I know

He was worth every penny in my opinion.
Whatever people want to say about him he was such a special player.
I've not seen anyone else that could do what he was capable of and its not like he managed it on just the odd occasion.
He was a class act.

The financial problems at the club had existed and built up over several years.
They were then added to by the Super League war, the unexpected costs of the Whitbread stand and the move to summer.
That's putting it very simply.
You look at our finances at the time and its no wonder the bank were about to pull the plug.

Big Dave's deal to buy the ground and let the club become tenants would also have bust the club in short order.

The tesco deal was the only way out. The club's entire financial model (what there was of it) was based on reaching Wembley every year.

Shame because Central Park was IMHO a streets better RL stadium than the DW. The view from the Douglas side was outstanding.

That would never have happened. Whelan wanted Central Park, but not to build/develop. He is an astute business man and knew the value of the LAND. We would have been exactly in the same position as now but some £7 million worse off.

The Whitbread Stand was a major contributing factor. Who apart from Leeds have built a new stand at an existing ground (and wasn't that funded by Carnegie?) Another nail in the coffin was the superleage/ARL war when silly money was being thrown at players both to go to Aus or to stay here. In hindsight Wigan should have let the players go and relied on bringing (or buying) players through.

That was the deal on the table and there was a public meeting to discuss it where DW claimed it was a good deal and independant accountants appointed by the board's opinion was that it really wasn't.

Of course that was what was said. BUT how much do you think it would have cost Whelan to develop Central Park? It was much cheaper to build a new ground (using available grants) and cash in on the land.
I was at the meeting, and also the one where he tried to shout down Jack Robinson. Robinson invited Whelen onto the stage at the Riverside Club to have an open discussion. Whelan declined and continued heckling from the rear of the room before scurrying away with a few of his supporters.

As I said Whelan is an astute business man.

Funded by Carnegie (part of Leeds University) when they had millions to literally throw around in joint ventures and sponsorship deals - what some don't realise is that the building at the opposite end of the ground next to the North Stand was also built by Carnegie as a tuition base, for decades the two Carnegie centres of sporting excellence (Becketts Park Leeds and Loughborough) have had links with sporting clubs, Leeds had used their training facilities for a long time and the base established at Headingley was part of their sports science degree courses - the Carnegie (East Terrace) stand was built as a joint venture with training classrooms built at the back of it, its used all week by the university - and of course as part of the deal Carnegie had a financial stake in the holding company that owns Leeds RL and RU and their dean was on the board, they have since sold back that share.

I too was at the meeting, also the share holders meeting where it was decided there and then if the club was sold or not. He knew exactly what he was doning and had it all planned out.

Thanks for the information everyone. Such a shame that that grounds gone. A redeveloped Central Park, from what I can see on the internet, would have been the best in the English game.

Central park was certainly an amazing ground to watch RL in, I will never forget being in the ground in 1987 when they beat Manly,the atmosphere that night was electric, if i recall correctly there were almost 37,000 fans in there that night, plenty of fans had their own teams colours on too, but to a man everyone cheered for Wigan throughout that game

I know for a fact that isn't true.

Wow, right on cue

We're OT for this board but just to be clear, the Carnegie Stand was only partially funded by Carnegie, certainly not fully - Leeds had around £10m in the bank as it was and that was used for most of the funding.

Leeds Met have never had any representatives on the board of Leeds RL or its parent companies. They had an interest in the RU club itself, but had nothing to do with the parent companies.

On topic - Central Park was my favourite away ground and it is still crushing to drive past that Tescos. A massive, massive shame that it came to that.

I bow to your knowledge sir

I think the pertinent point is that it was an imaginative solution and what we have come to expect from our CEO and his Chair, its not enough to simply go around businesses with a begging bowl or wait for a multi-millionaire to come along with an ego who will fund everything out of his own pocket, there was a window of opportunity to involve the University in plans for redevelopment and they both took it, such a shame that it couldn't be extended to include the South and North Stands too and to get free parking on the Becketts Park campus (its ALMOST ajoining land with a little stretch of the imagination and ignoring three blocks of housing) as part of the deal but you can't have everything can you.