I'm not dreaming. It's happened before. All I'm saying is that people on here shouldn't be wishing the Latics would go down the pan. I would hate to see it happen. Unlike some others (especially some on here) I really want to see every club in SL in a healthy state.

I take it you're assuming that the football club own the ground, rather than the stadium company, which I don't think has happened yet.

If it did I'm not sure how the receivers could lock us out, assuming of course that there is a binding agreement for us to use the ground, the receivers would be bound by that.

You do have a point however in that the receivers could sell the ground and if we didn't have a lease then a purchaser would buy it free from the rugby club's rights under the agreement to use the ground.

Having said that though, the receivers job is to realise value. If Latics have been relegated the football club will be relatively worthless, along with the stadium (if you doubt this, bear in mind that Mandaric bought Sheffield Wednesday - a vastly bigger football club, with a 40,000 seat stadium - at the back end of last year for £1 and paid £7m to settle the club's debt to the Bank, that's £7m for a big club and a big stadium).

The only people interested in paying anything substantial for either Latics or the stadium in an insolvency situation would I suspect be IL.

It might even make financial sense at some point in the future for DW or his family to realise some value in the football club by selling the stadium (and possibly the club) to IL, even if it avoids going bust.

As you say the ground is pretty worthless, even more so when you consider that I'm sure the land is still Council land and was given Whelan under various covenants. It couldn't be sold and something else built on it and as you say the main interested party would be Lenagan anyway. As things stand he couldn't be involved in the Latics given his ownership of Oxford United.

It would take time though. Way back in 1986 Middlesbrough got locked out of their own ground by the Reciever, immediately re-formed and started the season at Hartlepool as they couldn't get into their own ground. They played about 3 games there before the paperwork was sorted and the ground was handed back.
It would be interesting to know who does own the DW now.

I have a funny feeling that if it hasn't yet happened, the realisation of losing the ground aswell if they do go bust may be the reason why he'd keep the stadium as being owned by a seperate company. He's a crafty but bloody good business man.

Good point re Oxford United.

I have written evidence that the land belongs to Wigan Council and they granted a 99 year lease to Wigan Football Company Ltd.
Trading as then the JJB stadium for the use of the land at Robin Park comprising of the JJB stadium and surrounds from 4th August 1999.The lease remains in place and specifies that the Stadium to made available for ALL the home fixtures of Wigan Athletic Football Club Ltd AND the Wigan Football club (Wigan Warriors )

Who owns the Stadium
85% of the shares of Wigan Football Company are owned by Whelco Holdings Ltd (a company owned by Dave Whelan and his family and 15% by Wigan Council and they have a director on the board as of yet Dave Whelan has yet to call a formal meeting and takes all the key decisions .
Goes on to say that both clubs are required to work with their respective bodies to ensure there is no clash of fixtures. Both had 25 year licenses .The Stadium company has the right to determine in the event of a conflict of fixtures to use the Stadium on match days.

Letter dated 29th Sep 2008
Football Premier league rules state that if a ground is shared that the PREMIER team has the sole right to play .
Did IL say at FF I that Warriors had now a 50 year license .?

So you're talking about a contract renewal sometime in the future - no-one knows how long the current one lasts. Given that everyone already knew that Latics were unlikely to survive in the premier league in the long run (they have done remarkably well to survive so long), and that we are presumably paying a commercial rate currently, and that IL knew that when the contract is renewed the Latics may have gone t-ts up, what's there to worry about?

The whole process of getting into bed with the soccer team has lead to the subjugation of WWRLFC. This link-up with the RU club is going to make things even worse; a feeder club for Saracens RU that play, cap-in-hand, at Latics' stadium.

Interesting to see what Deano put regarding Mandaric getting Sheffield Wednesday for £7 million,just look what has just happened with Comet.

Comet sold for just £2

November 9, 2011


"Troubled electricals retailer Comet has been sold for mere £2 by parent company Kesa Electricals. The retail chain has been sold to well-known turnaround specialists OpCapita, who reassured employees that they do not plan to make redundancies or close stores.

Under the sale, Kesa has agreed to provide a £50m dowry and OpCapita will invest a further £30m as they look to attempt to revive the fortunes of Comet over the next 18 months".


One can only dream but maybe Mr Whelan will give us £5 milion to take the stadium off his hands.

Yeah he did last year.



I don't think it's that simple. IL wouldn't have agreed to a contract like this if there wasn't some kind of fixation in the rent. Otherwise Latics could start charging us ridiculous amounts and we'd be without a ground.

Whelan will still be pulling the strings when he's on his Barbados death-bed. Like most of his comments that get reported in the press it's just a way to attract attention and drum up some interest for the football club and his latest business interest.

Still 25 years according to the latest published account in August.

Strange on this seeing as he had previously said he didn't want his family to be involved and that is why he was selling up.