Apologies. I'm getting my dates mixed up. It was Jan 09 Palacios left not 08 wasn't it.

You'd think they would make a profit in the next set of accounts then.

I really don't know. I was surprised when I read that.

Does it make any difference to Wigan RLFC as the article states they still have a 50 year lease at the stadium.

If Whelan pulls out then I suppose all it would mean is that Wigan Athletic would have something to borrow money against.

You're right, it shouldn't make much, if any difference to us.
Just thinking I might owe my Latics mates an apology

Whelan must be getting really worried now by their lack of support
as it would appear that the novelty factor of being in the Premiership has well and truely worn off.
I know yesterday was an away game but The Daily Express today reported that they had 376 Fans at Everton !
Ok its more expensive to watch than Rugby but thats shocking by anyones standards!
Its so so sad !

Looking at that, where the hell is football going?

Aresnal Debts - £416m
Turnover £222.5m

Chelsea Debts - £701m
Turnover £213.6m

Liverpool Debts - £280m
Turnover £159m

United Debts - £699m
Turnover £256.2m

Latics Debts - £66.4m
Turnover - £43m

Did you notice that the Turnover breakdown wasn't listed for Latics unlike other clubs? Look at Bolton to compare:



Other than Whelan's backing & SKY money of approx £30m, Latics only other income would be about £5m Gate & Match Day (There crowds are lower than Bolton's). Plus a bit of Corporate & Sponsorship.

Can only see that debt grow to over £100m in the next couple of years, if they get relegated then what was it all for, and where do they go???? No wonder he won't open his £70m warchest.

Cheapest season ticket in the division and prices frozen for three consecutive seasons. This is the first year since Whelan took ovcer that Latics' season ticket sales haven't increased on the previous season.
Still don't think they'll go down despite what some of the loyal Latics fans will tell you. That's nothing to do with Latics but more due to Burnley, Birmingham, Blackburn, Portsmouth, Hull , Wolves and Bolton.

I read somewhere not long ago that Plastics had reduced their debt since those accounts were published - mainly due to offloading players and not splashing out on replacements. That can only go on for so long until their club is too weak to stay in the Prem.

My own feeling is that Whelan is looking to reduce their debt to zero and bail out ASAP. Wouldn't be surprised to see DW Sports replacing Mecca Bingo next season too...

I'm getting very worried about all this talk about Whelan coming back to Wigan.

It's not as far-fetched as some people might think!! If I could get odds at a bookies I'd stick on Whelan being owner again in the next 12 months

Please stop!

i cant believe some of you actually would want the kaiser back.
my point of view as a latics fan is that whelans lost intrest,hes seen the clubs support drop as a lot of the plastics have lost intrest after the prem noveltys worn off,even though season tickets are great value the club have got thier matchday pricind drastically wrong it was 28 pound for the utd game and 14 pound for kids
basically whelan has sold off all the clubs best players to reduce the clubs debt{by the way this debt isnt that crippling as its intrest free because its basically the money the club owes whelan}and hes no longer prepared to spend the money thats needed too see the club operate at premiership level.

Who wants him back?

Whelan hasnt got the cash to sustain a premiership club, he knows it, its time the fans accepted it.

Will he have the cash to sustain a Championship club?

orrell lad seems keen

A there or thereabouts list of the Prem's owners and their worth:

Arsenal Stan Kroenke & Alisher Usmanov $12b
Aston Villa Randy Lerner $1.5b
Blackburn Jack Walker Trust £800m
Bolton Edwin Davies £100m
Chelsea Roman Abramovich $8.5b
Everton Bill Kenwright & Robert Earl & Jon Woods £365m
Fulham Mohamed Al Fayed £550m
Hull Isis Nominees Unknown
Liverpool Tom Hicks & George Gillett $1.5b
Man City Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan $750b
Man Utd Malcolm Glazer & Family $2b
Middlesborough Steve Gibson £112m
Newcastle Mike Ashley £700m
Portsmouth Alexandre Gaydamak £100m
Stoke Peter Coates £175m
Sunderland Ellis Short £7.5b
Tottenham Daniel Levy & Joe Lewis $13b
West Brom Jeremy Peace Unknown
West Ham Bjorgulfur Gudmundsson $1.2b
Wigan Dave Whelan £150m

As you can see the list is split between Billionaires & Multi Millionaires.
I'd say that the Prem is now a Billionaires Plaything, the wages & debts involved are far too high for your average Multi Millionaire.

I'd expect the ones in Bold to either sell out shortly or take on additional investment.

Well Boro aren't in the Premier League any more and Portsmouth have changed owner.
Bolton seem to be in the same boat as Latics in having tighter than a crab's ar$e chairmen.

Latics suffering the same fate as Gretna is a definite possibility. They too were pushed well beyond the level they could sustain by an ambitious sugar daddy. Then once he pulled out they went into meltdown and folded within that season as they could not exist at the level they had been raised to.

This could have serious ramifications for Wigan RLFC (if it happens) as the recievers would simply sell the ground as it would be one of Latics' assets leaving us with only the ground at Orrell that is below required standards and can't be developed.

Whelan giving the stadium to Latics could turn out to be a disaster for both clubs in a few years' time.

Who would they sell it to? It's not as though they can move it!

I suppose they could knock it down and sell it to a building firm, though the council would need to agree, and that would never happen.

Interesting possibilities, though more likely I just think Latics will slump back through the leagues until they reach their natural level again.

They could knock it down??????

More than likely it will stay there and both clubs will play out of it.

The council do own a small percentage of the ground!!!!!

And WE are sitting tennants.

They couldn't stop a sale (as far as I'm aware), but they could stop the land being used for rebuilding.

But I guess it depends what the new owners are planning to build before you start talking about 'bringing jobs and investment to the town'.

A factory? A supermarket? A casino? A cinema complex?

There are obvious reasons why none of those would apply.

Maybe we could have another zoo? - after the roaring success of the last one.

I suppose we could always use more office space - to add the masses of vacant office space the town already has.

Even building a new housing estate is difficult to conceive if the trade-off is the loss of Wigan RL, one of the town's sporting jewels. They'll just have lost one in Latics; will they want to lose a second merely to create yet another Brookside-type cul-de-sac.

Sorry, but at present this sounds like pie in the sky to me. Given that the stadium would have sitting tenants (on a lease for 50 years), I'm guessing that some kind of satisfactory arrangement would have to be reached with them first. You can't just bulldoze a house if a tenant still has occupancy rights. Presumably something similar applies to businesses. Which would make it even less appealing to a potential buyer.

There may be a germ of truth in what you say, but I doubt it's anything like as simple as you suggest.