Wigan Album

Nice to see a good crowd on. Good photo.
I would like to see as many people watching them at their current ground.

I think you'll find there's considerably more people watching them at their "new gound"
Get real.

this of course was the 'new stand' built after the original wooden structure burned down in about 1950

Wigan is a rugby town and i'm afraid football plays second fiddle.

Not to everyone, it doesn't. Just to those who prefer rugby. Each to his own.

No mrs Roberts, its a fact, Wigan is a Rugby town, how many watch rugby and how many watch football here in Wigan..enough said. Wiganers preffer to watch man utd. Liverpool, Everton and so on...they are our nighbours.

Wigan is a football town

Irrespective of the crowds the Latics/Warriors get look at the wider picture
i) Leagues full of Wigan amateur football teams playing Saturday and Sunday
ii) Mass exodus of football supporters from the town every Saturday to watch Liverpool, Everton, Utd, City etc as that is their chosen team
iii) Packed pubs everywhere when football is on instead of the few rugby pubs we have around town
I have been brought up to rugby and I love the game but Wigan IS a football town

Personally, the day I get excited about 22 OR 26 grown men running round a field after a ball, you can stand me up against a wall and shoot me. All I'm saying is that some prefer rugby and others prefer football, and all have the right to support The Warriors OR The Latics. It is still our town they are supporting. Wigan has a lot of interesting history besides its rugby team.

Maybe a few statistics will settle this debate.

Average attendances over the last 5 seasons.

Wigan Athletic Wigan Warriors
20,610 16,040
18,159 13,955
19,046 14,080
18,413 15,181
18,006 17,193

I would say this is pretty conclusive and that the attendance figures clearly favour Wigan Athletic but I suppose you rugby fans don't let facts get in the way of a tired & lazy statement.

Are you Phil Taylor who used to go round with a duo in the 70s, with a group of friends?

Interested to see Latics average going down whilst Warriors increases, but let's not let figures get in the way

but I AM a rugby fan and I DO agree with you!

If you want to use "statistics" And attendancies as a yardstick Then add up Latics total attendancies from when they were formed in 1932 until the present then do the same for the rugby from 1932 until now. Rugby would win hands down.

Take out visiting fans and see what the averages say. That should show how many home fans went. Good luck to the Latics for the coming season.

which ever way you look at it, for a town of our size to have a top football team AND a top rugby team is pretty special

only plastic Wiganers watch football the one that talk funny dont da
and there are lies damn lies and statistics if one dont make you point right one of the other two will

Phil, lets have the attendance figures from the last 25 seasons not the last 5 or so. Let me say it,s the 5000 at the away end that boosts their attendancees. Latics have done very well, but this argument about rugby/football town has only reared its ugly head since they got into the Premiership.Yes Wigan is a rugby town and always has been. Unfortunately the Latics will at some stage slip down a league, let us then start comparing attendances. May i add that i,m a rugby man but i want the Latics to do well

Play the white man Phil, we dont need to go back very far to see the Warriors better averages do we?
Latics Warriors
2000/1 6861 13374
2001/2 5771 11329
20002/3 7288 11803
20003/4 9526 11480
20004/5 11155 11217
and if we went further back like i suggested to you it would get worse for the Latics. Football town my --------.

Irene, As the crow flies Phil lives less than half a mile from you.

Comments by broady, 18th July 2012



"Take out visiting fans and see what the averages say. That should show how many home fans went"

Exactly. Very good point Broady.

I doubt very much that Wigan has been a rugby town since the inception of the premier league. There are far more football fans supporting the likes of man utd and Liverpool in wigan than rugby fans. Any one who thinks otherwise is completely delude and don't try to turn this into Warriors v Latics I am stating Rugby v Football. It's a no brainier Global sport v Minority sport Fact. I can guarantee that if you went into any workplace in Wigan and did a straw poll and asked which do you prefer football or rugby football would come on top 9 times out of 10.

Sad,when someone posts a picture of Springfield Park and it's seen as an excuse to have a dig at Latics by blinkered eggies.

