Be careful what you wish for.
Be careful what you wish for.
Most days pass the ground on my mountain bike near the canal, was wondering what was going on, the outside area of the ground has been fenced off for over a week. Could be bad news for the wigoon rugby fans if Athletic get new owners with the ground, they might put the rent up.
I thought the ground was part of a separate company to stop it being sold off if the club failed. What percentage the football owns of it is another matter.
As for the Pies RL Team, I believe they have a long lease at a decent rent; that's why when they get told to take a home game on the road they just mutter quietly.
What St Leigh said.
I was always under the impression that there was a "Wigan Stadium Company".
But if Wigan Football Company Ltd is 85% owned by Wigan Athletic, and Wigan Athletic enter administration, what would that mean? Would their shares have to be sold off to free up capital?
Sent from my SM-G975F using Tapatalk
Wigan council own 15% of the stadium. Wigan RL have a 50 year agreement to use the stadium at a rate of 10% of their gate receipts. One of the problems Latics have had is that there has been no income at the stadium from anywhere, particularly from the rugby as they have not played there either.
There is also a covenant on the ground to say it can only be used for football and rugby. However the new owners, whoever that may be could sell the training ground(s) and the soccerdome which are part of the stadium ownership.
I have a feeling that any investors will wait and see if Latics get relegated, when the asking price will be significantly lower. It has Dave Whelan buy low sell high written all over it.
Jim White on TalkSPORT is interviewing one of the Administrators as i type this, he has just said that both the Hong Kong based companies involved in the change of ownership 4 weeks ago are majority owned by the same person, if true, this is completely dodgy and you wonder how it was allowed by the EFL.
It's all a bit strange, I'm just watching SSN now and they're talking about the football club. From what I can see as far as the Rugby club goes, then Pollard seems pretty committed and as far as their rent goes, it's an income for whoever owns the ground in whatever guise so I doubt they'll be in a rush to kick them out, contractually what they pay, who knows (you don't Brian before you start). It's an uncertain time for lots of businesses and sports clubs are certainly no exception, I certainly can't see the Latics being the last side to go into administration in the near future.
It pretty clear the ownership tests are not fit for purpose, Wigan, Charlton and others in recent history have all been sold to entities who somehow pass the ownership tests yet plunge the clubs into further chaos, the two Hong Kong entities in Wigans case and Tahnoon Nimer at Charlton being examples of that. From what it looks like they have to provide proof that they have the funds available to put money in to the club but the tests provide no obligation for them to put the money in, so the clubs fail.
The latest rumour suggests that a large bet was placed in the Philippines for Latics to be relegated.
The bet was placed AFTER they beat Stoke on Wednesday but BEFORE they went into administration.
It's a good job Ian Lenagan resigned his position as EFL chairman a couple of years ago. I dread to think of the conspiracy theories that would have been muted by various factions.