Anybody who’s checked the official Latics site in the last couple of days will probably be aware of a promotion by club sponsors 188BET. If you remember back to December before the fixture was rearranged due to adverse weather conditions, the hype surrounding this game was massive – a Monday night, last Prem game before Christmas, live on ESPN, promotions aplenty etc.

As much as the club has tried to emulate this by carrying over the Flag Day thing, they shouldn’t need to. After all, it’s Bolton, our closest rivals geographically and who knows, perhaps in the table as well by the end of this season – if we can’t get ourselves motivated for this game we never will.

I have to take my hat off to the club, however, in their continued merchandising and promotional efforts this season. Perhaps the most pleasing is their gesture of allowing supporters with half season tickets to attend tonight’s game as a virtual bonus fixture. See, this game was originally scheduled to take place on 21st December, before the half season tickets came into effect for the 26th.

All of this makes me wonder how Latics can continue to offer such great promotions when they’re probably losing money on the vast majority of them. Add to this the fact the two home FA Cup ties probably cost the club money to host, especially with the low gate receipts, almost to the point where it’s actually more financially beneficial to go out of the competition. Actually, there’s a conspiracy theory and a half for the Daily Mail readers out there.

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