Nursing home group Southern Cross have told their landlords that they cannot afford the rent and will have to reduce the rent paid by 30%. Faced with a 30% reduction or no rent at all the landlords have of course agreed.
Our crowds are greater than most other championship clubs but it seems we need more. Is this because the rent is too much?
We should tell LSV that we are reducing our rent by 30% immediately and see what LSV do: 30% less or an empty stadium is a no brainer.
Fans should also see their local councillors, as whilst LSV manage the stadium it is owned by the council and if enough councillors back the reduction it should not be a problem.

POWER TO THE ELECTORATE!

Good luck with that, anyone got directions to Crilley Park

A well trodden path, Col

To be fair, Genesis didn't hold enough cards for a game of brinkmanship.

LRLFC on the other hand hold quite a few...

It's built as a community stadium
LRLFC is the biggest crowd puller
Andy Burnham
If allowed to flourish LRLFC has a realistic chance to pull in better crowds
Without LRLFC the stadium is ???????

Meetings have been held and more are planned, what the agenda is I have no idea but one would hope the costings would be quite high on the list.

Agreed.


The trials of LGFC and Leigh East would show the LSV consider the above only at a cost.


Not necessarily when you consider the crowds that Blackburn Reserves get against Man Utd, Liverpool, City, Bolton etc. Probably turns out as a decent average. Even the lower gate receipts because of freebies and lower admission prices are probably levelled out by the annual fee that Rovers pay out.


Not sure how much of an impact he realistically has, but I think Trevor Barton certainly holds a lot of sway with the LSV.


Completely agree. Don't think we hold quite as much sway as people think though, especially if the LSV are still clinging to nabbing Sale as permanent tenants. Definitely think the costings and revenue streams involved with the stadium are a big factor in our problems though and is certainly something that is in desperate need of renegotiation.

I don't think Rovers reserves average will be as big as Leigh's, think only UTD went into 4 figures and surprisingly there's quite a few freebies who attend their games also, but whether Blackburn make up for that in hard cash I don't know.

I believe Andy Burnham was told to butt out when backing Leigh East v LSV.

Is Leigh still a partner in LSV as per the original plans? wasn't it an 11% share or something?

It isn't so much the cost , it is the loss of income that is the main problem , concession sales , advertising revenue , the loss of a reasonably priced , ie free retail outlet for merchandise , exorbitant prices for corporate entertainment and then the additional costs associated with the purchase of drinks

We have only one income stream left

The difference is that without LRLFC that stadium is nothing. They played hard and nasty with Genesis and East because they are poor businessmen who think that being tough and uncompromising is the route to success. If they do drive LRLFC under then they're immediately in the position of looking around for another client and they'd do very well to get one better than LRLFC. Sale won't come here when Salford new ground is so much closer.

If they insisted on literally crippling rents then they (LSV management) would have the proud record of destroying every reason for the stadium's (and therefore their jobs') existence, would be on very shaky ground financially and their reputation could be in tatters as it would become quite newsworthy.

I think we could all make sure that this story reached way beyond the confines of Wigan Borough.

Of course, if they have an iota of sense it should not come to that.

OK so negotiations would ideally to encompass more than just rent reduction but discussions on access to and control of advertising, catering revenues too.

Sincerely hope you're right, just worth remembering that we've not exactly done well when it came to where the club offices were situated (Harriers rather than main stadium), the club shop (O'Neills priced out and since then doing well with Widnes apparently). There have been signs of improvement (no problems with stewards when compared to when it first opened, half-time entertainment being allowed on the pitch etc) but I hope TB can use his undoubted influence to get something of a better deal for LRLFC.

As you say, that might be one thing that the LSV can't get away with ting on, for want of a better phrase.

Also consider it worth mentioning that the LSV is now a distant third option for Sale behind moving to Salford and even redeveloping Edgeley Park, whereas 12-18 months ago it looked as though they were almost odds-on to move to LSV, so maybe that will put us in a better position for negotiations now that they haven't necessarily got a back up club ready to step in?

We needed a fall out on the first day

O'Neills showed a complete lack of business strategy when they opened a shop at LSV instead of in the town centre it was always doomed to failure without the footfal of traffic through the LSV at that time, the people running the place did a damn fine job in the most trying of circumstances.

As Widnes are seeing the benefit of (with a town centre store if memory serves me right?)

The footfall is obviously a big issue, as was mentioned on here some time ago about Park Inn not being too chuffed about how it turned out.

had a complete seperate office complex at each end of the west stand , they had their own receptions and then 2 floors of office accomadation including a private box overlooking the pitch , each of these was for the two main tenants , ie one for us , one for RMI , they would have both been able to have a small retail outlet alongside the reception area , then office space on the 2 nd floor and the boxes as board rooms/office/match guest room

These should have been built and been rent free , instead we are expected to pay thousands of pounds to be stuck round the back of the stadium like a poor relation , I do wonder what visitors must think when they walk up to the main reception only to be directed to a completely different building to offices that were essentially just temporary for the use as a site office for the original build , also the plain stupidity that didn't allow for a club weights room , i'd really like to meet the idiot that designed the place

Very much doubt that it would be a singular idiot.

