Whose money bought JJB Stadium?

[Ron]

Talking about ownership of JJB stadium - Who owned Central Park and how much did Tesco pay for land? Who owned Springfield Park and how much did this land sell for? How much did Whelan put into JJB and how much lottery money? Whelan may have put money into the new stadium but surely some of the money came from Central Park. Anyone got any answers? (Am I allowed to ask the questions!!?)

[heydude]

yes ron you can ask questions i think the sale of central park went to pay off the debt wigan rugby league owed or part of it anyway should of had london broncos directors there because we could still be playing at central park if there was.

[GeoffN]

Don't know anything about Springfield Park (but it's now a nice new housing estate, so somebody made a lot money off the land!
Central Park was owned by wigan RL (effectively Robinson & Rathbone) and sold to Tesco for £12m, most of which went towards paying off the debts (incurred partly from a too-high wage bill and partly from the cost of the Whitbread stand).

[Ron]

GeoffN posted:
Don't know anything about Springfield Park (but it's now a nice new housing estate, so somebody made a lot money off the land!
Central Park was owned by wigan RL (effectively Robinson & Rathbone) and sold to Tesco for £12m, most of which went towards paying off the debts (incurred partly from a too-high wage bill and partly from the cost of the Whitbread stand).

I know Wigan RL had a large debt but didn't know just how much. As you say, pity we didn't have London Bronco's directors.

[thegimble]

GeoffN posted:
Don't know anything about Springfield Park (but it's now a nice new housing estate, so somebody made a lot money off the land!
Central Park was owned by wigan RL (effectively Robinson & Rathbone) and sold to Tesco for £12m, most of which went towards paying off the debts (incurred partly from a too-high wage bill and partly from the cost of the Whitbread stand).

Re the wage bill.

Tuigamalla mentioned 2-3 years ago that the weekly wage bill was not that much of a problem. Problem was the win bonus for winning trophies that amounted over the years and left the club in debt.

Typical Wigan No one took into account the win bonus when making plans for the season.

[GeoffN]

thegimble posted:

GeoffN posted:
Don't know anything about Springfield Park (but it's now a nice new housing estate, so somebody made a lot money off the land!
Central Park was owned by wigan RL (effectively Robinson & Rathbone) and sold to Tesco for £12m, most of which went towards paying off the debts (incurred partly from a too-high wage bill and partly from the cost of the Whitbread stand).

Re the wage bill.

Tuigamalla mentioned 2-3 years ago that the weekly wage bill was not that much of a problem. Problem was the win bonus for winning trophies that amounted over the years and left the club in debt.

Typical Wigan No one took into account the win bonus when making plans for the season.

Another factor was they always included the money for winning everything in their planning/budget, (this was in '95, remember, when we had been winning everything for a decade)...the CC loss to Salford in '96 was estimated to "cost" £300k in revenue that they'd counted on.
That's when we had to start selling players to raise money - Edwards, Lydon, Tuigamala, Offiah...

[Ron]

thegimble posted:

GeoffN posted:
Don't know anything about Springfield Park (but it's now a nice new housing estate, so somebody made a lot money off the land!
Central Park was owned by wigan RL (effectively Robinson & Rathbone) and sold to Tesco for £12m, most of which went towards paying off the debts (incurred partly from a too-high wage bill and partly from the cost of the Whitbread stand).

Re the wage bill.

Tuigamalla mentioned 2-3 years ago that the weekly wage bill was not that much of a problem. Problem was the win bonus for winning trophies that amounted over the years and left the club in debt.

Typical Wigan No one took into account the win bonus when making plans for the season.

In the days before Super League I think Wigan were the only club to employ full time players and as a result they attracted the best players. It was because of their success that when Sky offered the big money it was on condition that all players went full time. Maybe the cost of all the trophies and paying for top players during the late '80's and early '90's was the sale of Central Park. I am not too well up on the political and financial "goings-on". Correct me if I'm wrong!

[proud_pie_eater]

Wigan council paid half the money for the stadium on condition it was a ground share as it would be for the good of the community, if wheelan ever wanted to kick warriors out, he would have to build them a new ground ( if he still had ownership ) and pay a lot of money back to the council so he would loose out majourly! Men dont get rich by gambling money!