Lenagan offered to buy the ground but didn't want to buy Wigan Athletic. At his age it wasn't worth the hassle or the huge potential losses. The admins wouldn't sell the ground to him on that basis.
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I dream of owning my own home.
In that sense, I'm a lot like Wigan Warriors
As you well know the money comes from Darryl Eales and the sale of Oxford United. At heart Lenegan's a football man who's run the Warriors on a shoestring.
If you're bored relook at your posts doubting Coleman & McManus's investment in Saints. I know whose owners I'd rather have.
Hopefully if the admins pull their finger out it'll be sorted out very soon. i think there is supposed to be some sort of statement from them today!!
Teasing and joking aside, wouldn't Wigan RLFC want their own ground instead of using the DW? Except for the odd Good Friday derby the place is too big and it's in the middle of an industrial estate. Wigan games there do not excite me as a neutral, with the place half empty and the atmosphere is terrible. 13,000 at the DW makes Wigan look two-bit, whereas 13,000 at LP, Wire, Leeds etc looks like a good crowd and sounds alot better. Central Park (like KR) had an aura and a vibe to it, and whilst we tried to recreate what it's like to be in a rugby ground in a modern setting with LP, Wigan have just ended up in an oversized football ground and lost alot of their soul and vibe. Whilst we all take some pleasure in their failings I think we all realise that Wigan are important for the game and important for us as a rival to set ourselves against and be better than. They will always have a decent team and will always win trophies, but if I were a Wigan fan I'd hate what they were right now, and I'd hate playing games in that ground.
I agree with that, but it feels like home now and feels like a rugby ground to some extent. I'm old school, I'd have rebuilt KR and kept it's basic charm but with more boxes and more seats, but from where we could have been we've done okay. Wigan just feel like a shell of a club playing at that stadium.
The 91 semi final is my favourite non-KR memory as a kid. It felt like KR in a lot of ways but obviously a bit alien as well, but it was a great old ground. I'm not arguing that it could have existed in 2021 with a handful of seats and old terracing, but as a giant club in the game I'd have thought Wigan could have done better than simply sharing a football ground. When a viewer tunes in for a game at the DW they must wonder why Wigan are regarded as a big club when all they see are banks of empty seats and zero atmosphere.
Whichever you its dressed up they lost Central Park by cheating the system. The business model said get the best players and pay them full time money and we win everything. The Gang of Four felt invincible laughing at Whelan and the thought of Latics at the mighty Central Park. Whelan would have spent some cash on Central Park. Then BOOM they lost a cul game, and as Heirich says the dominoes tumbled.
They then went on blended knee as a bankrupt basket case and Whelan took them on board on his terms.
Stadium is a huge issue for both clubs. It is way, way too big and neither us or the Rugby are ever going to be able to fill it consistantly. I don't have a season ticket anymore and one of the reasons why I didn't go as much to Latics is because paying £20+ to sit in a 25k stadium with 9k rattling around is about as fun as it sounds. That being said with the admin/CV19 I will probably get a season ticket when I can, don't know what you had till it is gone.
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Same here but I suppose be grateful for what have which is a sight more than most. I won't try and hide the fact I used to love the atmosphere at Central Dump (just not usually the result).
It's also the only ground I've been thrown out of twice during the same game, the last one. Also didn't have a ticket in the first place and went with the intention of buying one, soon sacked that off and bunged the woman on the gate a tenner, got booted before the game kicked off after a frank exchange of views in that big bar so waited 10 minutes into the game and jumped over a turnstile or ran through a gate at the town end. Same steward spotted me at half time going to the same bar. I was never the sharpest after a few ales.
Classic Dave. I got caught crawling under the turnstiles at CP in the eighties. I was well into my twenties and earning a good wedge. I had been in The Raven since opening time. Happy days. Wait for old Father Time to come on calling us a disgrace. I will tell him about Wakey then! I was 54 as well.
I don't know about my all time favourite, but Central Park Boxing day 69. was my favourite at CP. I have never seen any team terrorised the way John Mantle terrorised Wigan that day. I remember all the abuse we got from the Wiganers when we left the ground that day.
He denies it. He is a giver not a taker. He has given us lots over the years.
Hahaha used to love getting in for nothing, it was part of it. Leeds had gate 1 and 2, either over someones garden wall into the cricket ground or that wall at the back of the south stand. Bradford just used jump the turnstiles. Then those kids season tickets that got you in for a quid, a queue of blokes all ••••ed up with kids tickets. Countless other blags and scams, and yeah, Wakey was one but I'm not sure we're on about the same thing.