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A trio of Warriors officials will be living the American dream next month - Wigan are sending three of their senior staff to New York on a fact-finding mission of some of the world's most famous sports franchises.
Chief executive Mick Hogan, marketing director Simon Collinson and direct marketing executive Paul MacLeod will be meeting counterparts from, among others, baseball giants New York Yankees and American Football outfit New York Jets.
And they hope the trip across the Atlantic will help put Wigan at 'the cutting edge' of areas such as marketing, ticketing, merchandising and game-day entertainment.
Collinson said: "The Americans are widely regarded as the best in the business when it comes to sports entertainment.
"While we understand there are cultural differences between the States and the UK, they are market leaders and we will learn so much speaking to them and watching them in action.
"Some of the clubs we are visiting are pretty innovative and we share that aim – we too want to be at the cutting edge both on and off the field."
During the week-long trip they will also meet with officials from New York's other main team sports – basketball outfit NY Knicks, ice hockey side NY Rangers and soccer club New York Red Bulls, as well as representatives from the famous sporting venue at Madison Square Garden.
Collinson added: "We will be meeting a number of clubs to discover their philosophies and study the techniques they use.
"The trip is an important part of our strategy to learn from the best in the business and apply that knowledge to our own strategies."
The main purpose of the fact-finding mission will be to look at ways of building on their recent successful ticket promotions.
Last season, Wigan launched three initiatives that helped them smash past the 14,000 average crowd barrier for a fourth successive year.
'The Big One' against Leeds drew a crowd of more than 20,000, while less glamorous ties against Harlequins (14,977) and Celtic (12,371) were also strongly supported because of a link-up with Heinz and a Community Day respectively.
Collinson said: "It will be a pretty intense week as we hope to learn a massive amount while we are there."
This is the first time the current Warriors management at Warriors have flown to the USA on a fact-finding mission.
If it is as beneficial, there are plans to send some members of the club's community foundation team to the States next year on a similar trip.
Wigan's first-team squad has crossed the Atlantic before.
In 1989, the club famously played a game against Warrington in Milwaukee, while in 2005 Denis Betts took the Warriors squad to Florida for a pre-season training camp – although a game against the USA Tomahawks fell through.
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Weather for Wigan
Thursday 02 September 2010
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 8 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 9 C to 20 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: South east