The whole complxes plans were changed though E.G. Leigh East Clubhouse 'lost' a storey from plans to building. But TBH we have what we have and can't do a thing about it so must make the best out of what we have.

Matt, Blackburn are talking about moving back to (was it Morecambe pre-LSV?). Sale will get a better deal at Salford's new stadium and would probably choose to go there anyway. So WF is right, we will still be the major tenant and would therefore have a lot to bargain with, should we actually choose to challenge the LSV.

Sorry Fred we're not talking about major structural changes to the stadium so I can't agree we should sit back and accept things.

Starbug's right - the best time to argue with the LSV would have been when we moved in. We didn't. The next best time would have been to jump in and support Leigh East in their battles, and try to renegotiate the whole thing from scratch then. Again we didn't. But just because those boats have sailed doesn't mean we can't still grow some wotsits and fight our corner now.

The situation with offices etc is more of a nice-to-have but if we're being charged for office space it's still an unacceptable way to treat a major tenant. Lack of an essential gym facility required by a major tenant (and which was originally promised) is failing to deliver the standard required from even a mediocre sporting facility, never mind the top class one that was sold to us. We were repeatedly promised in public meetings an equivalent-if-not-better facility than the MM Bar - instead we make little or no revenue from functions any more and the fans aren't happy with what they've been given in terms of bars and catering and have stated that at every opportunity from day 1. The club aren't happy that all their revenue streams have dried up, but in sacrificing the revenue streams they should have been assured that the service provided would be good enough to keep their customers happy, ie give the fans a good matchday experience - that hasn't been delivered either. Then we were promised a wider range of facilities across the whole village with cinemas, bars etc which have since been moved to a current alternative town centre development, and we know that another major tenant in the Village also feels annoyed and let down by this. Then there are the well-publicised problems with the East and Genesis which we've heard about in other threads but which have adversely affected the community element which the LSV was supposed to be built on. and not to mention things that would come under the remit of the stadium management but also have an effect - lack of cooperation/discussion with the club over ticket offers, promotions etc, problems implementing the whole ticketing system (machines, turnstyle setups, ticket readers etc) in a suitable timeframe to meet the dates they were required by (which then put the clubs ticket office staff under extra pressure), excessive staffing levels at the LSV (which all need paying for), and things like the regular replacement of pitches which don't seem to need it etc, which are out of the clubs control but all keeping rents sky high.

None of these things are helping the club in chasing the one revenue they can which is attracting more/new fans. The LSV has failed to deliver on a large number of significant promises, has let down most if not all of its major tenants, and is not doing anything to reduce its own costs just passing them through to its tenants unfairly. Any one of the above arguments will have affected the clubs income streams and could therefore be used to try to negotiate either a bit of extra leeway with the facility itself, or else a reduction in rent.

We need somebody to do this, and maybe Trevor can help. Otherwise we probably do need to enlist somebody like Andy Burnham to support us. People who were involved from the start and were at the meetings (public and private) when a lot of the promises were made. One thing that does disappoint me from the clubs point of view is we're supposed to have a lawyer on our BOD and still keep getting screwed over with no comeback. Player contracts, RFL franchise decisions and the obviously-dodgy secrecy clauses involved in that process, ridiculous rents and failure of our landlord to deliver on key promises and it all goes unchallenged. If we're leaving ourselves without an option to challenge or a leg to stand on, why?

Finally, another suggestion. The LSV has empty units since ONeills pulled out of their shop (and they should be bricking themselves at the thought of having more empty units, an empty hotel and even an empty stadium if they don't pull their fingers out and start being more cooperative with their tenants). We should offer to take one (and negotiate a reasonable rent in the process) to use as a supporters "facility" - a cafe-come-bar-come-shop-come-small-function-room-come-whatever we want to do to get fans in for longer on matchday. And more importantly to keep the fans happy seeing as this doesn't seem to feature high on the LSV's list of priorities.

Some of you will no doubt already be typing furiously that this last suggestion can't be done, but look at Hunslet as an example. Anybody who went there last season and chatted with their fans will probably know they had a similar situation, with a council owned stadium where catering was franchised off and they were given no revenue from the bars etc and no provision to open their own facilities. They kicked off about it and got a decent sized room under one end of the stand to use as their own supporters bar, from which they now get revenue. So it can be done. If we can't figure out how to do it ourselves then somebody needs to get on the phone to their chief exec and find out how.

Rant over (sorry).

Where do you get your Blackburn info from? AFAIK they all love LSV.

Blackburn Rovers have signed for another 12 months with the LSV so your info is incorrect.

Park Inn also have decent occupancy rates at the Hotel these days (although they were a bit nervous when the Hotel first opened), our company use the Hotel a lot and sometimes when we try to book rooms the Hotel is full and we have to use the grim Greyhound.

we where of this when the deal was done im sure

Correct, I know Morecombe now have a new stadium, but unless they offer it for peanuts in comparison to LSV, or LSV get a better offer from someone else I can’t see Rovers moving out any time soon, the players and coaching staff love the place, and its closer to home for a lot of them.

The LSV is closer to home than Ewood Park!! Most of these poncy footballers live in leafy Cheshire.

There was no ' deal ' it was sign up or else

There should have been a place to meet for drinks etc after going through the turn styles not before ,I know you can pay extra a year and go upstairs but that option isn't for everyone