Does the town deserve a team ? | Vital Football

Does the town deserve a team ?

hindleymonwafc

Vital Champions League
This is not something I've thought about just in the last few weeks its a question I've asked for years. Even when we were beating the cream of the land we just couldn't tempt them out the boozers and I've lost count of the number of times my heart has sank as I entered the stadium and seen the vast open spaces of empty seats and God only knows what the players thought looking at this scene ?

I'm not going for this or that, because DW or Malky made a joke or because I'm going to the Trafford Centre or because I hate Lenaghan and the Warriors blah, blah, fucking blah.

There are a belting core of about 9k who 100% deserve a side to cheer on...the rest of the town, no chance.

While I'm on a roll can I mention the stadium ?... i hate the fucking soulless, lifeless place..it's too big for us and the rugby now. A 15,000 stadium would fit the bill to a tee...but we have more pressing matters now. Will we have a team to play anywhere ?...do enough care to get off their arse if we do continue ?
 
I didnt read from your title
Yes of course it does as does platt brdge highfield pemberton kittt green and who ever else want a go.

Its called a meritocracy but as a tory you may nota aee with that and thats your belief
 
Small town team batted above it’s level for years. That what it’s like being a fan of this club. Yes stadium is to big. Why do you think the Rugby want to try and save us it’s to big for them as well
 
Of course Wigan deserves the football team, look how far you’ve come since your non league days, including winning the FA Cup. You have to build your fan base, not easy when as well as the two Manchester and two Liverpool clubs, you also have established teams like Wanderers and Preston on your door step. Wigan has traditionally been a rugby town but there’s no reason why you can’t more than compete with them with new generation fans if the club works at it.

Gaps on the terraces is something we all face these days but as long as you have your core base to rely on there’s every chance that if you‘re successful you’ll quickly add to that. Hopefully your new owners will see the potential and steady the ship But never lose heart because the fate of any fan outside the mega clubs is always one of ups and downs. Look at Wanderers, we’re down at the moment but see it as the start of another rise back up. Hopefully?? 😉
 
This is not something I've thought about just in the last few weeks its a question I've asked for years. Even when we were beating the cream of the land we just couldn't tempt them out the boozers and I've lost count of the number of times my heart has sank as I entered the stadium and seen the vast open spaces of empty seats and God only knows what the players thought looking at this scene ?

I'm not going for this or that, because DW or Malky made a joke or because I'm going to the Trafford Centre or because I hate Lenaghan and the Warriors blah, blah, fucking blah.

There are a belting core of about 9k who 100% deserve a side to cheer on...the rest of the town, no chance.

While I'm on a roll can I mention the stadium ?... i hate the fucking soulless, lifeless place..it's too big for us and the rugby now. A 15,000 stadium would fit the bill to a tee...but we have more pressing matters now. Will we have a team to play anywhere ?...do enough care to get off their arse if we do continue ?

There are some mitigating factors but ultimately as a whole given what we have done I think it's reasonable to think our crowds should've been bigger and more people from the borough of 360k should've become regulars over the last couple of decades.

The town hasn't ever responded proportionally to what it has been blessed with over the last 25 or so years. Success on the pitch; the cup winners, giant killings, drama, fairy tale endings, promotions, Premier league, Europe, big money signings, cheap tickets - if you are a football fan and your local side has done all that and you still can't be bothered then it has been wasted on you and so many other clubs would kill to have had the wild ride we've been on. So I understand completely the sentiment that the town doesnt deserve the success it has had and quite frankly that lack of response is a large part of what has lead us to being unable to compete without losing money, as a result sold by Whelan and then raped by dodgy owners.

So while the borough or town doesn't probably deserve the success due to such apathy - all theclub can do is keep fighting for the fans who do turn up and keep plugging away trying to get everyone else to jump on board.

So I'd flip the sentiment to the club deserves better as they delivered something worth being a part of.
 
I don’t hate the DW/JJB but it will never feel the same to me as Springfield Park did.
All your childhood/teenage experiences are more intensely felt and burned into your memory than what comes afterwards.
The prospect of returning to L1 or L2 if we were at Springfield wouldn’t faze me one bit but is far more concern8ng rattling round a largely soulless stadium .....though to be absolutely fair we have had some cracking matches/atmospheres there as well, it’s just that you generally need 15k plus to generate that at the DW.

Of course we deserve a club, absolutely, it’s just profoundly more difficult for us as a 40 odd year’League club’ to be located in this area which is a cauldron of English football.
It isn’t the Rugby that’s a problem for me it’s the born and bred Wiganers strutting around in their Utd/Liverpool/Everton/etc shirts (most of whom have never been)....I know Wiganers who are season ticket holders at Bolton, Burnley (fkn Burnley ?) and Blackpool , what’s that about ?

