Looking at Latics remaining fixtures, 3 of the 4 are against teams in the bottom 4. They have a good chance of getting out of the hole they've been dropped into

https://www.wigantoday.net/sport/footba ... ic-2906124 Okay, lets go back to the statement from the club. Quote Lenagan, along with Gary Speakman and Darryl Eales, are leading the consortium'" Quote Lenagan, a proud Wiganer, believes the Championship outfit is best being "locally owned". He says if successful, the clubs would be under the same ownership but there would be no merger - they would retain their own training facilities and staff.'" Quote Our intention is to identify other investors quickly and start due diligence on the football club with the intention of making a bid in due course. '" Purely concentrating on Wigan RL here for a moment, this would seem to imply that IL is opening up the club to further investment? Obviously we've incurred some heavy losses over the last couple of years (even before the club reports on accounts during Covid) which he's had to carry solely. Assuming if the bid for Latics is unsuccessful everything carries on as before, or does it?

https://www.wigantoday.net/sport/footba ... ic-2906124 Okay, lets go back to the statement from the club. Quote Lenagan, along with Gary Speakman and Darryl Eales, are leading the consortium'" Quote Lenagan, a proud Wiganer, believes the Championship outfit is best being "locally owned". He says if successful, the clubs would be under the same ownership but there would be no merger - they would retain their own training facilities and staff.'" Quote Our intention is to identify other investors quickly and start due diligence on the football club with the intention of making a bid in due course. '" Purely concentrating on Wigan RL here for a moment, this would seem to imply that IL is opening up the club to further investment? Obviously we've incurred some heavy losses over the last couple of years (even before the club reports on accounts during Covid) which he's had to carry solely. Assuming if the bid for Latics is unsuccessful everything carries on as before, or does it?

That could be a double edged sword, as staying up means the outgoings are greater for the next 12 months. Playing contracts usually have a promotion/relegation clause, whereby wages increase/decrease by 30-40% depending on what division you play in.

As no spectators are allowed, whoever buys the club will have to fill a bigger black hole than if they were a L1 club with L1 outgoings.

What has happen at Wigan Athletic has been on the cards for some time with falling attendances, poorer standard of players etc and no major investment by the new Chinese owners as what was expected by their supporters and no doubt by those managing the club, following the sale to the Chinese company.

If you are spending more than you what you have coming in, you will end up in debt and administration, especially if any new owners are not doing anything to improve the financial situation and only bought the club for reasons other than being interested in football, which appears to be the case of what has happened to the Latic's. A financial situation which also has been made worse by the pandemic.

Like I have said before, Whelan knows when it is the right time to get out of a business and does not care less to whom he sells as was proved by the sale of JJB Sports which within months of being sold, went out of business under the new owners.

The receiver said he'd had 50 expressed interests in buying the club but only three had provided proof of funds. No doubt IL and the others have proved they have the money and, say, the other two were from China/HK and Sordid Arabia then he could well be looking at IL & Co as the preferred bidder.
I'd like IL etc to takeover the Latics as I think Wigan RL would get an overall better financial deal than we have at present.

I also think he would make sure the club is run well

Struggle to get there pal. They've cordoned it off. Temporary traffic lights.

Put another 10 minutes on my journey.

Couldnt give a **** eggy
You don't even drive!

Righto

I think you have to be pragmatic about it and bin the anti-Latics mentality.

If there is no Wigan Athletic then I doubt Wigan RL can afford the rent of the stadium alone and how would the company that owns the stadium survive off what Wigan RL could pay?

So I presume the motivation from IL is to ensure there is another tenant of the DW with both clubs under the “Wigan Sporting Partnership” banner.

However for me there must be more too it than just rescuing Latics with things carrying on as before.

By that I mean if it is a partnership then the RL club needs to benefit from a 50% share in all non sporting revenue the stadium generates. So food & beverage sales and any income from corporate events held at the stadium etc.

It would also be good to see an end to the ridiculous mid summer enforced exile for several weeks and it seeming to be its always the RL club that must compromise on fixtures. There is no longer a valid reason for this. The likes of Huddersfield and Hull do not go on the road for eight weeks and they share with football teams. We must be the only SL club in the summer rugby era that plays in winter!

I have always argued we get a good deal off renting the stadium. Cheap rent and low overheads but it's obvious with the Fans Village initiative IL has been looking to earn more match day revenue. If it’s keeping things as they are for the RL club with no revenue from the stadium and fixtures still moved then I can't see this being popular with Wigan RL fans. It will just be seen as a distraction for IL as when he was involved with Oxford United and the Football League.

I suppose it depends on what is cheaper for Wigan RL. Carry on renting or being in a partnership within which the club shares the stadium revenue. The former has the drawbacks of being the junior partner and I for one am a bit sick of it.

I am concerned that it could end up costing us more? We only pay 300k a year for the stadium currently, i doubt we will get a better deal than that?

Where has the figure of 300k come from as I have always understood that it was only 200k.

We all are and the people to blame for it are Wigan Council for not doing what they should have done 24 years ago by making sure that the Stadium was owned by a independent company as was the original intention when the idea of a joint stadium was first suggested in 1994 and not by one man like Whelan, especially when only around 20% of the construction cost of the stadium came out of his own pocket with most of it coming from other sources and the 14% share by the Council.

We can only hope that the bid by the Lenagan Led Consortium is successful with both clubs and the stadium all coming under the same umbrella and puts a end to the folly of the Council.

Wigan RL were lucky to even be playing at the stadium

It probably will cost more BUT we will also have more income to balance it out.

I called this early.... Could be very interesting times ahead, whichever way it goes..

The stadium is 20 years old. How much do you think needs spending on it?

I would imagine thats an ongoing cost for every stadium.

Yes it is
But without going into detail, certain previous owner knew that many millions were required to be spent on the stadium to comply with various H&S requirements etc. He didnt spend it and sold it on.
The last owners hadnt spent it as of Dec 2019, so its still required and it goes into the multiple millions.
The ongoing costs of running the stadium are massive.

Egg chasing mentions Wigan rlfc increased rent could be offset by taking a cut of the profits.
Really obvious statement, but it's been losing over £1m a year consistantly and it will be greater now, and they still have to spend the above to comply with H&S on top of the yearly losses, BEFORE any profits can be thought of.

We had a cracking deal - 10% of our gate money!

Quote ="Sweaty Betty's"We had a cracking deal - 10% of our gate money!'" Exactly, I could never understand the clamour from some fans to "build our own" The build costs and running costs are very very high. The DW need a lot of money spending on it. Just look at this article from Hetherington. https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/ ... 19-2909441

Quote ="Sweaty Betty's"We had a cracking deal - 10% of our gate money!'" Exactly, I could never understand the clamour from some fans to "build our own" The build costs and running costs are very very high. The DW need a lot of money spending on it. Just look at this article from Hetherington. https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/ ... 19-2909441

Got figure from companies house accounts, it is variable though as it is reflected by attendance yearly i read?

The company who owns the stadium now lost 1.5m in 2019.

Thanks for the information.

It was in the papers last night that the Gov't is to allow PL Soccer to have spectators admitted to matches from Sept 12th. Their new season.
They also confirmed that sports such as Rugby League, Rugby Union and cricket would be allowed spectators from the same date. Social Distancing rules will apply.
This may help clubs see a way forward from the mess they, and everyone, is in.