Just for the record IL is 10 times more successful than DW. His personal fortune is far greater and he has an empire that he has built up that is diverse enough that unlike DW with all his eggs in one basket he has not been clobbered by the resession.

For months now we have seen some on here doubt IL and what he is doing and to date he has come through and delivered on all we questioned.

IL will not sign up to a deal that is worth nothing to the club and I would not be supprised if this year with no major sponsor he does not do a Barcelona and put something like the Wigan and Leigh Hospice on the front.

Look around people, there are not many companies out there that can afford to sponsor clubs at the moment, if there was one asking IL would take it assuming the money is right

Assuming IL and the marketing team have got the new tops right would you not buy it without a sponsor? I for one would rather have a top with no sponsor that a top with something 2 bob in it. We are lucky enough to have an owner who is rich enough we can carry on without a sponsor if need be.

IL is 10 times the business man that DW is and if you think he does not know what he is doing you have lost the plot.

I think it's fair enough that folk raise questions about the sponsorship. After all, there's no sign that it's been sorted yet. I don't personally think it's a big issue given the financial climate, but I can understand that people want to know what's happening.

But the Wigan Pie Man rant is the sort of cliched 'Wigan fan' idiocy - all gob and no brains basically - that has given our following a bad name. I hope he's reconsidering that position, because it's difficult to take anyone seriously who harks back to the era of DW as if it was preferable to what we've got now.

There are hundreds of thousands of companies out there who would gladly give nothing to have their name on bold miners under 8's shirts too

Frankly, if we are succesful on the field i don't give a flying one about merchandising.... Success on the field will self perpetuate.. IL is doing things the right way and not responding to knee jerk reactions like this...

Yes, but generally they are picked off by the happy clappers.

IL for getting the sponsorship wrong, everytime, what annoys me about the fans who don't get worried, isnt so much that as the refusal to accept its a worry.

Yes, there is a chance all sponsorship slots will be filled when Friday comes, but i'd be suprised if we have any sponsors on there, with the stick Mecca got, who can blame people for not wanting to sponsor Wigan? A group of people seemingly obsessed with a fluid transfer solution company.

As for those on this thread who are proclaiming DW would have this sorted, they clearly forget we made zilch from previous JJB sponsorship deals or merchandise sales and it all went in the central DW pot.

I like the new club shop and the new range of merchandise (even if much isn't made by Kooga, which is odd), but the sponsorship really needs sorting, and should have been sorted now, the recession is merely an excuse.

This is the sensible and balanced view. I suspect even Rouges subscribes to it and was simply trolling.

The lack of Hock announcement is simply poor and the excuses from the "you can only be all for" brigade are silly IMO.

The lack of a sponsor is a worrying given it's clear IL wants the club to be run as a going concern but you never know, come Friday not only will the new shirt be announced but so will the sponsprship. Or am I not allowed to suggest such a positive outcome given I have dared critisise the handling of the Hock situation in this post?



Dave

Not that it's got anything to do with us any more as a club but I thought DW was the more wealthy. He sold JJB at the right time and made a fortune. He has now bought back at a low price the fitness side of the business so still has cash in the bank from selling JJB. IL runs a relatively small software business and is a director of Sports cafe chain I thought.

In any case the important point is whatever size his business interests are he can't use them to fund Wigan. [uIt's his own personal fortune that must come from.
[/u



I think that is debatable given what I have said above. It's accepted on these boards (and even seen as a good thing) that IL wants to run the club as a going concern. If that is true then securing a good sponsorship deal is very important and not having one is a genuine concern fans should have for very this reason.



Who is the better businessman is irrelevant. It's who has the biggest private bank balance if the owner is going to make good the lack of sponsorship, which I do not think is IL's intention anyway.

Dave

I'm not sure if anyone apart from IL, NH and the other directors know what level of sponsorship we are looking for.

If you look at the two guestimates so far



and




They are miles apart.

I would GUESS that Wigan will be looking for a deal far closer to the £230K than £80K

DaveO, I dont think it's IL's intention to bail out Wigan either. We all know that he sees Wigan as a business that can stand on it's own feet.

Having said that, what i am saying is thet if we need cash and IL can get it into the club, the fact he is wealthy is a bonus.

People who say the resession is an excuse are fortunate enough to not be working for a company struggling at the moment, and lucky them. The resession is real and companies around the world are having to look at how and where they spend money (and how much for that matter).

Finding a company who is not laying off staff and has excess money to sponsor at the moment is very difficult. You only have to look at some of the sponsors of the rivals and imagine the amount they are paying the club (not much).

We might be left in the position where we have a sponsor who pays little and is really not what we want on the shirt or go without.

If this is the case then we can count ourselves lucky that we have a millionaire owner who is very business savvy.

And finally, surely we must believe that IL is doing all he can for a sponsor. Do people really think he has ignored the problem or forgotten?

Unlikely I would say.

I don't have a particular issue with your views on the sponsorship. I too would like it to be sorted. But it really is quite pompous to classify those who are pleased at the way the club is going as 'happy clappers'.

