DaveO wrote:I think you have to be pragmatic about it and bin the anti-Latics mentality.
If there is no Wigan Athletic then I doubt Wigan RL can afford the rent of the stadium alone and how would the company that owns the stadium survive off what Wigan RL could pay?
So I presume the motivation from IL is to ensure there is another tenant of the DW with both clubs under the “Wigan Sporting Partnership” banner.
However for me there must be more too it than just rescuing Latics with things carrying on as before.
By that I mean if it is a partnership then the RL club needs to benefit from a 50% share in all non sporting revenue the stadium generates. So food & beverage sales and any income from corporate events held at the stadium etc.
It would also be good to see an end to the ridiculous mid summer enforced exile for several weeks and it seeming to be its always the RL club that must compromise on fixtures. There is no longer a valid reason for this. The likes of Huddersfield and Hull do not go on the road for eight weeks and they share with football teams. We must be the only SL club in the summer rugby era that plays in winter!
I have always argued we get a good deal off renting the stadium. Cheap rent and low overheads but it's obvious with the Fans Village initiative IL has been looking to earn more match day revenue. If it’s keeping things as they are for the RL club with no revenue from the stadium and fixtures still moved then I can't see this being popular with Wigan RL fans. It will just be seen as a distraction for IL as when he was involved with Oxford United and the Football League.
I suppose it depends on what is cheaper for Wigan RL. Carry on renting or being in a partnership within which the club shares the stadium revenue. The former has the drawbacks of being the junior partner and I for one am a bit sick of it.
We all are and the people to blame for it are Wigan Council for not doing what they should have done 24 years ago by making sure that the Stadium was owned by a independent company as was the original intention when the idea of a joint stadium was first suggested in 1994 and not by one man like Whelan, especially when only around 20% of the construction cost of the stadium came out of his own pocket with most of it coming from other sources and the 14% share by the Council.
We can only hope that the bid by the Lenagan Led Consortium is successful with both clubs and the stadium all coming under the same umbrella and puts a end to the folly of the Council.
