Re: Wigan in London : Wed Jun 10, 2015 3:35 pm
DaveO wrote:
It is a completely ludicrous idea and no, not because of the loss of a home game.
From the BBC:
Wigan owner Ian Lenagan was the majority shareholder in London-based Harlequins RL between 2005 and 2008.
"My personal passion for Wigan and rugby league in London makes this initiative an obvious one," he said.
Well sorry but I would suggest even Wigan fans who would like to see RL expand that plenty of them would strongly disagree that just because the chairman has a passion for RL in two places he should be trying to serve that passion by taking Wigan games to London.
As to the business case for it, why on earth does he think people or businesses in London will be interested in shoving money at club that plays all bar one of its games in Wigan? They are hardly going to be able or want to drive up the M1 & M6 to take advantage of any deal on a Friday night. What do they get out of it? Attending a game with a few thousand on it it that?
What not put greater effort into courting sponsons from the north? There are large multi-national firms located up here who could take advantage.
What about the "away" fans and clubs? Has anyone asked the other clubs or their fans if they are willing to put up with the costs of going down to London to play Wigan?
Tapping into new talent down there? There is absolutely no case for that. We have probably the best production line as it is and while the next Ellery Hanley may be hiding somewhere in London he is just as likely to be in Edinburgh.
For me it is self indulgent total waste of time.
From the BBC:
Wigan owner Ian Lenagan was the majority shareholder in London-based Harlequins RL between 2005 and 2008.
"My personal passion for Wigan and rugby league in London makes this initiative an obvious one," he said.
Well sorry but I would suggest even Wigan fans who would like to see RL expand that plenty of them would strongly disagree that just because the chairman has a passion for RL in two places he should be trying to serve that passion by taking Wigan games to London.
As to the business case for it, why on earth does he think people or businesses in London will be interested in shoving money at club that plays all bar one of its games in Wigan? They are hardly going to be able or want to drive up the M1 & M6 to take advantage of any deal on a Friday night. What do they get out of it? Attending a game with a few thousand on it it that?
What not put greater effort into courting sponsons from the north? There are large multi-national firms located up here who could take advantage.
What about the "away" fans and clubs? Has anyone asked the other clubs or their fans if they are willing to put up with the costs of going down to London to play Wigan?
Tapping into new talent down there? There is absolutely no case for that. We have probably the best production line as it is and while the next Ellery Hanley may be hiding somewhere in London he is just as likely to be in Edinburgh.
For me it is self indulgent total waste of time.
The only game I could see working from a crowd point-of-view would be Wigan/Catalans. One because you'd tap into the many fans of other clubs down here who'd go to that to shout for Catalans and against Wigan while they wouldn't bother with say Wigan/Cas or Wigan/Hull (this *might* not be what Lenegan is intending, but even so...). Also there are 300k+ French in London and presumably some of those are Treizistes. The Catalans support would be a lot higher than the at the equivalent game in Wigan.
All that would effectively make it a Catalans home game though, so I can see why a partisan Wigan fan would be uneasy with the idea.