Well if it’s a bad season it will go down. What’s already been said regarding attendance it’s all about results and performance for some people and economics for others and I guess a combination of both.

Wire71 nailed it you have the diehard faction that go come what may and you have fans that will go if the team are doing well. In fact you have said it yourself regarding Hull. Although Hull have been in a mess for years and I get their fans enough is enough. We have a season like last season I expect at end of 2025 our average attendance will have gone up.

The weird thing is that 2023 ended as a bad season, but the spirits were high until about half way through, and even then we finished in the playoffs with a narrow loss at Saints. Prior to that we'd had a terrible 2022, so you'd expect the big drop to come between 22-23, not a year later.

I think it may psychological. We'd bigged up Powell as the guy to change everything, and even after a terrible 2022, we cleared out the playing roster and promised a new culture. By the second half of 2023, I think the general consensus was that we were a lost cause as a club, and it didn't matter who we brought in or what we did, we were destined for the same old also-ran status at the end of every year.

I'd argue that as a club, our supporter base (including potential new fans) is more prosperous and has more disposable income than most other clubs. Warrington isn't a run-down, struggling former mining community. There really is no excuse for the club not to exploit this spending power. To counter that, there's probably much less of a historic 'community' aspect to our club, which would create a certain loyalty and sense of duty (irrespective of rubbish performances).

I'll be interested to see if the Big Sam factor has changed anything.

Definite hangover from Powell was a factor - personally sat through two seasons of Powell (worst two seasons in 40 years IMO) and couldn't bring myself to renew for Mr Burgess due to what had gone before.

I think we can all see we're heading in the right direction and crowds will grow.

Thanks for this. I live outside the area but get back home a lot. I don't see any lack of spending power where I go around Warrington ... in fact it's the opposite.

I think the 2002 Steve Anderson season was worse than 2023 and on a par with 2022.

Yes I can see that but there was expectation with Powell and just never remember being THAT frustrated during the Anderson debacle.

Was it Anderson who brought the underwhelming Aussies over ?

I didn't bother going at all last season due to poor vision, meaning i miss a lot of what happens on the pitch ,which i can see on tv & mobility issues getting to & from the ground & climbing the terraces. I love standing to watch the match & can't do with the horrible plastic seats with people squeezing past every few minutes.

We have come a long way from 2002 and expectations went up, least that’s how I see it. This is a club with a decent stadium good facilities and good finances so for me we should have won the big prize by now.

Now after the Powell debacle and what the club is doing with appointing a DoR and putting more in to the academy I think we are now on the right track. We just need show some patience as this is not an overnight thing, just hope we don’t fall back in to old ways.

We wasn’t dealt a particularly good hand of derby loop fixtures and Saints were so poor their travelling numbers were about half.

Plus, didn't I read somewhere that our tickets are priced dearer than most? (Or am I making that up?)

We have quite a few fans who are Wigan season ticket holders so I'm ot necessarily surprised they don't make it to Wire home games.

It would be interesting to see how many Thursday night games we had compared to other clubs. I seem to remember attending a few with a pretty sp south stand, obviously missing the kids.

We had 2 home games on a Thursday night ... Hull KR and Leeds. Both teams usually travel with biggish numbers so to play them on a Thursday must have hit us hard.

Thursday nights games should have a bigger sky premium to the club affected and perhaps look at derby’ish fixtures, although it’s probably relative anyway. A derby may still have a significantly greater attendance on a Friday or weekend day time than Thursday,
Perhaps affecting attendance more so.

It which case, I’ve just written a pointless post. And not the first time.

I'm the same as you Wires71, i just watch the games on TV now. I used to go alot as it was the only way to see the games. But i go on my own as my family and friends are all just in to football, so now i don't have to go on my own like a pleb i don't.

2002 was easily the worst I can remember. Paying good money to watch the likes of Gary Hulse, Dave Alstead, Leon Felton, Tom O'Reilly, Dale Cardoza, Danny Halliwell and Kevin Crouthers, plus of course our 'star import' Matt Rodwell, was soul-destroying.

You forgot "The Sturminator", Dean Busby and Warren Stevens who Cullen described "as the best forward in the Championship".

Least we got Westwood and Wood in midway and Darren Burns and Fozzard were decent.

Sid Domic too was good for us that year.

He was indeed. Just to nudge the thread back to the subject of crowds, our average home attendance in that 2002 season was 6,270. The highest 'gate' was 9,105 (when we played Widnes), which is still well below our average home crowd for 2024. Shows how times have changed.

Yes, he was the good side of average.

He wanted to stay but we didn’t offer him a deal. He went to Wakey.
Who was it we brought it to force Domic out?

I don’t like to dwell much on that period of our club.

The RFL changed the rules and reduced the number of Overseas Quota players that a club could have.

Wire didn`t bring another player to the club to replace Domic, but were forced to release a player and chose him.

I remember being at Wigan for our play-off defeat which was Sid's last game for us. The crowd were singing the "Super Sid song" and he was almost in tears.

Cheers. That’ll be why I couldn’t think of a replacement.

Domic was much better than "the good side of average". With hindsight it was a real mistake to let him go - we prioritised Appo who had the one good stretch in his Wire career at the time. Domic went on to be an integral player for Wakey who made the playoffs the next year when we didn't, and then to Hull who made the Grand Final.

That 2002 season was easily the worst of my time following Wire. Much worse than 2022. There was more at stake because the club had far less stable foundations. When you look at what happened to Halifax after 2003 you can see the fate that could have been in store for us. We went into 2002 with basically a Championship level squad, plus a handful of really good pros who stepped up and played well when we were in trouble - Burns, Domic, Fozzard and Nat Wood who we signed mid season. Briers had his worst season for us but he did turn it on in a couple of games that were crucial for us in staying up.

I remember we played 3 games over Easter - I think it was Salford, Widnes and Wakey - lost them all and thats when we knew we were in deep trouble. I have a strong memory of coming out of the ground at Belle Vue realising we were way short of even the sides at the lower end of the table.

Signing Nat Wood from Wakey - a relegation rival - was huge because he brought a competitive edge which we had lacked. We signed Westwood at the same time which over the long term was one of the biggest signings in Wire history but he didn't do a great deal that season.

Sorry lads but I was wondering why we have done so badly this year. But have enjoyed how bad it was in 2002. Nat Wood was fun wasn't he.