Clubs like Burnley, Stoke, Norwich, even Leicester enjoy the distinct advantage of being substantial towns/cities that are slap bang in the centre of “nowhereinparticularshire” ....draw a 20 mile radius round their grounds and who are they competing with ?....maybe one rival of a similar or bigger size or more likely none at all. Draw a 20 mile radius round Wigan and ....well !
Ideally we should be in a 12/15,000 stadium but we Can’t make that happen unfortunately.
Lets get past this current crisis and press on from there ....Onwards (but maybe not upwards for a bit just yet ! 😉)
 
The problem with the premier league and Paul Jewell crowds was that it was grown men who were always likely to revert to type when things took a turn for the worse. Leopards don't change their spots and all that. It's the kids you have to target as they are the ones who will start going as adults and taking their own kids.

Like you've said, we have a hardcore fanbase of around 8-9k. Twenty years ago when the stadium opened, this was 3-4k so it is growing. People who have supported a club from infancy are unlikely to change allegiance. Hopefully if this mess is all sorted and we remain a championship club/top half of league one, then this number will be around 10-12k in ten years time.

Your right about the stadium as well. Far too big. There's never been a supply and demand problem which has enabled peopled to become fairweather and choose games knowing they'll get a ticket no matter. If the stadium was say 11-15k and we had to employ points systems like other clubs, people would be forced to go week in week out for fear of missing out on the big games.
 
The ‘Metropolitan borough’ isn’t relevant to this debate KDZ....it never has been and never will be ....Wigan Metro Borough has a bigger population than Bolton Metro ....but is Wigan as big a town as Bolton ?....is it buggery.

1974 reorganisation was a local political construct that took us out of Lancashire...(my arse) it means nothing in this context.
 
The ‘Metropolitan borough’ isn’t relevant to this debate KDZ....it never has been and never will be ....Wigan Metro Borough has a bigger population than Bolton Metro ....but is Wigan as big a town as Bolton ?....is it buggery.

1974 reorganisation was a local political construct that took us out of Lancashire...(my arse) it means nothing in this context.

Spot on, especially when about half of its population (Leigh, Tyldesley & Atherton) never wanted to be a part of it and has resented Wigan for it ever since
 
The ‘Metropolitan borough’ isn’t relevant to this debate KDZ....it never has been and never will be ....Wigan Metro Borough has a bigger population than Bolton Metro ....but is Wigan as big a town as Bolton ?....is it buggery.

1974 reorganisation was a local political construct that took us out of Lancashire...(my arse) it means nothing in this context.

That's a fair point in one sense but the flip side is that borough is still local and effectively our carchment area and while there is a lot of options in this part of the world and you aren't going to get everyone. I think you'd still expect more from such a large number to have embraced the club with the success we had.

We've been a bit of a fairytale come to life but too many folks prefer to support Liverpool, United etc from their armchair when they have a local side they could go and watch for cheap who where playing at the same level for a large period of time.

Apathy and glory hunting is the biggest issue - the club did all it could.
 
The ‘Metropolitan borough’ isn’t relevant to this debate KDZ....it never has been and never will be ....Wigan Metro Borough has a bigger population than Bolton Metro ....but is Wigan as big a town as Bolton ?....is it buggery.

1974 reorganisation was a local political construct that took us out of Lancashire...(my arse) it means nothing in this context.

Bang on the money Zeb...Leigh, Atherton and Tyldesley were dragged kicking and screaming into Wigan Borough in 1974 and have no loyalty to us whatsoever. Ethnic Wigan disappears tuther side of Hindley Green and Bicky.

Greater Manchester my arse...THIS IS AND FOREVER WILL BE

LANCASHIRE.
 
I don’t hate the DW/JJB but it will never feel the same to me as Springfield Park did.
All your childhood/teenage experiences are more intensely felt and burned into your memory than what comes afterwards.
The prospect of returning to L1 or L2 if we were at Springfield wouldn’t faze me one bit but is far more concern8ng rattling round a largely soulless stadium .....though to be absolutely fair we have had some cracking matches/atmospheres there as well, it’s just that you generally need 15k plus to generate that at the DW.

Of course we deserve a club, absolutely, it’s just profoundly more difficult for us as a 40 odd year’League club’ to be located in this area which is a cauldron of English football.
It isn’t the Rugby that’s a problem for me it’s the born and bred Wiganers strutting around in their Utd/Liverpool/Everton/etc shirts (most of whom have never been)....I know Wiganers who are season ticket holders at Bolton, Burnley (fkn Burnley ?) and Blackpool , what’s that about ?