It also appears to owe more to self-pity than rational assessment. "We get picked off by those who disagree with us". Well boo-hoo.

Let me try and explain this to you by showing you how it looks. There are certain posters on here who, during the last few months, appear to have moved robotically from one big whinge to the next. First we had 'the way Noble is being treated'. Then we had 'why have we not announced a new coach'. Then we had 'why have we not announced a new conditioner'. Then we had 'why have we not been told about Gareth Hock'. Now we've got 'why have we not sorted the sponsorship'.

In itself, this is a non-admirable trait. It implies a determination to find the next thing to complain about, which - given that the evidence thus far is that, one by one, these 'problems' have been or will be addressed - suggests that it's more about a malcontented poster than about Wigan RL. It's almost like: "My last whinge has proved to be fruitless, so I'll teach those who had more faith than me by finding another one!"

This is questionable enough, but to then complain about other fans not sharing this position and in fact mocking it, is leaning towards being totally soppy.

I suppose you could argue, at a push, that those who are positive about the club are being equally blinkered. But surely they've a right to be pleased about the new coach, the new assistant coach, the new conditioner, the fact that we're now developing a team of home-grown starlets whose future will be at Wigan? Are you really saying they are 'happy clappers' for being chuffed about this? These are all genuine reasons to feel good about being a Wigan fan at present. Compared to all that, unresolved issues around sponsorship, merchandising, Gareth Hock etc, don't stack up to much. Sure, they need to be sorted, but to get petulant about them is very unimpressive.

I alluded to that on another thread.

I don't think we should take a very low offer of sponsorship and say that's the best we can get.
It could do damage in the long run. I know from past experience that once a "buyer" gets you to cut your price it's very difficult to get your pricing back to what it should be. In fact they will attempt to "chip away" even further in future years.

We are in difficult times, so it is very important that the correct decision is made, [iand that may be[/i (I'm not saying it is) to go without a main shirt sponsor for this season.

I find these two statements contradictory. He can't run it as a business if IL is going "get it (cash) into the club" from elsewhere. Where is he going to get it from?

When he took over there were posts on here about him being very wealthy so our spending power would be undiminished compared to Whelan, which basically meant dipping into his own pocket to fund the club. Then when it became apparent he was not going to sub it, it became fashionable to see it being run as a going concern as a good thing.

[uIf it's going to be run as a going concern the club needs the sponsorship is what I am saying.[/u

If he IS going to sub it because we do not have a sponsor then lets not have this attitude displayed by some that shouts down any suggestions he should dip into his pocket every now and again to fund the clubs spending.



I agree but that doesn't mean Wigan RL don't need the money.



He can be as business savvy as you like but [uif we don't get a sponsor and IL sticks to the club standing on its own two feet then that's a problem[/u.



No and who suggested he had?

Dave

yes i am real



re- fiascos.
non show of players at junior coaching camps, non shows at junior tournys, last seasons shirt out late (resulting in lost revenue for warriors/IL) , this seasons sponsorship (or lack of), shirts may or may not be out for crimbo......shall i go on?

all this leads to kids (the future) not bothering watching warriors, seeing that they seem warriors cant be bothered making an effort for them= loss of income for IL in the long term.

ok...i agree with a lot of you that all DW ever did was for the sake of DW making a few quid, but thats my original point.
IL is missing lots of tricks to make a few quid, which is why hes below DW in the business mans pecking order.

And there ends the lesson.

Don't think that is true to be honest pal. Whelan is fairly minted

If IL has all this more money than Whelan surely he can afford to build you your own ground?


Although to be honest anybody with the use of a single brain cell (even just on a loan basis) knows that what you have written is absolute rubbish.

Why do we need to have our own ground? We get a better deal financial from using the DW, and as long as the playoff mess doesn't happen again then whats the problem with it?

I think the point was that IL doesn't have a bottomless pit of money to finance building us a ground. And probably for that reason, he is happy to tell us staying at the DW is the better option.

Were laughing all the way with the deal we have with the DW.

Why change when were on to a real winner ?

plus the powers that be will not allow a xecond stadium in the town.

Did Simon Moran build Warringtons ground?
How much money does he have?

What's the relevance of that old man?

So building a new stadium is just a matter of having a pile of money, is it?

My thoughts too. Yes CP was a loss but let's be real. This is 2009. CP was antiquated and in this modern era of Super League, if we want to be taken seriously to the masses we need to have new, modern stadiums like Robin Park, Galpharm, KC, HJ etc

www.wigantoday.net/warriors/Rads ... 5855114.jp

www.wigantoday.net/warriors/Rads ... 5855114.jp

Ever heard of planning? There are planning restrictions that does not allow a second stadium in the town, so to that point, jog on.

As to personal worth I believe IL is a mile in front having said that my one brain cell has not the QI to work out how to ask for both his and DW's accounts(which i am sure they will happily supply if I did), so it's just something I believe to be true. For some reason i think I saw an article stating IL as the 50th richest man in the UK and I know DW is no where near that.

Might be wrong though.

But thanks for the constructive comments.