As has already been stated, Latics will not retain their premiership status. It may take 2 years or 5 years or even ten years but it is inevitable. Lowest crowds and cheapest season tickets cannot sustain huge salaries.
Great signings have made them competitive but they always have to sell. One day the signings won't work, there'll be no-one to sell and Whelan will bail out.

Had this discussion ages ago.

IIRC Katrina got a lot of info about it - and the agreement for the building of the stadia is that it would be for 'Multi-Sport Usage'. Thus if Wigan Warriors/Latics moved out the contract terms for the stadium usage would be broken.

Besides, it's simply not realistic for either club to build a new stadium anytime soon.

I don't agree Bilko....the play off fixture was an additional ...unexpected ...unplanned fixture which NO ONE thought would occur (Wire's ineptitude under the adorable James Lowes being the bizarre catalyst behind the whole situation) would have drawn a 15,000 gate at least ....which meant unplanned and unexpected revenue for Dave Whelan...and what does he love more than money?......N'owt !

He cancelled the fixture because the ground was already in a shocking state (thanks to his unwillingness to invest in it properly...since rectified at long last).....and he was on a last warning from Premier League Chiefs who were just bursting to slap him down due to his "runaway gob" and generally inane pronouncements about all manner of things which don't concern him.

The pitch for the football was appalling and he'd been warned if there were anymore complaints from opposing Managers/Chairmen (apparently there's been plenty) then he was facing a points deduction, which could (potentially) at a stroke spell relegation for Latics and Arrividerci to the 30 million quid annual income.......In effect he was reminded that although he thinks he's "Ruthless Billy Tough Nuts" along the highways and byways of Wigan...in the company that Latics are moving in he's a `Boy Scout'l .....that's why the fixture was cancelled....the pitch was sodden...the forecast awful ....although ironically the weather leading up to the weekend wasn't nearly as bad as feared.....but all the talk of not being able to turn the ground around in time was just face saving waffle on his part, he'd been forced in to making himslef look silly..... but he wasn't going to acknowledge that in public.

No I think it was Donna.

Makes interesting reading and makes sense in a way

hhhhhmmmmmmm

I suspect Whelan will have sold Latics before they lose there Premier League status, I have a sneaking suspicion he was very close to securing a deal just before the credit crunch bit.

That sounds like a fairly accurate and comprehensive assessment to me.

Thanking you....

I firmly believe this to be the case (I can't genuinely say where I heard this) The only point I wanted to make is that it wasn't petty Latics V Rugby politics that drove this situation, or Whelan's bloody mindedness. He had been backed into a corner (nice for the boot to be on the other foot for a change some might say) and didn't really have a choice....but he was never going to be up front in public and effectively declare that he'd had his hands slapped and his "card marked" was he ?

Which coming back to this post's original premise.....a shared stadium is the only viable way forward for both clubs, regardless of Latics Premiership status which they can't hold on to forever...they've already performed miracles and an end will come ...one way or the other....as and when it does by the way ...our share of the Stadium running costs goes up significantly ! (IL has inferred this on several occasions)

The concept of a shared ground will be much easier to sustain amongst the supporters of both clubs however when both DW and Maurice L disappear into the sunset....as the baggage both of them bring are a constant running sore that undermines any ideal of togetherness.

Yeah. A number of times IL has gone on the record saying that he wants Latics to stay up. At one Fans Forum I attended this disgruntled some Wigan fans, but it's clearly a sensible appreciation of how things stand financially.

The really strange thing about the Wigan v Latics animosity is that it wasn't always there. When Latics first got promoted to the professional ranks in the early 1980s, it wasn't far off the same crowd watching both teams. I remember a Good Friday when stacks of fans went to watch Latics in the morning and then pub-crawled across town over lunchtime, getting to Central Park in time for the next match. There was no atmosphere of 'them and us'.

Exactly !

It would serve both parties best if we could get that kind of joint approach back....it won't be easy and it won't be quick....and like I say....any hope of it happening will only gain any impetus once the field is cleared and Latics get a new regime......which will happen eventually !

The main problem is that some section of them blues can never accept the sucess we had in th 80 & 90s

Well, to make something like this work both sides have to make sacrifices.

Thus far we've had to sacrifice Central Park, our reputation for being the UK's flagship rugby league town, an excellent quality playing surface when we kick off our season in spring, and any control at all over fixture clashes.

Perhaps it wouldn't be too much to ask Latics fans to sacrifice their embedded belief system that Wigan's past glory years are somehow hindering their progress to the top of the Premiership (and accept the reality that they aren't and never will be a big enough fish to attain such status anyway).

Lets face it, Central Park (RIP) can never be replaced in our affections, so not much point in pondering over it really.
I like the JJB actually. When its near full, the atmosphere is cracking! And as for Stadium facilties, its a million times better than CP in all honesty.
I dislike the ego-maniac-pensioner, as much as the next man. And will never feed the power-crazed ones ego even further by calling our home the 'DW' stadium!
And i dont really care too much we share it with the minor-sport team in Wigan either. I'm not fussed one way or the other what happens to them.
On match-days, its our home......Our stadiium......And thats that for me.

Has someone got a pic of what Central Park would have looked like re-developed? and could you put it on here?

I think the only pic ever produced was a quick sketh by an artist which wan't to scale as the stadium that was drawn coulf have never fit in between the Road and the Dougie with a full size rugby pitch in it.