DW Stadium

The DW Stadium is home to League One side Wigan Athletic, and rugby team Wigan Warriors, I can’t help but feel sorry for Wigan Athletic at how their fate has changed since relegation in 2011 (and an FA Cup Final I will not mention).
The DW Stadium is in my eyes, still a Premier League stadium with a decent capacity of 25,138, it still is bigger than 4 current Premier League stadiums, including Crystal Palace and Swansea City, which for a League One club — isn’t bad at all, and is currently the 3^rd largest stadium in League One after Sheffield United and Coventry City.
The DW Stadium is a nice stadium, I’ve been here a few times now, I even called in not long after the 2011 Final (maybe a year later) and the staff shown me around the stadium, and even give me a match programme, as they didn’t run stadium tours at the time, which was quite a nice thing to do, knowing I’m a City fan. (Even though they took me to a giant picture of Ben Watson…)
The staff here did seem nice, and it is a nice stadium, relatively new also being built in 1999.
Obviously this doesn’t compare to the newer, bigger, cooler Etihad Stadium, I’m used to as a City fan, but it is a nice stadium, I have been here a few times now, it is in a good location, close to an ASDA and even Bolton’s Reebok Stadium.
The atmosphere on a match day isn’t always as good here, even when Wigan were in The Premier League, the stadium could also be a lot more profitable such as actually doing a stadium tour, for a team like Wigan this isn’t a bad stadium, but in general it does only deserve 2 stars, sadly.
UPDATE: I had to update this after Wigan’s 4 – 0 thrashing of Blackpool to win League One and get promotion to the Championship (30/​04/​2016), after some consideration this is a nice stadium and for the staff to do what they did for me was very kind, and I actually feel as a «Promotion reward» for Wigan Athletic who play here, my reconsideration to 3 stars couldn’t have come at a better time!

As a born and bred St. Helens man (albeit now in exile in North Wales) this stadium wouldn’t be the first I’d head for but last season I managed to wangle a couple of free tickets to see the football team take on Bournemouth. The stadium is easy enough to find being located out of town next to a fairly large retail park. I parked on the car park at the stadium which was large and almost deserted on arrival and where you bizarrely have to pay a fiver to a couple of blokes sat in a pick up truck for your ticket. The stadium is modern and the first I’ve been to that has automated turnstiles so rather than being allowed in by an old bloke in a bobble hat you have to feed your ticket into a barcode reader to get in. The facilities (bar, catering, toilet) all looked acceptable enough although I didn’t buy a drink or pie. Unfortunately on the day the team didn’t manage to live up to the surroundings and were well beaten by Bournemouth. This maybe wasn’t a huge surprise given that Bournemouth ended the season in a promotion place while Wigan ended up being relegated. When the match ended there was a fairly big of queue of traffic to escape, probably more from the retail park than the football, but again this wasn’t too problematic.

DW stands for Don’t Worry (your away team will win), Damn Windy (brr), Desirable Women (north western girls usually are), and D*ck Waving (because the men in these parts like to windmill).
First-​Hand Experience: More info about my personal experience at this stadium — I’ve been to the DW about 6 times, but only twice to see a game. Once was Rugby (which I hated, and the crowd really loved) and one was Wigan vs Fulham, and the crowd barely showed up (half full maybe). Because they’re unable to fill the stadium even when playing top notch opponents, I have to give them a 3. It’s a lovely state of the art facility, but it’s open in the corners, so it doesn’t have the kind of atmosphere it needs.
I was most recently here in 2014 after my concert in Bolton and before I played Warrington. I thought it looked in good nick, but still at some point needs to fill in those corners.
I’ve been to most UK & US stadiums, due to lifelong obsessions with travel, sport & especially footy (soccer to Americans). Born & raised in England, I followed Oxford United (hometown team) to stadia all over the country at away games, and later Liverpool (fave team) around. Every stadium review — like all my reviews — are from first-​hand personal experience, usually from several visits. In 2011, I was on music tour in the UK, and visited most stadiums for fun in my spare time. As recently as Fall 2014, when I was «stuck» in UK for 3 months, I went to hundreds yet again while travelling. I have pictures of me at most, which I’ll post later. Also, when back in UK I’ll take more pix, and add more stadia!
*** return to regular review ***
It’s not one of my favourite stadiums even though I’ve been there many times. It’s excellent for a team like Wigan, which can’t really be expected to have an amazing ground, but it’s got open corners and is almost always empty, so despite its modernness and nice surroundings, it still leaves a lot to be desired. If they can fill in the corners it’ll be much better.
It used to be the JJB, it holds 25k, it opened in 1999 and cost 30 mil to build. For a town like Wigan to have a stadium like this though, they should be very proud.

Writing as a rugby league fan I’m looking at this stadium for rugby potential.
The good Friday match this year (2015) was at Wigan Warriors stadium against as usual the champions ;) St. Helens
The seats are standard stadium seats and the concrete façade is again standard !
But the bar is ridiculously slow, instead of them being served straight away and handed over with people employed just to pull pints they are all made to order so making it slower I could understand if there was a full bar but it’s just bitter or larger TWO beers not 9 or 10.
So very bad bar service — price is usual but when you que up at 27 mins into the game and when you get back to your seat the second half has started it says something !
Also it’s a trek away from Wigan centre so get a taxi there and walk back with the rest of the champions fans ;)

A great stadium and a rapidly improving football team. The stadium is in walking distance of car parks and is easily assessable by public transport. The atmosphere is great but could do with a few more supporters on match days.

haha stadium? atmosphere? are you sure?!
Surrounding areas aren’t too bad, within walking distance of the ground you have a decent amount of parking space for away fans, an asda (great for pre match food/​drink), retail park type shopping place and a pub or two.
Inside the ground, well what can i say our team had an entire stand filled with fans yet looking around you kind of had to wonder where all the wigan fans were!
Food/​drinks in the kiosks are fairly priced and toilets clean.
Tickets to get in are very cheap but you can see why!
Nevertheless, Wigan is one of the away games I try not to miss, it’s usually a great day out, win or lose.

An average football team. Not really anything spectacular, but it’s a low budget Premiership football team. Season tickets are on the dear side for what you get.

Lovely little, modern stadium with a capacity of around 25,000.
This gives it a nice atmosphere compared to the 50,000+ Premiership clubs.
Around the group are lots of facilities and amenities, so even if one member of the family goes to the game, theres restaurants, bars and a Wacky Warehouse right next door!
The football is also affordable compared to many teams generally £15 — £20 a ticket for Premiership!