Attendances - Do we need to be worried? : Mon Aug 02, 2021 12:53 pm
Since the removal of restrictions we've seen a Friday night gate of 5.5k vs Wakefield and 9.2k (with a sizeable contingent of lobbys) for a Sunday fixture with Leigh.I could understand this when restrictions were still in place, but i expected crowds to return to usual pre-pandemic levels once lifted, perhaps even above these as I thought there would be a lot of clamor to get back to the rugby. What i didn't expect was that crowds would still be roughly half of what they would be for similar fixtures pre-pandemic levels.
The last two attendances have been the smallest for Wigan RL fixtures in 25+ years, and are probably below even usual latics levels (will be interesting to see how they compare in a few weeks).
But I suppose my big question is, is this because people are still nervous of covid so a lot aren't attending (if so, it seems to contradict what we are seeing day to day life, where most folk are carrying on like covid has disappeared ), or is it that 18 months away from the rugby has broken routines for many which are difficult to re-establish.
We can probably live with this short term if it is part of nervousness and crowds return proper next year, but if the latter we need to urgently look at how we can bring fans back as current levels are unlikely to be sustainable. At the moment we appear to have lost around 1/2 of our fans
Does anyone know what other SL teams have been pulling. Wire seemed emptier than usual last wednesday,but is everyone else significantly down like wigan are?