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Having seen bournemouths stadium recently, i have always wondered if we (& the other lot) would have been better having a stadium with a 15000 capacity. Would have been jam packed during our premier days with perhaps a better atmosphere. &, when it came to the likes of playing utd, liverpool & everton, there fans wouldn’t have been able to have got into our end because we would have had enough supporters in the first place to fill our end.
Even now with a fan base of 8 – 10000, the stadium wouldn’t look lifeless & soulless. & it would look full(ish).
I always thought that when the JJB/DW stadium was built initially, a 25000 capacity was perhaps being a tad too ambitious, given that pre whelan our fan base was only 1800 – 2000. Also, a smaller stadium (i would have thought) would be much more economical to run.
It’s a very fair point.
When the ground was being planned Egg chasing wasn’t on the agenda (apart from Orrell). From memory crowds were around 6k when the ground first opened.
That prat Mowbray who was commentating last night always had it in for us forever going on about rows of empty seats. Had it been built as 15k and full every week he would have said we lacked ambition.
I think DW was planning for the future when he went for 25k. During the first prem season I remember there was talk of filling in the corners to get to 30k.
That seems a very long time ago now!
The stadium is fine as it is. We have had a capacity before and this being Wigan Athletic would you bet against us doing it again?. Things may be bleak at present but I’ve known worse and don’t doubt for one minute that this little barmy amazing club will one day shock the football world yet again.
The stadium is fine as it is. We have had a capacity before and this being Wigan Athletic would you bet against us doing it again?. Things may be bleak at present but I’ve known worse and don’t doubt for one minute that this little barmy amazing club will one day shock the football world yet again.Hopefully that will be starting today when we kick off another amazing cup run.
The stadium is fine as it is. We have had a capacity before and this being Wigan Athletic would you bet against us doing it again?. Things may be bleak at present but I’ve known worse and don’t doubt for one minute that this little barmy amazing club will one day shock the football world yet again.
Hopefully that will be starting today when we kick off another amazing cup run.[/quote]
Are you joking Donny? You cannot be serious!
He had dreams of 25K every week in the Prem but it was always going to be tough to achieve and so it proved.
The pitch problems didn’t help either as he couldn’t have as many other events like rugby Internationals (5 sell outs off the top of my head) and England U21 games.
Having seen bournemouths stadium recently, i have always wondered if we (& the other lot) would have been better having a stadium with a 15000 capacity. Would have been jam packed during our premier days with perhaps a better atmosphere. &, when it came to the likes of playing utd, liverpool & everton, there fans wouldn’t have been able to have got into our end because we would have had enough supporters in the first place to fill our end.Even now with a fan base of 8 – 10000, the stadium wouldn’t look lifeless & soulless. & it would look full(ish).
I always thought that when the JJB/DW stadium was built initially, a 25000 capacity was perhaps being a tad too ambitious, given that pre whelan our fan base was only 1800 – 2000. Also, a smaller stadium (i would have thought) would be much more economical to run.
In short – yes we would have been.
The problem Latics had with a 25,000 seater stadium was that in our first top flight season all the glory seekers went out & bought season tickets so that they could be certain of seeing the “big games”.
These same people then realised in the summer of 2006 that they’d still be able to get tickets for the “big” games even without a season ticket because there were pretty much always seats still available on a match day.
The club then made the error of assuming that they had everyone’s loyalty & ramped the price up, but because there were spare seats for most games people then decided to pick & choose their games & the club never got them back.
Had there been 5k-10k less seats in the stadium then those people that the club lost at this point would in all likelihood have carried on getting season tickets for fear of missing those more glamourous games. With tickets harder to come by, people then become keener to get those remaining tickets coz they don’t want to miss out & the club could have looked at expanding the stadium at a later date to keep up with demand.
As it happens though , the club has always had more product (seats) than demand & that’s not a good situation for any business to be ini think Les Bagg made a similar point in the CL or Mudhutter fanzine years ago
He had dreams of 25K every week in the Prem but it was always going to be tough to achieve and so it proved.The pitch problems didn’t help either as he couldn’t have as many other events like rugby Internationals (5 sell outs off the top of my head) and England U21 games.
Our first season saw us get regular crowds of over 22,000. The second season Whelan got greedy and lumped another tenner on the price of tickets,the fans revolted,crowds slumped and Whelan had to re-think.But for some the damage was done.
He had dreams of 25K every week in the Prem but it was always going to be tough to achieve and so it proved.
The pitch problems didn’t help either as he couldn’t have as many other events like rugby Internationals (5 sell outs off the top of my head) and England U21 games.
Our first season saw us get regular crowds of over 22,000. The second season Whelan got greedy and lumped another tenner on the price of tickets,the fans revolted,crowds slumped and Whelan had to re-think.But for some the damage was done.[/quote]
True yes. The first season was always going to get big crowds but they were never really Latics “fans” and were always going to fade away.
The problem for me was our first season in the EPL resulting in bandwaggoners or JCL’s coming along – people you just knew would never come again after the first 2 – 3 seasons.
I also, always never liked the times when we played utd & the 2 scouse teams & the club seemed happy to let these wigan born fans of the bigger clubs into our side of the ground. In their eyes it didn’t seem to matter. They just wanted the wigan side of the ground full(ish). Lets be honest. How many times did it create a near “kick-off” when wigan born fans of these teams would celebrate following a goal right in front of the genuine wigan born wigan fans.
I fully agree with super stu barlow who mentioned about the 18000 capacity. IMO, that would have been a more realistic (& still ambitious) capacity for WAFC.
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