Thanks, Broady, it probably isn't the Phil Taylor I was thinking of. There are probably some contributors to this thread who think that, having admitted I have no interest in either game, I shouldn't comment, but I have reasons for what sound like my pro-Latics/anti-Warriors ideas, (they aren't really), that I would rather not put on here. I am a proud Wiganer, and it is just so annoying that all we seem to be associated with are rugby and pies! We have a football team TOO, as well as a great industrial history. We can be proud of a LOT of things in our town.

they dont support football in this country just a team the quietest place in the world is a football ground when the away team scores

Rugby is only watched by thick overweight people from pit villages in Lancashire and Yorkshire and a few convicts on the other side of the world. No one else cares, deal with it

I think none of you can beat Wolverhampton Wanderers: 27,500...You're all bloody part timers!
Going much further back (at the old Molineux)...51,200

Go back to school!

to quote Jimmy Greaves the only thing you will so at a football match today is 22 cheats live with it

Great picture lots of good memories at springfield, so sad and pathectic them thuby fans they can't stop stalking anything to do with the tics.(Is there sport that BORING)

Top grade football is played by GROSSLY overpayed and underworked fairies. Frauding and feigning injury, trying to get other players sent off. They wouldn,t last 5 minutes in a game of rugby, even the so called 'hard men' would run a mile.

Nice to watch a team represent Wigan that's got Wiganers in it.

i realy started a "wigan civil war"with that photo didnt i? before i left wigan in 1983 for australia i watched and supported both teams and still do.lets stop this nit picking

its a good job wigan has a football team otherwise where would they play the rugby matches?

I would like to remind Bobby that both the Warriors and Latics are tenants at The DW Stadium, Mr Whelan gets 10% of the takings from each team, he owns the stadium .

Bernard we,ve had this conversation once before so watch it lol

why dos'nt everyone stop going on about who's best football or rugby,has far as im concerned they both do the town proud

Ah yes, Springfield Park, I remember it well, the vast empty terraces, the tumbleweed, the Trophy Room full of wooden spoons. Unlike Wigan RLFC of course,who needed Pickfords removals to transport the Silverware to the JJB/DW or whatever our Dave is calling his company this week. Is it true that they found evidence of Lord Lucan having spent nearly thirty years in the Latics Trophy Room? Can't wait for the start of the new Football Season, last year I heard the Latics had invested in a new tea urn and pie warmer,everything else they aquired was either a reject or a free transfer. When is Joey Barton turning up to inspire the faithful by the way ? Good luck with the usual relegation battle, its about the most exciting part of the season for most fans.

and for all that horace, you still pay rent to likkle latics

I think you'll probably find the rent is paid into an offshore account of a subsidiatry of the owners empire. If were paid to the Latics, which is an entirely different company, they might have money to invest. As I recall both the Latics and Wigan Rugby were asset stripped, the land sold off and good proportion of the new ground and facilities was built as a result of grant aid, Wigan Metro (ie Wigan Rate Payers money) the FA, with very little of the proceeds from Springfield Park and Central Park finding its way down there.

the metro only ever owned half of one per cent of shares in the JJB/DW and they sold them about two years ago. Rent will be paid to Stadco, but latics don't pay any

One of these teams can be watched live on TV,every game Home and away.From Albania to Australia From Belieze to Burma,from Chile to China.
I wonder whih one?

Wigan Warriors are a very successful thriving little club, they've done almost everything right, they've signed a lot of quality juniors but they've chosen the back yard of the premier league to do it in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGEpJ7oUzaE

Roy, I think Phil is ‘playing the white man’. He selected Latics first five seasons as a top flight club. Your attendances were when they were in the second and third tier. Going back 25 years puts Latics in the third and fourth tier. The away end is restricted to 4500 and only a few teams sell out their allocation. Banjoman wants to go further back to our non league days when the majority of football fans went elsewhere to see top flight football and formed allegiances with other clubs, which once established is a habit that is hard to break. Roy I’d prefer if you didn’t add that you’re a rugby man but want the Latics to do well, it appears insincere!

On a lighter note, just how many ‘Wiganers’ play for the rugby? Be careful, Jimmy will be watching!

In response to Jimbob, that explains a lifelong mystery.....all the Latics supporters DO LIVE IN MUD HUTS !!!!

Irene Roberts I used to knock about with a chap called Phil Taylor in the sixties with a duo called The Rowlands who used to do the local clubs. Their names were Brian Glazebrook and Barry Fairhurst. If anything rings a bell with you then please e-mail me

I watch both and want both to do well. I think the stadium would struggle if either code decided to decamp and play elsewhere. Why would you not want top flight Football and Rugby League on your doorstep. Not many small towns can boast such a choice.Just need the Latics to push for a return to the prem and all will be well, although if this season is anything to go by, we may be waiting a while.