Quote: EHW "so in 12 months (from the start of SL to March 1997 when Central Park was sold to Tesco) the club went from being profitable to being £12m in debt - entirely based on SL crowd figures in 1996???'"
Do you really want a lecture in accountancy? It doesn't take a company long to go down the pan once the wheels turn, didn't Leeds also go bust to be saved by Carrick around the same time?
Let's say (all figures are for example only) Wigan turned over 5 million in 91 and planned a 1/4 milion profit - the 1/4 million profit was to pay for the new 5 million stand over 20 years and bank lending and other loans were agreed to cover this. Then the stand didn't cost 5 million it cost 7.5 million - so the extra 2.5 million had to be found from somewhere. So this extra 2.5 million gave Wigan some serious cash flow problems, despite the fact that they were still showing a profit, but as a bouyant company the bank agreed to extend its credit terms to Wigan. Unfortunately in the ill-fated 95/6 interim season Wigan's turnover took a nosedive, profitablity turned to losses as expenditure wasn't cut and they were quickly strangled by a lack of cash and a loss of confidence from the banks. So yes things did turn bad quickly, but inevitably given the overspend on the stand and decreasing turnover.
