That's what happens now technically

No its not, the administrators has sold Wigan Athletic as a football club owning a Stadium.

In other words, the Latics are still the landlord of the Stadium and the Warriors are still the tenants paying a rent which is no different from situation which existed before the Latics went into administration due to debts. That is not the situation at Huddersfield, Hull, Leigh, Salford etc where the Stadiums are owned by independent owners with all clubs paying a rent as tenants to use the facilities.

Wigan Council only owned the lease on the land on which the Stadium is built plus a 14% share of the Stadium which is still owned by the Latics.

This is the first time the two have been combined.

The stadium was owned by 1 company and Latics by another. Latics paid rent to play at the stadium just as we do.

That might change now though but who knows.

The same individual has always owned the stadium and the football club though, so for them, paying rent was akin to moving your wallet from your right pocket to your left.

True, but they could have lost the stadium if the admins had been as ruthless as their fans suggest

The Stadium was transferred to the Latics ownership prior to Whelan putting the Latics up for sale, so that whoever bought the Latics would also be buying the Stadium as part of the purchase sale which would make it more attractive to potential buyers of the Latics.

From what I understand, prior to that decision by Whelan, both the Latic's and the Stadium were owned by a third Whelan company called Whelco Holdings Ltd. If any rent was paid by the Latics as you suggest, it was nothing more than a cosmetic transfer from one Whelan company to another Whelan company.

Therefore, the new Spanish owners own the Stadium in the same way as the previous Chinese owners with the Warriors still paying a rent in the same way as they have always done under the terms of the fifty year lease for use of the facilities of the Stadium.

In other words, nothing has changed from the time that Whelan donated the Stadium to the Latics and the bid by the Lenagan Consortium was pointless as the administrators were only interested in selling the Latics and the Stadium as a joint sale of a Football Club owning a Stadium.

The problem that the Warriors now have is a possible increase in rent by the new owners and a problem of what happens at the end of the fifty year rental lease.

All gone pear shaped since 1994 when the idea of a joint Stadium was first suggested with ownership by a independent company and both the Latics and the Warriors paying a rent as tenants in the same way that it is at other joint Stadiums in Rugby League.

Fifty years is a long time. Wigan should be putting money away now to build up to that point to get free of the stadium - which will be due for replacement or massive upgrade by then anyway.

Football club 1 company. Stadium another company. Latics owed the stadium company money according to the debts published by the admins (and posted on here i think) so they must have been paying rent in some form.

IFL owns other companies also, doesn't mean Wigan rugby own them too does it?

Latics, as a company, have never owned the stadium. Plenty of clubs do it that way to protect the asset and other "business" reasons.

Whether the new buyers do that or not we won't know, but one concern I do have is what happens to our lease as that was with a company that once this goes through will no longer exist.

Latics went into administration, there was no mention of a stadium management company being in administration. The administrator appointed to control Latics' administration was selling as a package Latics, a training ground and the stadium. Ergo Latics must own the stadium or there would be no reason to sell the stadium and certainly not as part of a deal for the Latics. Had the stadium been sold separately as the Euxton training ground was then Latics would no longer own it but it appears to have been sold along with Latics so Latics (or their prospective new owners) will still own the stadium.

This is how I understand it from what mates tell me and companies house:

Latics were owned by a company that then owned four other companies. One owned the club, one the stadium, one the training ground, one the chippy. Latics as a club/company didn't own the stadium or the training ground at Euxton. That's why IFL was able to bid for the stadium and not the club and how the training ground was sold.

You're quite right that had the company owning the football club been put into admin then the stadium would stay as is, but the holding company was put into admin and so everything underneath it as well. Latics were never being asset stripped as they didn't own any assets legally. The admins just decided to sell the stadium and club as one entity.

If one of IFL's businesses goes under then WRL are safe. If IFL himself goes bankrupt then we aren't. Same sort of idea I think that tried to protect the stadium if the club ever went pop (and a nice tax fiddle also on how much income the club actually has as they have to pay rent on the stadium and training ground)

Spot on
Whelan never gave the ground to the football club, he gave the ground to the same company that owned the football club.
The last owners of Latics did the same thing

Wigan RLFC will now need to negotiate the terms of their tenancy with the new owners of the stadium.
I would put my £10 on the newnownrs doing the same thing, there will be a company that will own the stadium and the club, but the 2 will be kept separate.

As Egg chasing has also started the interesting/complicated piece is the Lease.

Why do you think it has taken so long to sell Wigan Athletic. It has been due, according to the administrators, potential buyers only wanting to buy Wigan Athletic without buying the Stadium or bidders wanting to just buy the Stadium as a purchase on its own which I suspect was the interest by the Lenagan Consortium bid.

The Spanish buyers are the only bidder who has met the requirements of the Administrators who were only prepared to sell Wigan Athletic and its ownership of the Stadium together as it was at the time the Wigan Athletic went into administration.

