both saints and Wigan will.

A new stadium does add to better crowds but that novelty usually goes to paying fans after few games and prob a season for season ticket holders.



I think the 5yr offer we did for season tickets helped with the crowds and that offer is up at the end of 2015 season so will be intrestering next year.

I honestly think this SHOULD have been an excellent proof-of-concept weekend that could have shown there is genuine interest in an expanded WCC. The massive slip up IMO was having no qualification criteria for the two NRL teams not involved in the main event. That meant any credibility was lost before dates were even announced and tickets had gone on sale. It should have been Saints v Souths, Wigan v Bulldogs and Wire v Roosters and then it would have been the genuine NRL v SL "series" it is being billed as.



Wigan's attendances have been gradually on the slide since 2012 and the club don't seem to be doing a massive amount to get those fans back tbh.

They offered ex season ticket holders the same price deal as renewal of current season ticket holders. What more do you want them to do without upsetting current season ticket holders?

I think there's more to growing attendances than just offering special rates for ex ST holders. IIRC at a Fans Forum a few years ago IL stated his desire to grow our average attendances to 20k. Magnificent if that could be achieved but we're going the other way.



I wonder, do the club still go into schools and target the younger audience? Are they promoting the club in other local towns? Would be interesting to hear the official strategy on this.