I do think a lot of things will be done virtually in the future which of course cuts down on possibilities for stadium use. It isn't as simple as it sounds and IL isn't daft and won't buy the stadium unless he 100% has to.

so PepsiCo up here was at Wigan I work there and went

Leigh had Elton John and Lionel Richie

You mean Wigan Council?

the concerts are a definite viable source of income. Yes there will be competition but not all artists can pull in 50-60k fans
Little Mix performed at Bolton, Pink has performed at Bolton, as Pieman mentioned Lionel Richie and Elton John at Leigh, so these arent little time performers trying to make their name. if the pricing is right, then the artists will use the venue.

I attended a seminar at DW many years ago, well run and tour of the stadium included. As others have commented these are the types of thing that keep the venue ticking over revenue wise, and ultimately supports its upkeep.

I agree on the comments re staging other RL games as there is competition for places in that regards with only 2 semi finals and poss 3 test matches (every couple of years), so Leeds is likely to get one gig as they need to pay for the refit

and then free for all. The RFL also seem to be looking at expansion areas and bigger venues too, so 25k at Wigan v Wembley / Anfield / Old Trafford / newcastle etc doesnt compete unfortunately

yeah same thing

we could bring the tour back, was excellent when I went a very young sam tomkins was the guide.

Over how many years are we talking for those 4 concerts? If they all happened in 2019 there's a market for gigs in NW towns, if they were over 5 years, maybe it's best to not put all your eggs in the 'lucrative' concert market.

Hologram concerts are popular could have George Formby go down a treat

No Clive Powell, sensible Leyther, a Wigan fan.

George Formby.......Only man to have won Grand National AND the Isle of Man TT.

When I first started supporting the club in the early seventies, Wigan was as big if not bigger than Warrington, but that is no longer the case today since Warrington found itself at the junction of the M6, M56 and M62 motorways and also at the crossroads of the West Coast and the Manchester to Liverpool railway lines which resulted in many more and bigger businesses moving into their town.

Even the Wigan based Shearings holiday travel company moved their garage from Bryn to Warrington and built a coach Interchange due to its motorway connnections around Warrington.

Since the Heinz factory was built, there has been not the same investment over the last few years from companies of a similar size into the Borough of Wigan.

Until the A5225 link road between Junction 5 of the M61 is connected to Junction 26 of the M6/M58, Wigan will never attract better investment as its internal road interstructure is so inferior with that of other local towns.

Like I have said, things are not the same and it is not just confined to the Warriors and the furture of the Stadium, but the future of the town.

I'm not really sure what point you're trying to make here.

If you're saying that Wigan as a town is dying and we'd all better prepare for a bleak future ... okay, that's a POV, but it's not likely to happen in our lifetime (if it happens at all).

If you're saying that it's our club's inevitable future to be playing second-fiddle to Warrington, I'd argue that we've been hearing that for quite a while now. Warrington certainly have a wealthier owner than Wigan, but they have had for quite a few seasons and it still hasn't translated into a superior haul of silverware. On that score, excellence of management would seem to be a more important issue.

It seems to me that we have two causes for real uncertainty at present.

The stadium is one, but that's nobody's fault who's involved at Wigan now. Whether it was the right thing to let Whelan cement us to the football, or the wrong thing, or whether we had no choice in the matter for whatever reason, it's over and done with. Whelan's priority was always going to be Latics, but he'd probably have been able to run us successfully with his small change if it hadn't been for the salary cap. At least we currently have committed and level-headed owners who seem to be biding their time while the Latics/stadium debacle drags on, and if nothing else, are remaining calm and relaxed about the whole thing, which in its turn, is making me feel a lot more relaxed than I would be otherwise. (From what I'm hearing, though I'm no expert on this, now that the Spaniards have been outed as cowboys, things are looking quite a bit rosier for us on that front).

The bigger cause for concern for me is the second one, and that's the general state of the British game. Who knows who'll be left when Covid is finally over, but even without that, nothing I see and hear at the top of the game fills me with hope. While the NRL seems to go from strength to strength, despite the scourge of Covid, our game is once again welcoming the likes of Leigh back, and producing Twitter pundits who seem to think it unfair and boring that clubs like Wigan, Saints and Wire are dominating all competitions. What's the eventual outcome of that going to be? More stringent measures designed to make it harder for the top teams to win? Heaven forbid that the onus should be placed on the lesser clubs to try and get their own act together.