In other words, Wigan Athletic are still the owners/landlords of the Stadium as they have been since Whelan transferred it financial affairs from Whelco Holdings to Wigan Athletic in order to sell the club.

Wrong

If yourself and your pal Egg Chasing think I am wrong, may I suggest you contact the Sports Editor of the Wigan Today Newspaper for clarification on what companies or individuals have own the Stadium since it was built and who has owned it since Whelan sold Wigan Athletic to the Chinese and what exactly has been sold in the sale of Wigan Athletic to the Spanish.

I don't need to - I know for a fact that Egg Chasing is correct (He is closer to this than you can imagine).
However - Even if he wasn't I still know what FACTS are

The same company (IEC) owned the Company that runs the Stadium , and they owned the company that ran the Football, ergo, 2 x different companies - Wigan Athletic DID NOT OWN THE STADIUM

Simples

it was the same when Whelan owned it - He owned both companies, but they were different companies

If the Spanish want to put the Football club & the stadium under 1 banner & call it the same company that is their prerogative (I don't think they will but that's a different story).

Don't Wigan Council have a stake in DW stadium as well as owning the land if i can remember when all the controversy of when we had to move our matches to accommodate the Latics it came out as the Council had a stake of the DW.

I know they did - but that will be being covered off under the sale/administration process
i.e. If they had a 15% stake then either :-
As part of the administration process they may recover in £££'s what they are now due (probably not much!)
Or
They retain a 15% ownership and the new buyers accommodate this under the sale/administration process and the buyers price reflects this.

Either way that was not RD's statement/Claim

The Football club did not Own the stadium - They were owned by the same Company that owns the stadium
May seem a pedantic point, but legally it's a massive difference

It's actually 14% (£4.9 million) of the the building cost of £35 million of the Stadium with the bulk of the having come from grants with only about 20% coming from Whelan's personal fortune which was confirmed to me by a Wigan Business man.

So, where has the idea come from that Whelan built the Stadium ?

#


Please explain who and what are the company IEC, as in the twenty years or so since the Stadium was built,I have never heard of this company and neither do I suspect have the majority of Warriors supporters and indeed the general public in Wigan.

Are You





On Glue?

What are you on about ????
Replying with statements/answers to Questions that weren't even being asked!!!!!!!

When did I say he built the stadium?
When did I say how much he put in or where or how he got the grants etc.????
That's not what you originally said

You said that Wigan Athletic owned the stadium
They didn't

Wigan Athletic were a company that were owned by IEC
IEC also owned the company that owned the ground

Don't get things wrong and complete change the subject

You won't have heard of them 20 years ago

IEC are the company that bought the Stadium & Wigan Athletic from Whelan 2 years ago

They ran them both as separate businesses
They then sold them to errrrrrrr Themselves (Tongue in cheek but that's a different story)

As it stood both businesses were separate
What the new buyers of BOTH Companies do i.e. keep them separate or merge them together is up to them

Probably be better not answering any more Jukesays - he clearly doesn't understand the concept of one individual owning more than one business.

I guess he doesn't watch "the apprentice" or "dragons den".

Exactly. IEC are the same Hong Kong company who bought Wigan Athletic, the purchase of which included the Stadium which had been transferred from being a separate company of Whelco Holdings to the ownership of Wigan Athletic as proved by the fact that there is no entry of any Stadium company registered at Companies House, only the Wigan Athletic company.

The Lenagan consortium was only interested in buying the Stadium, but the administrators were only prepared to sell the Stadium as part of the ownership of Wigan Athletic which it has been since Whelan decided to sell the Latics.

Remember, it was Wigan Athletic who went into administration with no mention by the administrators of any separate sale of the Stadium as it has been owned by Wigan Athletic from the time when Whelan decided to sell the Latics as he knew that any potential buyers would only be interested in buying a football club who had ownership of the Stadium in which they played.

Therefore, the fifty year rental lease by Wigan Warriors for use of the facilities is now with whoever owns Wigan Athletic and the Stadium unless the new or future owners of Wigan Athletic decides to sell the Stadium off to another company, either to offset debts or just to make a profit for themselves.

It is now not a good situation for Wigan Warriors to be in, now that Whelan is no longer owner of the Stadium as recent events as shown.

he may be right andy, unless both companies were under administration as the groundsman and stewards were laid off, they should have been retained if the stadium company was still trading and not in administration, I dunno

Hmmmmmm - [urlhttps://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/07283993[/url

WIGAN ATHLETIC HOLDINGS LIMITED
Company number 07283993

Company status
In Administration

Nature of business (SIC)

93110 - [uOperation of sports facilities[/u


Which is separate from - [urlhttps://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/00270043[/url

WIGAN ATHLETIC A.F.C. LIMITED
Company number 00270043

Company status
In Administration

Nature of business (SIC)

93120 - [uActivities of sport clubs[/u