Football clubs are money pits aren't they. Fair play to Danson putting his hand in his pocket and bailing them out.

Hopefully they have a solid base to build on now and don't have any more dramas. I know that sentiment might not be shared by all of our fans, but remember we have a common owner now. Any financial difficulties they have means less money for the rugby. If they become a basket case again that's a drain on the time and attention of Danson which could have been spent on us. Its in our interest for Latics to be well run

They really are.

Whilst I don't agree with the agro Danson is getting from the Latics fan base, I can kinda see why some are worried/hesitant towards him.

Unless it's some kind of unbelievable deal, no one buys a sports team to make a profit. Most teams, across all sports are money pits. Most owners do it for a love of the club they support, or because have plenty of money to play around with and boost their ego via buying a play thing.

Danson doesn't strike me as a diehard "tic" and whilst he's wadded, he doesn't seem like the kinda guy to go for a vanity project either. He's bought Latics because it makes sense for his 1st love, which is us.

It probably means Latics will be run like a business i.e smartly, without huge losses and with a focus on ROI. Players will be bought cheaply and sold on for a profit. Like we saw at the United game, fans will be moved to maximise financial game too. Basically, smart business decisions.

As an outsider looking in, whilst also factoring in their recent and well publicised issues, it makes perfect sense. I just don't feel like Latics fans will ever really love Danson. They might tolerate and even thank him for keeping their club alive, but I feel the diehards will always want more.

I know for a fact that he is going to cap annual losses.

I will give the majority of Latics fans credit, they are supportive of Danson and thankful for what he’s done. As with anything, the loud minority are listened to and they’ve moaned pretty much from day one that Danson isn’t spending any money and is instead spending it on the rugby. I don’t actually think they believe it but if they do, it’s incredible, as today will only highlight.

The club has been under a transfer embargo anyway but even not being able to spend money on transfers doesn’t save Danson from having to cover a huge monthly wage bill and the loses, all of which are on the back of a couple of disgraceful ownership groups running the club to the brink. The club is going to be run completely differently going forward and that is the way it has to be.

Unfortunately he probably won’t please every one and that element of empty heads prefer promises of all blue seats and traces of the rugby club’s existence at the stadium being scrubbed away. As I’ve said before as a fan of both clubs, if those sort of Latics fans decide to move on, then that’ll be great news.

I think you're probably right, at least in the short term. He's tainted as a rugby mon, and he'll be compared to freespending former owners. Plenty Latics fans will remain suspicious, old habits die hard.

But maybe if he can take some of the lessons we have learned about investing in youth and focusing on culture he can achieve progress without breaking the bank. We've seen teams like Luton right their way to the Premier league without breaking the bank, with some good management and a bit of luck Latics could fight their way back

Truth is and its an incofortable one the worst thing that ever happened to wigan athletic was being promoted to the top flight, the town, frankly isn't big enough to support a top flight club when things go wrong as they did this seemed to be proven correct, far to many huge football clubs surround wigan so while it was fun in the sun for a little while it was always going to end in tears, thank god for Danson or else the club would have folded of that im sure who else was going to put up with a club so mis managed as that one?

Now Danson clearly has ordered cloth to be cut accordingly and that's the right way to go. surely no more near misses with bankruptcy has to be the way to it couldn't nor shouldn't carry on as it has been doing basically since they got relegated from the premier league.

Unfortunately those supporters have lived through decades of "send the owner the monthly bill to settle" culture that is across most of the professional clubs. The last owner was either a penniless chancer or someone who didnt buy into this philosophy and it nearly cost the town their football club.

Having both clubs under one ownership will, in time, repair the division. I have attended a couple of football fixtures this season now that the ownership isnt anti-rugby, which is and always will be my sport of choice in Wigan. Hopefully as time goes on and joint working becomes more embedded, then the divide will heal.

Sadly, I think an entire generation of Latics fans will need to disappear - as in grow old and die - before there's any chance of that. And before anyone jumps in and says some rugby fans are just as bad, while I wouldn't disagree with that, I would add that I don't know any rugby fans who want Latics out of the DW Stadium - they're mostly a bit too pragmatic for that.

As for 'all traces of the rugby club’s existence at the stadium being scrubbed away', that wouldn't take much, would it? They are virtually there already.

Its slowly returning. The women playing a fixture at the DW would never have happened under any of the previous owners. Pictures outside the front entrance went up pretty quickly. I would imagine as refurbs come round as part of the standard cycle, more joint sporting club wigan will become evident. The owner has had to dig deep just to save Latics from folding, so I understand that he probably doesnt see a complete makeover as the #1 priority right now.

It would be nice to have the flags hanging from the South stand again - they looked great.

Saw a post on twitter during the week showing a couple of chaps on abseils tinkering with the DW sign above reception at the stadium.

Obviously raising speculation that a stadium rebrand is imminent. Makes sense as a new sponsorship brings in revenue and its been years since Whelan actually owned the ground, so it's well past its due date (maybe the only thing delaying would be the seat changes to remove the DW logos from inside) - massive job in itself, may as well change all 25k seats.

Whoa whoa
Some other Mug is going to have to do it! My knees definitely won't take it anymore

Wonder if they can trade in that god awful statue for scrap metal too. A nice new one of IL, or better still Uncle Mo would be a suitable replacement.