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I agree that this really is the biggest concern. i have been chatting with one of my mates this morning who i used to go to games with. Challenge Cup games / semi finals with full houses at Burnden Park etc, Regal Trophy finals with good attendances (if not sold out), tour matches played at Wembley, Old Trafford etc in front of big crowds and the RFL are now made up if we can sell out 3 * 25k grounds when the Aussies are over. We should be getting 60k plus regularly for these games imo.
the decline has been gradual, but needs to be stopped. we are very much in an era where a lot of season ticket holders only go to season ticket games (note i am not calling them for it as it is their choice whether they go to games). I could tell you the ST holders around me in the East stand who would be at CC or play off games as it is the same faces all the time. Even the CC final appears to have lost its shine with many fans as Wembley looks empty on a regular basis now for one of our 2 show piece games.
I know with the World cup if it goes ahead, that the RFL are trying to reach out to new territories and bigger grounds where they think they can attract, but if they dont market it then they wont come. i am hoping that it is marketed to the point that we are sick of it as i will then commend the RFL on trying, unlike previous poor shows

Also, he was cited as being a "Northern Subversive" by the BBC who banned his songs.

I have never itimated that the Warriiors is playing-second fiddle to Warrington Wolves, only that compared with a few years ago, the town of Wigan is not attracting investment on the same scale as Warrington for the reasons I have stated about the roads around Warrington being far better both in and around Warrington than what they are in and around Wigan.

A situation which as result of having a joint stadium has seen Wigan no longer staging big games like for example, in the next World Cup. Games which not only bring money into the towns economy, but also show that Wigan is still the most well known town for the game of Rugby League.

Where Rugby League is concerned, the Warriors are as far as I am concerned, always been superior to the Wolves and long may it remain so!

Wigan is still the brand name to look out for. I agree with that.

Also, I don't dispute that it's frustrating about our lack of semi-finals, internationals etc. I suspect there are a couple of reasons for that. The first was Whelan's ridiculous insistence that his pitch remain sacrosanct - this was the same pitch that turned to crap the moment footballers started slide-tackling all over it. Whether the new owners, whoever they end up being, can afford to continue with that folly remains to be seen. The second is surely the inability of many once-attractive fixtures to bring in huge crowds. For whatever reason, Cup semis are minor events these days, and it's less embarrassing to host them at small venues. The DW would look empty. I'm less sure that would be an issue for Test matches between GB and Australia, but these days those fixtures seem rarer than rocking-horse doodah.

So how much longer can this whole process carry on for before the soccer club runs out of cash?

The administrators have released another statement today which tells everyone absolutely nothing.
The one remotely informative bit of it is they haven't granted exclusivity to anyone so there's no favoured bid yet.

Alan Nixon from the Sun is all over it and he’s called plenty right on it so far and he says there’s money to get through another months wages but it needs sorting very soon. He is pretty adamant it won’t come to liquidation. The admins have said today there are numerous interested parties but a lot of it you guess is hot air. It isn’t interest the club needs now, it’s action. No official bids are in with different parties being at different stages of the process.

Well that says all it needs to say

Well aye in most cases I’d agree but he’s constantly providing updates on the situation via his Twitter feed and he’s been on money throughout.

Has he?

From what I’ve seen he has been yeah

I commute into Warrington daily and work all over Warrington at all times of the day and night. The roads (Winwick Road, Sankey Way, Cromwell Avenue, Manchester Road, Chester Road, Wilderspool Causeway) are just as bad as Wigan’s. To suggest that as a link to the level of investment in Warrington RL shows your distinct lack of knowledge of the area.

I’m not sure the bit about internationals is entirely accurate given we have had Ashes and Tri Nations games at the stadium which have been full houses in the not too distant past but I can understand why you’d make that point as we, for some baffling reason, haven’t been given any World Cup games. Though that may be down to the stadium being unavailable (speculation of course).

Your last sentence is bang on the money. The reason we have the resources and financial might we do (clearly not on Warringtons level with finances) is because of how well run we are and the model we have chosen in promoting and developing youth in the first instance rather than generally spending big on NRL imports. Warrington would do well to heed that lesson IMO.