Top of the Division, 25000 Seat Stadium, and only average gates of just under 10000?

[Seagulltonian]

What's going on here then?

Just looking at the team, currently at the the top of the division, Wigan Athletic. And what do we see, nice stadium, but no fans.

Is Paul Jewell's team playing unstylish crap football, but still winning. Or, is football unpopular "up north"!

Discuss!

 

[Marc]

have they got any "Big" teams in close vacinity up there? if so that could be a reason, but I reckon its because they've been annothing team for bloody years and suddenly become good and new fans have'nt had the chance to get to know them yet

 

[Braders]

its because wigans more of a rugby town i think?

 

[Commander]

I would imagine it has something to do with the fact that they have Man Utd / City within about 10 mins of their ground. And the mighty Rochdale.

 

[wehatepalace]

manure not far away bolton man city and they are fanatical about rugby league up there !

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

rugby league town

 

[FG aka FOOTBALL GENIUS]

Wigan of the North - could be Albion of the South if we ever got Falmer with fans being driven away by boring football by a Scottish haggis managing us and a skin flint tight dick in charge of the bored with little money invested in players that swhat you get fans drifting away and it could so easily be Albion if we ever got Falmer, not to mention the riddiculously expensive overpriced ticket prices being charges by Brighton at least Wigan fans dont pay any where near as much up north oh and the Beers cheaper and tastier, Boddingtons the Cream of Manchester isnt too far way

 

[Northstander]

VERY BIG RGBY LEAGUE SCENE UP HERE

and to be fair I think their rugby team is more popular than the football team.

 

[Set of Tracksuits]

It's the Rugby League team that gets most of the press coverage around here. Also, Wigan isn't really a very big town, and potential fans who live outside of the town itself have various other more glamourous teams to choose from, Bolton, Man Utd, Man City etc.

The stadium itself is fantastic though, they've built a retail park, sports centre and small athletics stadium next to it. Makes me very, very jealous.

 

[Hove&Albion F.C]

There are so many football teams around that area, man u man city everton and liverpool for a start which doesnt give a small town inbetween the two cities much hope of ever getting big atts! plus rugby league is huge in the town and far bigger than football. still you'd think more than 7,500 would be interested in seeing them possibly go top of the league! (granted it was only v rotherham but stil!)

 

[Ex Shelton Seagull]

It's certainly not the team. They're the best team i've seen us play so far this season. Roberts and Ellington are the best front 2 we will come up against this season unless we draw a good Premiership side in the FA Cup. They play fast attacking football with the ball on the deck.

Maybe the fact that Wigan RFC were one of the top teams in British Sport for so long means that they gained the title of the towns representatives in sporting terms. Athletic always used to get crowds of around 3,000 at Springfield Park, so to them 9,000 is an amazing amount of people. If Withdean ever does get expanded to a 9,000 capacity we could have more supporters than Wigan. At Withdean FFS!

We seem to chant "worst support we've ever seen" at pretty much every ground we go to, but Wigan supporters are the only ones so far this season who deserved it. Having a small band of supporters isn't so bad if they really make a racket, try and create an atmosphere, but Latics fans were just pathetic this season. They barely talked, let alone sang. From the start of the game to the final whistle, the only sound they made was cheering their sides 3 goals. That was it. In between the goals they just sat back and watched in silence, creating an atmosphere akin to that found on the moon.

Their support is so bad that they give the whole side stand to away supporters. That's 8,000 seats for visiting fans. Then Wigan fans try and blame their crap crowds on visiting sides not bringing many supporters! When they are promoted to the Premiership (which they will be) it'll be embarrassing. Man Utd, Liverpool, Newcastle, Man City and pretty much every side bar Southampton will probably out-number Wigan fans in their own stadium. When they play United i'd expect that 3/4 of the stadium will be supporting United. That is just pathetic.

By the way, they get VERY annoyed by people taking the piss out of their small crowds. Even asking them why they get low crowds seems to annoy the hell out of them.

 

[Hadlee]

My wife has relatives from Wigan so I have been there a few times.

As said earlier Wigan is a big Rugby league town, the football club have always played second fiddle to them, if anything the football club should be helped by the fact RL is now played in the summer and I think a lot of thier support is from Rugby bods who cannot get too exited about football, hence the poor atmosphere when we played them.

My wife's uncle is a big Wigan RL fan, but has never (and never will) watch the football team.

 

[fatbadger]

Wigan is indeed a Rugby League town, but it's the proximity of other, bigger clubs which is the problem. After the game this season, I was in a pub in Wigan town centre showing the ManUre game. The place was heaving - mostly with folk who had been there all afternoon rather than at the game - and they were all cheering for ManUre in their Wigan accents. Disappointing.

I HATE the JJB. No atmosphere at all.

 

[Dave the OAP]

this sums them up

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