Talk of the campaign to rebrand the East Stand ‘The Springfield Park Stand’ is spreading amongst the club’s fans like wildfire.

The influential bigwigs at Ye Olde Tree and Crown and Mudhuts Media, to name but a couple, are throwing their wholehearted support behind the project, and word is that serious progress is being made, albeit rather quietly.

The fans have spoken, and I should think it would be hard for the club to decline in the wake of a torrent of support from Laticsmen (and women) young and old. It has truly reinvigorated fans’ imagination to reminisce over the many afternoons and evenings spent watching a bunch of guys kick leather down Springfield way.

The old trotting track has a long and distinguished history, home to numerous incarnations of a Wigan football club, from Wigan County in 1897 to Wigan Town, Wigan United and Wigan Borough through the early twentieth century.

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I wasn’t fortunate enough to be among the 6,700 spectators that witnessed Wigan play Manchester City at Springfield Park in May 1999.

It was the biggest day in the club’s history to date in more ways than one – not only was a place in the Division 2 play-off finals up for grabs, but it was to be the final match at Springfield Park, home to football (and for a short time rugby, but don’t tell that to a Warriors fan) in Wigan for more than a century.

Wigan lost 2-1 and would ultimately crash out on aggregate, but spirits were high – a new era was dawning at the club. Work on the Latics’ brand new, state-of-the-art sports stadium was complete, and just weeks later, on 4th August, the town was welcoming European Champions Manchester United in a pre-season curtain raiser to the 1999-2000 campaign.

The pristine, clean and shiny JJB Stadium was the vision of local businessman and ex-Blackburn player Dave Whelan, who harboured ambitions of bringing top-flight football to the town of Wigan. Even he, a man so famously hard to please, must be pleasantly surprised, nay, delighted that this dream was fulfilled within ten years of him taking over.

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The last time I queued for Wigan Athletic season tickets, the line stretched almost halfway around the ground to the bridge over the River Dougie.

That year, we turned up an hour and a half early to ensure our perfect seats in the South Stand, and were not really surprised to find about 25 people had beat us to it – the guys at the very front had in fact been camping out since the night before. Hah, wouldn’t it have been funny if they went to all that trouble just for a ticket in the corner of the West Stand?

As for us, we had brought our fishing chairs as we knew we would be there for a good couple of hours. The wait didn’t really drag that much, partly due to the fact we’d brought a newspaper but also the general early morning camaraderie and buzz that increased as the 9 o’ clock opening time drew nearer.

That was Wigan’s first season in the Prem, and officials had reallocated away seating from the East to the smaller North Stand, meaning a whole load of fresh, halfway line seats were now up for grabs.

This season the club are expecting a decrease in season ticket uptake – in some ways a bad thing, but at least it ensured a couple of good-ish seats in the West. They don’t know what they’re missing…

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