Having been born in 1991, I'm a bit too young to know the answer to this.

I remember going to the match vs Canterbury in 1997 and watched it again on Youtube. Central Park looked fantastic. Just wondering why you actually moved to the JJB in 1999 (I think?).

Central Park looks big enough (from the video and pictures) and with a bit of renovation similar to that at Headingley, it looks capable of being one of Super League's best today had it been brought up to today's standards. With the club owning it, it would also have been rent free and a source of revenue for the club. Was the move to the JJB just going with the fashion at the time? Not a fan of the DW now at all unless it is absolutely rammed. Pretty characterless. Central Park looked to have all the character in the world with the capacity to upgrade and be a great stadium, that would have been the clubs own.

We were bankrupt and had to sell Central Park .Dave whelan wanted to improve the ground and build tennis courts etc on the training pitch which was behind the kop.The directors then rejected the scheme whereas Dave Whelan went alone and built the DW stadium with the intention of sharing it with Orrell Rugby Union .He had a change of heart and let Wigan RL play at the DW where he bought the club and later sold on to IL.If we did not play at the DW our proposed move would have been sharing with Bolton at the Reebok.

It was great feeling to have been at Centrak Park when there was 47,700 against Saints Good Friday.

Also the new Whitbread stand (at the town centre end of the ground) had gone way over budget when built and had basically brought the club to it's knees financially, which was a large part of why the club was in such a state at the time. Wigan as a RL club was very close to disappearing at that time.

Although it is sad to say I suspect that Central Park would have cost too much to redevelop at the time for SL / franchise standards (although we will never truly know), shame as living in Higher Ince then it was only a 20min walk for me to the ground to go and watch matches.

Uncle Mo still signed Offiah though despite being told by the accountant that we were potless. Yes he was superb but I doubt he ever repayed the transfer fee and wages that we paid him.

There's a film of the [itravails [/iof signing Offiah on that well known website.

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