Wigan chairman makes plea to fans with suggestions made to improve matchday experience

The Wigan Athletic chairman makes a plea to fans amid the saga they’re in, with suggestions made on how to improve matchday experience.

Talal Al Hammad has pleaded to supporters for a second chance, coming just days after players’ wages were finally settled.

Recent chaos has occurred with accusations of disrespect made towards the club’s owners over late payment of wages.

After issuing a statement, the players were paid; the Latics were handed a three-point deduction earlier this month for the late payment of players. This was due to Phoenix 2021 Limited having ‘liquidity problems’.

A meeting was held between the fans and chairman, alongside chief operating officer Dr Tom Markham and non-executive director Dr Oliver Gottmann. Below you can see more on what happened…

About last night…when @TalalAlHammad32 @TMFootyFinance @olivergottmann met the #wafc fans…

“I don’t need this in my life. I want this in my life…My actions will regain trust….We saved the club once. We deserve a second chance.”https://t.co/iI30JTZQTY

— Paul Kendrick (@PKendrickWIG) March 29, 2023

This was reportedly the fourth instance of wages not being paid on time since summer 2022, with the last three were due to administrative and banking issues.

But, this wasn’t the case as senior Latics players refused a partial payment and a deferral, with the squad choosing not to train on Friday morning until they had been paid as it was two weeks since their due date for their salaries.

All the players were paid later that night. Al Hammad returned to Wigan on Tuesday to discuss the situation, promising that his future actions will make it easier for the Latics supporters to trust him and the ownership group again, after the turbulent past few weeks.

“I don’t want anyone to stick up for me,” Al Hammad said, as per Wigan Today.

“My actions will regain trust.

“This will never happen again, I promise.

“We won’t have crazy budgets again. We will go from spending 235 per cent of revenue to a maximum of 120 per cent.

“This is still the beginning, we’re only two years in.

“We saved the club once. We deserve a second chance to make this right.”

Meanwhile, Wigan manager Shaun Maloney looks ahead to Saturday’s home game against QPR and discusses his trip to Bahrain and the club’s future.

“When the deductions came, it made the task even harder, but I still have a real belief that we will have moments in games,” he explained. 

“I believe we will have enough moments in those eight games to stay up, and it’s just about how efficient we are going to be in both boxes. 

“That will determine how the season finishes, but I think we will have a real chance so let’s keep fighting.”

“It’s all about QPR – we’ve got a massive game coming this week, and thankfully the focus has to be back on football, and long may that continue,” he said. 

“They’ve got some really good attacking players. They can get the ball in your box very quickly, but they’ve got some talented players in the number eight position.

“We are going to have to be at our very best defensively – which we have been at times – and it’s the same in possession. 

“We were very good at times at Watford, but we have to be clinical in the final third if we are going to turn the dominance into wins. 

“We’ll be working on it this week, and that’s what we will have to continue to work on in the coming weeks and months because it’s an area we have to improve in greatly.”

Maloney recently went out to Bahrain over the international break to hold discussions with Mr. Al Jasmi and Chairman Talal Al Hammad to receive some clarity on the well-documented, late wage situation. 

Following meetings overseas, the Latics’ Chairman has been in Wigan this week to meet with staff members and prominent groups of supporters to provide them with reassurances about the club moving forward. 

Maloney said he came away from the conversations feeling positive about the side’s future and that it can only be of real benefit to everyone to receive such a high level of transparency from the ownership group following a tough period. 

“I think it works both ways. They asked me a lot about my ideas and how I see this Club moving forward, and what I needed for not just myself but everyone at the Club. 

“I needed to understand a little bit more about what happened and why it happened. They were very honest, and I hope now the Club can have a period of time of real stability, and calmness off the pitch because we’ve got a rebuild to start. 

“The Chairman has met as many people within the Club (as possible) over the last couple of days, and he met the supporters’ groups last night to reiterate what they spoke to me about.

“It was important that he relaid the same information to the fans. It makes a world of difference and it was a big step forward. Talal spoke about trying to do that two-three times a year which will be really positive and engaging for the fans. 

“I do want to stress that there were a lot of questions asked, and we will be rebuilding certain structures within the Club. 

“We have started that rebuild, but there is also a big fight at the moment that we have on our hands. 

“The current group of players in the last eight weeks – and the last two in particular – have been incredible for me. The senior group of players have been brilliant for the Club and we’re going to rely on them for the next eight games – and next season.”

