Mike Danson/Wigan

[Padge]

3 minutes ago, Rupert Prince said:

Apologies.. had Christopher Park on my mine but wrote wrong.  I remember odd sports days there as a kid. No medals for me!

You may be confusing Woodhouse Stadium (now an housing estate also) which was next door to Springfield Park with Christopher Park. Woodhouse was an athletics stadium with a spectators stand.

[Chronicler of Chiswick]

19 hours ago, Rupert Prince said:

Perhaps a 3G surface of some type?

(But we are of course getting a bit previous. No one has bought anything yet, but the Latics deadline is close.)

The Football League doesn't allow artificial pitches - Harrogate have had to dig their one up to get into League 2. 

[Exiled Wiganer]

16 hours ago, Jinking Jimmy said:

I am a Wigan Warriors supporter, first and last, and therefore wouldn’t waste my time looking at Cockney Latics. I also wouldn’t be interested in getting into a spat with one of their supporters and certainly not on this forum.

.

Of course. You don’t have to get into a spat with anyone, though. 

[Padge]

Administrators have just said they will not be selling the stadium separately from the club. If you have £4m down the back of the sofa its yours. 

[M j M]

10 minutes ago, Padge said:

Administrators have just said they will not be selling the stadium separately from the club. If you have £4m down the back of the sofa its yours. 

Current strategy for Lenagan then just wait and see if they go bust with no bidders then take the stadium out of the liquidation process.

[Leyther_Matt]

5 minutes ago, M j M said:

Current strategy for Lenagan then just wait and see if they go bust with no bidders then take the stadium out of the liquidation process.

I'm sure Lenagan would much rather own a stadium with two clubs using it though.

[JohnM]

25 minutes ago, Padge said:

Administrators have just said they will not be selling the stadium separately from the club. If you have £4m down the back of the sofa its yours. 

Damn...that means me going halves with someone.....

[phiggins]

12 minutes ago, Leyther_Matt said:

I'm sure Lenagan would much rather own a stadium with two clubs using it though.

Yep, would've thought if there's no football club playing there, the DW would become something of a white elephant. They can't even get rugby league internationals there. 

[M j M]

44 minutes ago, phiggins said:

Yep, would've thought if there's no football club playing there, the DW would become something of a white elephant. They can't even get rugby league internationals there. 

Pretty certain they would do if it was controlled by the RL club.

TBH I'm still puzzled by the finances of Wigan's stadium - does it just generate minimal non-gameday revenue like Saints/Leeds/Wire (for whom the stadium is an income-generator not a loss-maker, even without a significant second user) or is there something else that makes it difficult to make money out of it?

[The Rocket]

58 minutes ago, Leyther_Matt said:

I'm sure Lenagan would much rather own a stadium with two clubs using it though.

The football club will be cheaper without the stadium in the sale price. It will be up to them then to negotiate with Lenagan rental costs to play there.

Perhaps a sale may become more likely in that scenario.

[Padge]

1 minute ago, The Rocket said:

The football club will be cheaper without the stadium in the sale price. It will be up to them then to negotiate with Lenagan rental costs to play there.

Perhaps a sale may become more likely in that scenario.

Administrators have valued what is left at the club as £1m and the stadium at £3m

[Rupert Prince]

7 hours ago, Chronicler of Chiswick said:

The Football League doesn't allow artificial pitches - Harrogate have had to dig their one up to get into League 2. 

Interesting. A quick look allows Conference League teams to have 3G surfaces and the FA allow 3G in FA Cup games.  Funny that minnows like the 3G more than bigger brethren.  Perhaps some will prefer to stay in the lower league, so they can afford it better to stay there

[Leyther_Matt]

Just now, Rupert Prince said:

Interesting. A quick look allows Conference League teams to have 3G surfaces and the FA allow 3G in FA Cup games.  Funny that minnows like the 3G more than bigger brethren.

All a means of generating revenue 

[Rupert Prince]

2 minutes ago, Leyther_Matt said:

All a means of generating revenue 

Yes, i had just edited my post on hindsight to mention that before seeing your point.

[del capo]

2 hours ago, Padge said:

Administrators have valued what is left at the club as £1m and the stadium at £3m

Could Castlelford  Wakerfield or anybody get a stadium at that price?

Thinking wider , what about the RFL itself ?

National Stadium  with heritage footprint.  Can they think that quick ?

[Rupert Prince]

3 hours ago, Padge said:

Administrators have valued what is left at the club as £1m and the stadium at £3m

I've just read that, or at least £4m for what I thought was the stadium.  Wow, for that I might think about buying it and put off my holidays.

It strikes me then the cost of buying is not the issue, it's the running costs of a football team in Div 1.  Without deep pockets (and even with) an owner has to be prepared to go into freefall, and be prepared to build up from scratch again.  I don't see that from an overseas owner or 'investor'.  Wigan are not Newcastle Utd.

