Do they council still own a fraction though? Thought I'd read somewhere on here that they just had a 15% stake in Whelco Holdings (the former owners of the stadium)?

This thread has just got silly. 'Receivers' knocking down the stadium and building a housing estate

In the event of latics going into administration and the ground being sold, it's highly unlikely that a potential buyer would buy a nearly new stadium to knock it down.

More likely is that you'd have to negotiate a new rental agreement and at worst your rents may increase.

IL could put a very low bid in and the receivers accept...win win.

Then get maybe Everton or Liverpool reserves to play there and coin in from there.

If Saints' ground isn't ready in time for the next licence period maybe we could sub-let to save them being chucked out of Super League.

I have dug out the old letter from the council

Does the land on which the Stadium is built still belong to the council?

Yes-The council granted a 99 year lease to Wigan Football Company Ltd (trading as the JJB Stadium) for the use of the land at Robin Park comprising the JJB Stadium and surrounds from 4th August 1999. The lease remains in place and specifies that the Stadium be made available for all the home fixtures of Wigan Athletic Football Club Ltd and Wigan Football Club Ltd (Wigan Warriors).

Who owns the Stadium?

85% of the shares of Wigan Football Company Ltd are owned by Whelco Holdings Ltd (a company controlled by Dave Whelan and his family) and 15% by the Council.

That seems more likely to me. Any administrator is going to want to do a deal with the rugby club. In any scenario where Latics have been relegated and the football club is bust no one will really be interested in buying it or funding it at any significant level. The administrator will therefore identify what the club's assets are - players and the stadium - and want to sell them quickly. The stadium will have little value to any third party other than the rugby club. I'd be very surprised if IL couldn't put a deal together for a relatively modest sum to buy the stadium, and then lease it back to the Latics phoenix company formed to continue the football club in due course.

If Latics are relegated this year it will be interesting to see how long DW supports them, especially if crowds dwindle further in the championship.

If that's the case then its unlikely that the adminstrators could sell the stadium to anyone other than the rugby club without the council's consent, so it seems there is little to worry about if the football club become landlord, in fact if this happens and then Latics become insolvent it could well lead to the rugby club becoming the football club's landlord. Which would be a result.

Exactly, when a company goes into administration its assets will be capatalised wherever possible in the quickest and easiest way to the highest bidder. IMO what would happen in reality is Wigan Council and WRLFC as tenants would put together a package with a Stadium Trust fund (much in the same way stains are funding their new ground) to purchase the ground for the use of WRLFC. It makes no sense to buldoze a £35m stadium to sell off for land to a developer for a value of probably less than half of that figure!!.....in reality Wigan RLFC and the council would be able to obtain the stadium for probably half of its real value as even this would be worth more than the land alone and what the nearest developer would pay for it.

What would happen is Wigan RLFC would get the ground with the council for a song, while a reformed FC Latics would play in their natural division, Northern Counties 1st division etc out of the robin park arena next door in front of 500 people. Both clubs restored to their natural level and wigan get the stadium for a snip!! The sooner it happens the better

i think a lot of people are forgetting even if the latics are relegated since those last lot of accounts were printed latics have sold 41.5 million pounds worth of players and would still recieve a parachute payment of 12 million a season for two seasons
also latics players all have relegation pay cuts built into thier contracts,they are in a lot better position to withstand relegation than most clubs in the prem,theres no chance of them going bust in the forseeable future.

That would resolve the problem nicely.

I don't think anyone on here's really concerned about whether Latics do or don't disappear in the near future (though that newspaper article re. the debt must have made frightful reading for anyone who counts himself a Latics fan, regardless of parachute payments, etc).

The main issue on here is whether or not it would have ramifications for Wigan RL. Ian Lenagan himself said something at at Fans Forum about it being better for us if Latics remained solvent. So if you do stay intact, it certainly won't worry me.

it obviously makes sense financially to have two clubs paying the bills at one stadium that much is obvious

12 mil a season isnt a lot when they get 30+ mkil from tv alone in the prem.

Considering also the fans that will drop off

i assume you have facts to back up that statement.

kindly let us into a few and dont generalise.