Phone call from Chief Exec!

[FROM A TO B]

Give the club their due's.
How many Chief Execs from a club the size of Wigan RL would take the time to personally phone people who had mailed the club about the Friday fiasco.
Anyone else had a call from Mick Hogan?

Only joined the club a week ago from Newcastle, so somewhat a baptism of fire.

didn't go into explicit detail, but I got the impression that they honestly did not see this as an issue and didn't expect to get 4th place. They did expect and plan for getting the points at Stains, but did not believe Wire would collapse the way they did!

[butt monkey]

Sorry! That just makes it worse. It essentially mean the club made no pre-requisite attempt to secure a Super League position higher than 5th spot from the beginning of the season.

How can they sell season tickets if you "read between the lines" and this is what the club are saying - "Don't bother with league position, as long as we don't upset the football fixtures, we can make a genuine attempt from 5th/6th spot".

[cpwigan]

Mick Hogan could be the best thing to happen to this club. Earlier in the season I emailed the club with some merchandising ideas. No reply, no nothing. Sent the same ideas to Mick Hogan, an immediate reply. He also showed a couple of his own ideas in relation to mine.

I am not easily impressed but he impresses me. IL cannot be hands on enough to run the club and the jury is still out on JL.

[Susi]

I have also had a call tonight from Mick Hogan, he was very apologetic and explained matters.He also said things were being put in place to prevent it happening again.
Shows that some times they actually listen.

[cpwigan]

Re; what BM says. Surely next season and thereafter. Wigan Athletic should play away from home whilst the play offs are taking place. That is the type of planning that should have been built into the fixture list for Wigan Athletic. IMO, Wigan Atjhletics simply did/will not sacrifice home/away rotation of fixtures whereas we have always had to do so.

[FROM A TO B]

Sorry! That just makes it worse. It essentially mean the club made no pre-requisite attempt to secure a Super League position higher than 5th spot from the beginning of the season.

How can they sell season tickets if you "read between the lines" and this is what the club are saying - "Don't bother with league position, as long as we don't upset the football fixtures, we can make a genuine attempt from 5th/6th spot".

going into a little more detail (wish i'd recorded the call now), there will not be a new ground, as there is not enough money to warrant a ground dedicated to being used for a third of the year. It does make sense to ground share (from a business perspective) and the club have learned from this "naivity" and will ensure things are in place to make sure it does not happen again.
As CP has shockingly said, this guy has impressed and as I have said, how many Chief Execs would personally pick up the phone and speak to individuals on a one on one basis.

He hopes that by laying on free transport, that this will go a little way to appeasing the situation, but does understand and agree that the club should not have been put in this situation in the first place (or that was my take on the conversation).
Doesn't make it right, doesn't make it better, but at least he has the balls to openly discuss :exc:

[exile in Tiger country]

I got a call about 9:30 from Mick Hogan. Definitely said that no one saw it coming as everyone assumed Wigan would be away at Warrington or Catalans.
He alsp said that technically it is an RFL qualifying game so could be played wherever the RFL want.
He said that the club are looking at the fixtures for next year as Latics are due to play on Easter Saturday, and it's our home fixture against the scousers, of course, on Good Friday.
He assured me that the club were looking to make sure that this does not happen again .
He also said that the stadium needs both teams to be doing well otherwise it is not viable.
He admitted that the SKY schedule had a part in the decision not to move the game to the Thursday or the Sunday.
I e-mailed the previous administration several times, and never even got an e-mail reply.
I think this bodes wel for the club.
Nice one Mick. Thanks for the call, and for telling it like it is.

[DaveO]

didn't go into explicit detail, but I got the impression that they honestly did not see this as an issue and didn't expect to get 4th place. They did expect and plan for getting the points at Stains, but did not believe Wire would collapse the way they did!

So does that mean they knew before the weekends fixtures that if we did get 4th then we could not play at home?

If so what was all that guff that went up on the official web site about us securing a home tie (that was fairly quickly taken down again)?

Seems to me like one half of the club doesn't know what the other half is doing if they did indeed know we could not stage a home tie before last weekend.

The free coaches don't help everyone (though it's a good gesture to fans who live in Wigan) but it should never have happened in the first place.

The important thing is that it never happens again. If the club are saying this is the case that's fair enough but if they could not prevent it happening this time how can they prevent it happening again is what I would like to know?

Dave

[cpwigan]

I always give praise where it is due Mr A/B I even praise you once every season lol

On a serious note. You cannot knock a guy for such prompt action and let's be honest he was entitled to expect some hostility / anger etc. I do think our club has been run on a skeleton staff for far too long and maybe things are changing for the better. Mick Hogan seems driven and determined to give it 100% I hope Mr Lydon takes note, because the CPW jury is still out on him!!

[butt monkey]

didn't go into explicit detail, but I got the impression that they honestly did not see this as an issue and didn't expect to get 4th place. They did expect and plan for getting the points at Stains, but did not believe Wire would collapse the way they did!

So does that mean they knew before the weekends fixtures that if we did get 4th then we could not play at home?

If so what was all that guff that went up on the official web site about us securing a home tie (that was fairly quickly taken down again)?

Seems to me like one half of the club doesn't know what the other half is doing if they did indeed know we could not stage a home tie before last weekend.

Dave

Exactly Dave, the free coaches is in retrospect, a "nice gesture".

But, the Latics fixtures have been around for some 5-6 months now, surely someone then must have foreseen that IF Wigan had made 3rd or 4th spot there would have been a conflict of interests?? Is this one of the reasons for the inconsistent form? An attempt by the club to diffuse this problem that was "blown in the water" by the Wires poor end of season form?