That would drastically reduce the capacity and remove the point of terracing. The safe standing I'm taking about would see a fence in front of every row so no one could fall down onto the next row, this is done at Celtic and across the continent. Effectively the capacity would remain the same with a seat space replaced with a standing space.

How much do you think that would cost?
What would be the benefit/cost?

The stadium is now 20 years old and needs a lot spending on it, putting standing areas will be quite a bit down the list.

I do hope IL buys Sharpeys and turns it into a Aussie style Leagues club, that could be a good asset IF the fans support it.

Owning a stadium might sound nice and shows up as an asset on the balance sheet , BUT it can be expensive
.
For example since Saints moved into their new stadium their accumulated losses are around £7 million, Wigan in the same period are around £3 million. The tenancy agreement that Wigan had at the DW was excellent value.

Walk before we can run I’d say. To buy the stadium would be a good look for the club but I doubt there will be any great changes to it in the short to medium term. There’s some maintenance issues that need sorting as a priority for me and they’re issues that have bugged me for a while (broken windows, graffiti, filthy seats in the top corners). There’s been a lack of money spent on the upkeep since Latics left the premiership and if they couldn’t afford to keep on top of things whilst shelling out £20m on wages each year, I wouldn’t be hoping for too much if we own. As a fan of both clubs, it doesn’t matter to me who owns it, I just want a bit more pride shown in the place.

Yeah i don't think it will happen Brian, i said that and i am not expecting it to. Just be a nice addition. Also the point about it reducing capacity, thats kind of part of my plan. If we lost 5000 in capacity to make the games more enjoyable for the fans and the stadium looking packed its well worth it. I think so anyway. Also the stadium as an asset isn't really an asset. It is just a tool that if worked properly will make the club money in the future as opposed to spending dead money on rent. If the rugby of football can't use it, it's a pointless thing to use as an asset because its no good to anybody outside of the 2 clubs and the land is also worthless. It cost about 30m to build and the Latics club didn't pay a penny for it. The plan for the stadium was always to host both football and rugby matches with both Springfield Park and Central Park being sold so they can get off their high horses about us getting 'THEIR' stadium for next to nothing. They are getting 2.5m that they never had for something that doesn't belong to them, they should be happy.

Do you think that we need Sharpeys now Rouges if we do buy the stadium particularly on match days?

I stopped reading at "if we lost 5000 capacity to make the stadium look packed it would be well worth it"

Thank Christ you aren't our accountant.

The South Stand bae could go back to being what it was I guess.

I know yeah. The DW stadium is always packed to the rafters.

I know Lenagan has always wanted to put a RL museum in Wigan and that (Sharpeys) would be an ideal place IMO. I asked Kris Radlinski about the old honours boards that used to be outside Central Park and he said that they had been found and the the plan was to refurbish and update them. Again that would be great place to display them.

Not being able to get a South stand ticket is one thing (the South does sell out a fair bit) but I would be absolutely raging if I couldn't get a Good Friday or England ticket because we had voluntarily reduced the capacity . Not to mention all the lost money on those big games