Quote: Deano G "IL owning Latics would be a good result for them, the RL club and the town.
I imagine IL would want the stadium (which wouldn't be worth much in isolation anyway).
IL would undoubtedly run the football club on a sustainable basis. Some Latics fans might be disappointed at that outcome, but the reality is that a Whelan-esque UK sugar daddy is unlikely to want Latics, and overseas investors are even less likely to want to buy what is a relatively small football club. At least with IL in charge any relegation scenario would be managed so that the club didn't plunge down the leagues into total obscurity.'"
How many clubs in the premiership and championship are run on a sustainable basis? I think Latics would be in the lower divisions and maybe even the lower leagues pretty quick.
Quote: Deano G "As for the rugby club, it would be great to have a proper ground share where equal priority is given to the clubs (although I don't particularly like Latics I would have no desire for revenge, and I don't expect IL would be anything other than scrupulously fair). There's no reason in reality why either club should be disadvantaged at all by groundsharing, fixture lists can be managed to avoid any problems.
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I don't think you could assume equal priority. It is always us who change fixture dates at the moment and while Latics not being a premiership club [icould[/i change that I don't think it is certain. IL would still want Latics to be as successful as the budget allowed which would surely mean if they had a Saturday game we do not play Friday to cut the pitch up just as it does now.
Quote: Deano G "No doubt some desperate Saints fans would still attempt to crow about having their small ground all to themselves. Inside though they would be seething with rage and envy at our high quality, 25k stadium.'"
I still do not think ownership is going to be any better than leasing especially given the terms we have that are supposed to be dirt cheap. I'd expect us to still lease it from a holding company and IL may well want the RL club to pay more when the money would in fact be being paid to one of his companies as opposed to a company owned by Dave Whelan.