[Rupert Prince]

2 minutes ago, del capo said:

Could Castlelford  Wakerfield or anybody get a stadium at that price?

Thinking wider , what about the RFL itself ?

National Stadium  with heritage footprint.  Can they think that quick ?

Well, Lenegan etc are clearly interested in providing a stadium for RL.  But would the rest of the RL put up with a National Stadium on the outskirts of Leigh?

[JonM]

10 minutes ago, del capo said:

Could Castlelford  Wakerfield or anybody get a stadium at that price?

Thinking wider , what about the RFL itself ?

National Stadium  with heritage footprint.  Can they think that quick ?

It cost more than £30m to build, less than a decade ago. The price reflects the fact that it's not an income generating facility without tenants.

£4m to buy the whole thing and then offload the football club to a fans consortium for a token £1 would still be an exceptionally good deal you would think. Presumably there is no need to worry about any hidden debts as the company has gone into administration.

[Padge]

18 minutes ago, JonM said:

It cost more than £30m to build, less than a decade ago. The price reflects the fact that it's not an income generating facility without tenants.

£4m to buy the whole thing and then offload the football club to a fans consortium for a token £1 would still be an exceptionally good deal you would think. Presumably there is no need to worry about any hidden debts as the company has gone into administration.

On the debt side there is a large VAT bill unpaid, which the administrators say has to be paid, how big that bill is they are not saying but it could be a big stumbling block for anyone thinking they can pick up the club on the cheap.

Selling the stadium as an asset of the club to pay the bills is the way I can only see this going, the supporters aren't going to get enough money to buy the lot, but without the stadium they may get enough to buy the club and take the 15 point starter hit next season.

I think we are in the who blinks first stage.

[Padge]

19 minutes ago, JonM said:

It cost more than £30m to build, less than a decade ago. The price reflects the fact that it's not an income generating facility without tenants.

£4m to buy the whole thing and then offload the football club to a fans consortium for a token £1 would still be an exceptionally good deal you would think. Presumably there is no need to worry about any hidden debts as the company has gone into administration.

It cost £25m 21 years ago.

The true cost was not £25m to Dave Whelan though it cost him next to nothing, there was a lot of UK government, Wigan Council and EU grants involved as it was a major regeneration area.

£3m is probably what Whelan put in despite his proclamations that "I built this stadium".

[Rupert Prince]

37 minutes ago, Padge said:

It cost £25m 21 years ago.

The true cost was not £25m to Dave Whelan though it cost him next to nothing, there was a lot of UK government, Wigan Council and EU grants involved as it was a major regeneration area.

£3m is probably what Whelan put in despite his proclamations that "I built this stadium".

No wonder we see all these flashy football stadiums that were built... at tax payers expense (?). Of course at 25% VAT the govt gets some of back... providing the usual suspects don't fiddle it.

[JonM]

39 minutes ago, Padge said:

It cost £25m 21 years ago.

Yes, I meant to say two decades ago, but you're absolutely right, it was 1999 when it opened. 

Still, if you look at Saints, Bolton and Salford, which all had fairly similar £20-30m price tags attached (albeit built some years apart), it's clear that £3m is exceptionally cheap.

[Padge]

1 minute ago, JonM said:

Yes, I meant to say two decades ago, but you're absolutely right, it was 1999 when it opened. 

Still, if you look at Saints, Bolton and Salford, which all had fairly similar £20-30m price tags attached (albeit built some years apart), it's clear that £3m is exceptionally cheap.

You can build a house for £1m but if the only person interested wants to buy it for £20,000 then that is what it is worth.

If a £200,000 house is repossessed and the mortgage company are owed  £100,000 it is worth £100,000 because that is what the mortgage company need.

 

[DoubleD]

34 minutes ago, JonM said:

Yes, I meant to say two decades ago, but you're absolutely right, it was 1999 when it opened. 

Still, if you look at Saints, Bolton and Salford, which all had fairly similar £20-30m price tags attached (albeit built some years apart), it's clear that £3m is exceptionally cheap.

The £3 million will be for Athletic’s share of the stadium though won’t it, not the whole stadium? It won’t include the council’s share...........not sure what the split is

[shrek]

1 hour ago, Rupert Prince said:

I've just read that, or at least £4m for what I thought was the stadium.  Wow, for that I might think about buying it and put off my holidays.

It strikes me then the cost of buying is not the issue, it's the running costs of a football team in Div 1.  Without deep pockets (and even with) an owner has to be prepared to go into freefall, and be prepared to build up from scratch again.  I don't see that from an overseas owner or 'investor'.  Wigan are not Newcastle Utd.

Its a 2.5 million salary cap in League 1 (I think) now, much more manageable than Championship level.

You can go above the 2.5 million with existing contracts when your relegated from the Championship, but there's not many stick with a team that drops down, pretty sure I read somewhere today that Wigan now meet the salary cap currently.