DW Stadium

[fozzieskem]

Train station and busses straight to the stadium, better links than the DW, I live in atherton so a wigan satellite town, the macron is far easier to get to than the DW

I agree with you pedro

The DW was built in the "wrong" part of town with appalling transport infrastructure (its biggest downfall) and on marshland that sees the pitch being relayed annually because you couldn't grow weeds there

However it is looked at, unless it is dead-centre of town (as Central Park was), then someone is always going to find it difficult making the transition from one side of Wigan to the other until a ring road is created or we have the millionth saddle junction refurb/upgrade/tinker.

Anfield and Old Trafford don’t struggle, either are in the centre of Liverpool or Manchester.

Those grounds aren’t new the transport was built around them as cars took hold the DW just appeared out of nowhere and just added to the transport issues

[EagleEyePie]

It's hard to see how moving to the University of Bolton Stadium could ever make sense unless the rental amount was raised to an astronomical level that it became the only possible option. Any potential savings in rent would have to offset the guaranteed losses we'd make in ticket sales. What would our attendance be if we moved out of Wigan? 6,000? 7,000 at best? That would be a massive financial hit and also moving out of the town would risk putting fans off for good. The club would seriously struggle to recover from it.

I know Lenagan has downplayed any possibility of us building our own stadium but I mentioned when it was announced we were moving to Robin Park Arena that it was a good move because, even if it wasn't the intention, the club was moving to pretty much the only place we could build a new stadium. We couldn't build a ground nearer the town centre as there would be too many objections from residents. That land would be more useful for housing anyway. Edge Hall Lane couldn't be redeveloped as it's too small. Anywhere further outside the town would seem very unlikely. With Robin Park Arena the land use would remain the same. There's ample parking already around the ground. Lenagan is right to say that it wouldn't make sense to have two grounds so close together but it's also not unheard of. Just look at Dundee. There's two stadiums of pretty much the same size right next to each other. To me the move always felt a bit like insurance for the future - but certainly not the immediate future.

[DannyT]

Sounds like if we could afford it we'd leave but we can't. The comments about not wishing another insolvency on Latics read like we do wish another insolvency on them, which I think is fine. They've taken the attitude of screw the RL team, so why shouldn't we take the same attitude if they get into trouble again. Seems to me that IL plays a bit too fair sometimes, in this and in the aussie player issues.

I think the new Latics owners will have taken that attitude based on Lenagan’s attempts at:

1. Claiming he wanted a Wigan Sporting Partnership (which turns out wasn’t really the case).

2. Flipping the ownership of the ground and then basically saying he wanted nothing to do with football, putting them at risk.

I’m all a bit uneasy about it as since that forum transcript was released you’ve next to no chance of getting many kids to pick rugby as their preferred choice and given people the opportunity to have a Maurice mk2 in the form of Lenagan to continue the rift between the clubs.

[Mike]

Our hands are clearly tied as we just rent the stadium and have no real alternative.

Let’s face it, building another stadium would take years and may not be financially viable & we cannot just move to Bolton.

I don’t understand how the current agreement isn’t enforceable. That being said it could just be one simple line in the contract that very clever lawyers are using against us.

Looks like we are getting it from all angles though.

I think if one party to a contract goes out of business, then any new organisation isn't bound by anything at that point, unless they undertake to do that.

[EagleEyePie]

I think the new Latics owners will have taken that attitude based on Lenagan’s attempts at:

1. Claiming he wanted a Wigan Sporting Partnership (which turns out wasn’t really the case).

2. Flipping the ownership of the ground and then basically saying he wanted nothing to do with football, putting them at risk.

I’m all a bit uneasy about it as since that forum transcript was released you’ve next to no chance of getting many kids to pick rugby as their preferred choice and given people the opportunity to have a Maurice mk2 in the form of Lenagan to continue the rift between the clubs.

Why would the new owners care about that? The Sporting Partnership was an idea that never really got off the ground because it relied on finding another backer that was willing to run the football club. Why would a new owner give a damn about a rival bid once they've won the bidding process.

I've seen all kinds of nonsense from Latics fans calling Lenagan every name under the sun for wanting to buy the stadium, as if it's somehow and underhanded move, and yet it would been incredibly risky not to put an offer in. He owns one of the grounds tenants. He has to do what he can to remove the risk to his club. If the administrators were willing to sell the stadium separately that could potentially be a disaster for both clubs. As long as that was a possibility he had to be bidding.

Lenagan owning the ground wouldn't have put Latics at more risk than Wigan RL are in by not owning the ground. It's not like he'd have kicked the football club out. Doing that would have meant he'd be covering losses of about £2million per year rather than the £500k he has to at the moment. It would be madness. If he bought the stadium Wigan Athletic would still be playing there. He said he had no interest in owning a football club (and who would to be honest - owning a rugby club is bad enough), not that he wanted nothing to do with football.