Clubs like Burnley, Stoke, Norwich, even Leicester enjoy the distinct advantage of being substantial towns/cities that are slap bang in the centre of “nowhereinparticularshire” ....draw a 20 mile radius round their grounds and who are they competing with ?....maybe one rival of a similar or bigger size or more likely none at all. Draw a 20 mile radius round Wigan and ....well !
Ideally we should be in a 12/15,000 stadium but we Can’t make that happen unfortunately.
Lets get past this current crisis and press on from there ....Onwards (but maybe not upwards for a bit just yet ! 😉)
A couple of lads at work both 'Nob End supporters say exactly the same about the amount of plastic Scouscers and Mancs in Preston and surrounding areas.
 
I didnt read from your title
Yes of course it does as does platt brdge highfield pemberton kittt green and who ever else want a go.

Its called a meritocracy but as a tory you may nota aee with that and thats your belief


I'm still waiting for you to answer me Craig and don't plead ignorance
 
Of course Wigan deserves the football team, look how far you’ve come since your non league days, including winning the FA Cup. You have to build your fan base, not easy when as well as the two Manchester and two Liverpool clubs, you also have established teams like Wanderers and Preston on your door step. Wigan has traditionally been a rugby town but there’s no reason why you can’t more than compete with them with new generation fans if the club works at it.

Gaps on the terraces is something we all face these days but as long as you have your core base to rely on there’s every chance that if you‘re successful you’ll quickly add to that. Hopefully your new owners will see the potential and steady the ship But never lose heart because the fate of any fan outside the mega clubs is always one of ups and downs. Look at Wanderers, we’re down at the moment but see it as the start of another rise back up. Hopefully?? 😉


We must be the only town in England where more people support someone else than their own town, it disgusts me.
 
I agree with the comment about converting the kids. I started taking my son to matches when he was about 5. He’s 29 now and a more fervent fan of WAFC than I am. He has been feeling the pain of what has happened over the past few weeks as keenly as me
 
Of course we bloody do they represent us in Wigan, dont care if theres only a man and his dog quite frankly. why is anybody arsed about the size club we are. Sod the inferiority complex we are wigan lets stuff it to them all.
 
I started taking my boy as soon as he knew what football was and he’s grown into a Latics crazy 9 year-old. Missed out on the cup final and the premier league years, we got relegated from the championship for the first time in our first season together as season ticket holders, he’s seen us relegated 3 times now and play some right tripe over the last few years but he still thinks we’re the best team in the world.

We may not be the best team in the world but (in my blue and white tinged eyes at least) are the best club in the world - don’t have the most fans, but have some right quality fans who can create some great away days, fans who support us through thick and thin and dig into their own pockets in uncertain times to help the club finish the season.

We deserve a club and (whatever league we are in) what a fucking great club.
 
Of course Wigan deserves the football team, look how far you’ve come since your non league days, including winning the FA Cup. You have to build your fan base, not easy when as well as the two Manchester and two Liverpool clubs, you also have established teams like Wanderers and Preston on your door step. Wigan has traditionally been a rugby town but there’s no reason why you can’t more than compete with them with new generation fans if the club works at it.

Gaps on the terraces is something we all face these days but as long as you have your core base to rely on there’s every chance that if you‘re successful you’ll quickly add to that. Hopefully your new owners will see the potential and steady the ship But never lose heart because the fate of any fan outside the mega clubs is always one of ups and downs. Look at Wanderers, we’re down at the moment but see it as the start of another rise back up. Hopefully?? 😉

Don't agree that Wigan is a rugby town. If so, then Leeds, Huddersfield, Bristol and others are, too. The key problem is the other football teams in the area, not just the big teams,either. The borough is full of Bolton supporters, for example. I went to school in Leigh, and most of my mates were Wanderers fans.

In my opinion, if we could've retained our Premier League status for a couple more years, our fan base would've started to multiply, as more kids joined in. We went down at precisely the wrong time 😕
 
Think a lot of the team you support is made when at primary school. Get them hooked with dad/mum early and hopefully they will be addicted. I know the community team do lots with the schools, but unfortunately i think it comes down to costs so yes give out free tickets to kids but also let dad/mum/carer in for say half price cos kids cant go on there own. Just a different way of capturing that audience and yes the thugby do free tickets but not all the time and differ schools. For me its all about kids and we need a different focus on this, even have a kids club where mum/dad drop kids off at game and we have staff who look after them in a specific stand/block saves mum/dad having to come to game. IDEAS?