While the Wigan chairman makes a plea to fans with suggestions made on how to improve matchday experience, Twitter users spoke out…

@CentralWigan said: “One of the talks I had last night was about boosting the Match Day experience for everybody. The Board are very open to ideas to start implementing. 🤔 What are some ideas that you would like to see implemented going forward?”

@Charles_1933_: Use the south stand for the future generation. Free tickets to loads of kids and schools every week. If we’re to increase our revenue to be sustainable higher crowds are imperative. Hard location ours but if we can get youngsters not seeing football as a TV sport we’re winning…

@laticsfan1985: pull everyone closer to the pitch, louder music, all concourse tv’s working, dads n kids tickets, dad pays and kids are free for a game, inside concourse games like the football darts for a quid a go etc

@MattttONeill: Bring back the cross bar challenge.

@northwestsinger: Erm…… I have a suggestion but think you might know what that is 🎶🎶🎶 I have tried but If me singing ‘I Still Believe’ isn’t popular then what about some other great local acts such as @TheLilacsUk @flechettesband @Stanleysband_ bringing some tunes to match days 💙⚪️

@benmartin_95: Having 8,000 fans spread sparingly over 20,000 seats doesn’t help. Looks and feels flat every week

@davidnaylor83: A fan zone outdoors beer garden music. Big screen outside for early game, food stalls. Live music. DJs

@ElliotLittler: Move the advertising boards that block up the bottom 10 rows to the top, and move us all closer to the pitch, absolute no brainer

@WAFCFAN2013: Compact the stands so everyone is bunched together, fill the voids with club art from legends of the past and flags.

@Boolock82: Take out 5000 seats across the back, of all 4 stands, and build floor to ceiling exec boxes. Short term monetary loss, but match day atmosphere greatly improved, with a chance to claw back the monetary outlay in the future but way corporate matchday sales and/or private functions

@Chris150379: kids tickets cheaper, more family offers, safe standing, reduce somehow the amount of seats especially around the edges of the stands and have sponsors advertised, getting people involved in the atmosphere, take leaf out of Brentford and what they do

@WAFConTour: German beer tent outside – like a beer festival every home game – umpah bands and steins

@GMac_Coach:
1- Better food the current pies are rank
2- Half time entertainment
3- Away fans to the east stand
4- Bring the current fans closer together by shutting off the end/back seats.

@P_Winfield:
Provide stand up tables on the concourse
Took kids bought food from stalls but nowhere to put drinks and food so didn’t bother next time
Would be a cost to install but easily offset by increased takings
When environment is poor people don’t spend
Easy quick fix

@steharvwigan: Lamp post flags all along stadium way showcasing the clubs successes, history and past legends etc. More branding around the stadium and on netting around the perimeters of the stands to push fans closer together and build the atmosphere 🔵⚪️

@AlexSarwar20: Said it many times before and will say it many times again. Shut the South and bar games vs clubs with 3k+ followings, split the North between home and away fans like Huddersfield. Advertise it as a singing section. You’ll save money by shutting a stand and improve the atmosphere

@dnmb00: Go back in time and build a smaller stadium 👍 get it done @TalalAlHammad32

@sharper040: Half time gladiatorial combat between high profile fans and those who just moan on twitter. To the death.

@dmartw: Stop playing the same five songs every game; shrink the stadium a 15k capacity one with the corners filled*; offer better and more varied food and drink; start taking cash on the car parks again to prevent queueing down to B&Q five minutes before kick-off. *might be difficult.

@WafcSean:
1. Get the stadium fixed, looks like it’s falling to bits & it’s only 25 years old
2. Find a way of pushing people together & closer to pitch.
3. Crossbar challenge
4. QR e-season tickets, it’s 2023.
5. Genuinely not against moving away fans into East for revenue 😬 #wafc

@james_1919: Have bar staff constantly pouring the most popular pint, at half time, with a fast track lane for just that beer. Takes absolutely ages because they’re stood around while someone takes an order.

@FinnReynolds7: get everyone in south stand

@ItsLiamCooper: Replace the 25,000 seats with 20,000 seats or fewer. Yes some will be pissed at losing their seat but the bigger picture is a better atmosphere

We need a large tarping over the majority of the south-stand like clubs did in covid. We can bring in more revenue with a new sponsor for it, it means remaining seats in south will sell out and push rest of fans into east/west to help fill those and create more atmosphere. https://t.co/WBNFKvmths pic.twitter.com/4SU55AIM24

— con 🇸🇱 (@connnortaylor) March 29, 2023