[fozzieskem]

Our hands are clearly tied as we just rent the stadium and have no real alternative.

Let’s face it, building another stadium would take years and may not be financially viable & we cannot just move to Bolton.

I don’t understand how the current agreement isn’t enforceable. That being said it could just be one simple line in the contract that very clever lawyers are using against us.

Looks like we are getting it from all angles though.

I think if one party to a contract goes out of business, then any new organisation isn't bound by anything at that point, unless they undertake to do that.

That’s what I thought Mike,a contract is with the previous owners and becomes null and void once they’ve gone

[Charriots Offiah]

Our hands are clearly tied as we just rent the stadium and have no real alternative.

Let’s face it, building another stadium would take years and may not be financially viable & we cannot just move to Bolton.

I don’t understand how the current agreement isn’t enforceable. That being said it could just be one simple line in the contract that very clever lawyers are using against us.

Looks like we are getting it from all angles though.

I think if one party to a contract goes out of business, then any new organisation isn't bound by anything at that point, unless they undertake to do that.

That’s what I thought Mike,a contract is with the previous owners and becomes null and void once they’ve gone

Me to but others were adamant that the status quo applied.

[nathan_rugby]

I agree with you pedro

The DW was built in the "wrong" part of town with appalling transport infrastructure (its biggest downfall) and on marshland that sees the pitch being relayed annually because you couldn't grow weeds there

However it is looked at, unless it is dead-centre of town (as Central Park was), then someone is always going to find it difficult making the transition from one side of Wigan to the other until a ring road is created or we have the millionth saddle junction refurb/upgrade/tinker.

Anfield and Old Trafford don’t struggle, either are in the centre of Liverpool or Manchester.

Those grounds aren’t new the transport was built around them as cars took hold the DW just appeared out of nowhere and just added to the transport issues

There is barely any transport near Anfield. The DW Stadium is 100% better linked transport wise.

[DannyT]

I think the new Latics owners will have taken that attitude based on Lenagan’s attempts at:

1. Claiming he wanted a Wigan Sporting Partnership (which turns out wasn’t really the case).

2. Flipping the ownership of the ground and then basically saying he wanted nothing to do with football, putting them at risk.

I’m all a bit uneasy about it as since that forum transcript was released you’ve next to no chance of getting many kids to pick rugby as their preferred choice and given people the opportunity to have a Maurice mk2 in the form of Lenagan to continue the rift between the clubs.

Why would the new owners care about that? The Sporting Partnership was an idea that never really got off the ground because it relied on finding another backer that was willing to run the football club. Why would a new owner give a damn about a rival bid once they've won the bidding process.

I've seen all kinds of nonsense from Latics fans calling Lenagan every name under the sun for wanting to buy the stadium, as if it's somehow and underhanded move, and yet it would been incredibly risky not to put an offer in. He owns one of the grounds tenants. He has to do what he can to remove the risk to his club. If the administrators were willing to sell the stadium separately that could potentially be a disaster for both clubs. As long as that was a possibility he had to be bidding.

Lenagan owning the ground wouldn't have put Latics at more risk than Wigan RL are in by not owning the ground. It's not like he'd have kicked the football club out. Doing that would have meant he'd be covering losses of about £2million per year rather than the £500k he has to at the moment. It would be madness. If he bought the stadium Wigan Athletic would still be playing there. He said he had no interest in owning a football club (and who would to be honest - owning a rugby club is bad enough), not that he wanted nothing to do with football.

I don’t disagree with a lot of your points but I don’t see a buyer for Latics without having one other asset in their books, particularly when all the saleable assets on the playing field were long gone. Lenagan owning the stadium and training ground in theory solidifies the rugby future but I think we’d have been left with a ground and no football income. We are where we are now though and I don’t really see a long term future at the DW.

[keptinthedarkfans]

I think if one party to a contract goes out of business, then any new organisation isn't bound by anything at that point, unless they undertake to do that.

That’s what I thought Mike,a contract is with the previous owners and becomes null and void once they’ve gone

Me to but others were adamant that the status quo applied.

Okay I will bite you obviously mean me. In fact it did. That's why it is taking so long to sort out. The club was bought with sitting tenants agreement pro rota.this also included lease term. New owners now in place are trying to change this Wigan knew about this from start hence as I have said moved there income generation to Robin park and also brought in the council/metro re lease. Unless new owners throw money at trying to change this that could cost time money and as is proving with IL response bad blood. I think they will back down because contrary to what it looks like lenegan not as daft as being painted I have said this from beginning only time will tell who is right. My money is on lenegan getting better of new owners. We all hear what we want to believe when we hear something.