Typical short-sighted plannning by RFL

[Fraggle]

Well the RFL in their infinite lack of wisdom have said we'll play Wires on 18th April at Widnes, and Saints will play Huddersfield at Warrington the following Sunday.

The Widnes stadium has a whole 12000 capacity. I know fans of other clubs make remarks about how our attendances are lower than in the past but we'd be looking for more than 12k for a league match against Warrington. But this is a cup semi-final, for Warrington their biggest match for quite a long time, and anyone should be able to see there will be more fans from both clubs interested in going than can fit into a 12000 seater stadium. Instead the RFL have clearly decided they don't mind having unhappy fans who can't get tickets due to the lack of capacity. Given there are 25000 seater stadia in Manchester, Huddersfield and Bolton why not use those and let people go to watch the game who want to go?

[Warriors_ace_17]

I gotta say its pretty disgracful having the game there, its way too small, and there is a great stadium in Bolton, that holds 28,000 and is empty that weekend.

Also why has our tie been moved to the first weekend, it was suppost to be the second semi final??? Is this so Lam wont be able to play as he was only scheduled to come back if we got the second semi final.

Glad i am a season ticket holder, or else i dont think that you would be able to get a tick for that game.

[Alex the Warrior]

Utterly disgraceful and i'd like to think the club will appeal both the venue and the switching of the fixture (is the whole purpose of the game to nobble Wigan these days?)

Widnes is a dump (with 3 sides), unsuitable for staging a game of any standard. How many season ticket holders do we have? We should all just get a ticket shouldn't we?

[Fraggle]

Alex the Warrior posted:
Utterly disgraceful and i'd like to think the club will appeal both the venue and the switching of the fixture (is the whole purpose of the game to nobble Wigan these days?)

Widnes is a dump (with 3 sides), unsuitable for staging a game of any standard. How many season ticket holders do we have? We should all just get a ticket shouldn't we?

It'll be tight. We've got about 6000 season ticket holders, and Warrington's crowds are up so they've probably got not too many less. Add in all the corporate hangers-on which go with big competitions when they get the later stages and there won't be space for anyone who's not got a season ticket. It's absolutely ridiculous. I still don't see what was wrong with us playing at Huddersfield and Huddersfield playing at Wigan. Or the Reebok or Headingley or Odsal or even Hull (maybe wouldn't have been too popular but the size is ok). Ok, so they are guaranteed to sell-out, but we're talking about one of the biggest cup competitions in the country, with a huge number of interested spectators, and most of them are going to have to watch on the BBC because they can't get into the grounds. Hmmm, I wonder if that's significant: the BBC recently agreed to pay lots of money to the RFL for the right to show the competition, maybe the RFL agreed to get them big audiences and this is as a good a way as any to achieve that by making everyone stay at home?

[Warriors_ace_17]

I dont no the exact numbers of season ticket holders from both clubs, but if you add both warringtons and wigans up together, i am pretty sure you are going to hae more than 12,000.

Well if you aint a season ticket holder you probely aint going, and i dont think any neutrals will mange to get a ticket.

How many tickets will we get then???

[Sharpy_4a]

Fraggle posted:
Well the RFL in their infinite lack of wisdom have said we'll play Wires on 18th April at Widnes, and Saints will play Huddersfield at Warrington the following Sunday.

The Widnes stadium has a whole 12000 capacity. I know fans of other clubs make remarks about how our attendances are lower than in the past but we'd be looking for more than 12k for a league match against Warrington. But this is a cup semi-final, for Warrington their biggest match for quite a long time, and anyone should be able to see there will be more fans from both clubs interested in going than can fit into a 12000 seater stadium. Instead the RFL have clearly decided they don't mind having unhappy fans who can't get tickets due to the lack of capacity. Given there are 25000 seater stadia in Manchester, Huddersfield and Bolton why not use those and let people go to watch the game who want to go?

Its disgracefull that not all season ticket holders will get a ticket. Crowds are up in super league we say we want to expand but how is this doing so!!!!!!

And just because some people dont have season tickets doesnt mean they dont go every week! However they wont be going to this game unfortunately.

This venue needs changing lets get a protest going!

[wolftown warrior]

good point.. i am not a season ticket holder.. but i have been to every home game this year & 85% last.. but seems like i won`t be going to the semi this year... so that sucks.. went last year to the mcalpine was it?? can`t remember... & we had a great day. looks like watching it on the beeb....

[Dorsey]

Guess it was too simple to have the Saints/Huddersfield game at the JJB and the Wigan/Warrington match at Huddersfield, instead they look around and find two totally inadequate venues (for this type of match - no problem with either of them normally). Must be the BBC anxious to still portray the image of rugby league as a game watched by blokes in cloth caps, who own a whippet and pick coal up off the street after the horse and cart have gone by. I don't miss many matches and don't want to miss this one but I think the writing may be on the wall and I'm gutted.
Along with a lot of folk on another board I've just emailed Richard Lewis at the RFL and pointed out a few home truths.

[primrose-n-blue]

forget that norton park. lets toss a coin and play it at either warrington or wigan. warrington will win either way. but at least then more of you, my wigan friends, will get the chance to witness this monumentos ocassion for yourselfs. it'll be sweet payback for lydons(89) drop goal. we've never forgotten that.

[OJ]

primrose-n-blue posted:
forget that norton park. lets toss a coin and play it at either warrington or wigan. warrington will win either way. but at least then more of you, my wigan friends, will get the chance to witness this monumentos ocassion for yourselfs. it'll be sweet payback for lydons(89) drop goal. we've never forgotten that.

If you've not forgotten a drop goal from 1989 then you are old enough to know how to spell properly but that doesn't matter right now as this is a time for us both to pull together regardless of club loyalties anyway its probably as well you don't get on the bandwagon and write to the rfl as they might think we are all idiots like you.