Hull Match.

[Wandering Warrior]

Given that Wigan is built on properties that no longer exists, perhaps, as daft as it may sound, the team should move down there lock, stock and barrel?!
As for opposition to playing the Challenge Cup Final at Wembley in it's early days down there, I'll have to bow down on that one as all my points of reference on the matter have passed away. However there was always a full turn out for the trip down there as long as I can remember.

[Nezza Faz]

I see London easily drew the largest attendance for the England-New Zealand Tests (40,000 I think ?) and that not even a decider. There was not that much publicity for the game and they reckon 60-odd % were from the south !
We as a game, and the RFL, cannot turn down this kind of investment bringing hard cash to the table.

[Owd Codger]

What you are saying WW is that RL will never have major games / huge reasons for big company's to invest. Sorry but I disagree. I think London and other non RL places is 1) attracting new investors 2) Some new fans, on the face of it not enough but from small acorns .... and 3) potentially new junior talent. Existing supporters rightly or wrongly (rightly IMO) are not the key to these on the road fixtures; every investment we get, every adult who wants to watch RL, every junior who wants to play RL are a WIN WIN WIN. IMO there are potential legends who will never even play RL and that is a travesty IMO and if that junior is i the future successful in business they may well decide to invest in Wigan/RL.

Re London - for the doubters lest they forget when it was first mooted to hold the CC at Wembley the same voices poo poo pood it was crazy / stupid. Has that not been a success?

What has the Challenge Cup Final which by the way no longer attracts the same attedances than what it did a few seasons ago got to do with Wigan playing a league game in London and a situation where most of the crowd for that game is from Wigan and not many from the vastly populated capital.

Nobody has said anything about the wisdom of taking a big game like the Challenge Cup Final to London, just that a normal league game involving our club is not attracting the amount of support that was expected and could be classed as a 'White Elephant' as a result.

[Owd Codger]

I see London easily drew the largest attendance for the England-New Zealand Tests (40,000 I think ?) and that not even a decider. There was not that much publicity for the game and they reckon 60-odd % were from the south !
We as a game, and the RFL, cannot turn down this kind of investment bringing hard cash to the table.

I think you will find that many supporters from the North including myself went because the game was played at a new venue in the magnificient Olympic Stadium complex and it also attracted a large number of the New Zealanders and Australians of which there are a large number living in the London area and who go to all sporting events involving their own countries played in the capital.

If it had been played at Wembley, I do not think the attendance would have been anything like 40,000 as less supporters from the North including myself would have gone.

[keptinthedarkfans]

I think your flogging a dead horse WW. Have to give mr Lenegan more credit than I did. He has actually convinced his own fans that playing HOME games 200 miles away is the saviour of Wigan rl. Have to say that's impressive. Myself will have to renege. But thanks for the offer.

[keptinthedarkfans]

[quote="cpwigan"]What you are saying WW is that RL will never have major games / huge reasons for big company's to invest. Sorry but I disagree. I think London and other non RL places is 1) attracting new investors 2) Some new fans, on the face of it not enough but from small acorns .... and 3) potentially new junior talent. Existing supporters rightly or wrongly (rightly IMO) are not the key to these on the road fixtures; every investment we get, every adult who wants to watch RL, every junior who wants to play RL are a WIN WIN WIN. IMO there are potential legends who will never even play RL and that is a travesty IMO and if that junior is i the future successful in business they may well decide to invest in Wigan/RL.

Re London - for the doubters lest they forget when it was first mooted to hold the CC at Wembley the same voices poo poo pood it was crazy / stupid. Has that not been a success?[/quote]


Playing CC final in London proves zilch. If your looking for reasons to move to London use facts not conjecture.It has been proved that the biggest CC crowd was generated in guess what m62 corridor 102,000 and that was for a replay some also say it was nearer 112,000. So the argument could go we would generate bigger CC crowds with a Wembley in the north. Can't argue with FACTS.

[markill]

As facts were mentioned, it caught my interest. Here for all to see is a list of facts about cup final crowds, to make their own minds up on whether them being played at Wembley has been a success by crowd figure metrics alone:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_C ... Cup_finals

[platt-warrior]

What has the Challenge Cup Final which by the way no longer attracts the same attedances than what it did a few seasons ago got to do with Wigan playing a league game in London and a situation where most of the crowd for that game is from Wigan and not many from the vastly populated capital.

I would suggest you read Markills post

[SJ]

Other SL clubs don't do it because they know when they are p1$$1ng in the wind! Lenegan is just on a massive ego trip and surprisingly cp you take the fly like a trout!

Having read the two WW's posts and others I am of a similar frame of mind. I 'd like to believe in CP's vision. But I 'I've taken ken his

Advice from and looked at, or tried to look at what he describes has the bigger picture. Unfortunately there was no bigger picture to see. We constantly look to the Antipodes has a template for our game. We hear posters referring to the NRL has the National sport of Australia. It isn't. It proliferates mainly in the City of Sydney and environs of NSW andQueensland. In fact my Aussie contacts tell me that the same animosity that exists here between RL and RU exist there for similar reasons with RU in the ascendancy. Victoria is Aussie Rules withRL represented by Melbourne Storm. One of my contacts,a businessman from Melbourne had never heard of them RL in Australia and NZ is small potatoes just like here relatively speaking. Some once said you can take a horse to water but if it ain't thirsty it will not drink.
So what can we do. Metaphorically speaking the RFL can create a thirst down South. So far we've had little success. We just have to keep on trying I suppose.

[Nezza Faz]

I see London easily drew the largest attendance for the England-New Zealand Tests (40,000 I think ?) and that not even a decider. There was not that much publicity for the game and they reckon 60-odd % were from the south !
We as a game, and the RFL, cannot turn down this kind of investment bringing hard cash to the table.

I think you will find that many supporters from the North including myself went because the game was played at a new venue in the magnificient Olympic Stadium complex and it also attracted a large number of the New Zealanders and Australians of which there are a large number living in the London area and who go to all sporting events involving their own countries played in the capital.

If it had been played at Wembley, I do not think the attendance would have been anything like 40,000 as less supporters from the North including myself would have gone.

The last time we played New Zealand at Wembley, there were 70,000 attending !!