I dont get it aswell,Wigan RL isnt going anywhere never have and never will,so to hate and slag off something that isnt leaving isnt normal as you might aswell hate a mountain,a rock anything that isnt moving.
I have no grudge against the Tics as they mean nothing absolutely nothing to me but they are a Wigan team so I will not hate them.

What makes me laugh the amount of Tics fans who hate RL but support St Helens when they play us,pathetic really.

F*** em

Sitting on the fence as usual Gareth

I know where you're coming from but it's hard to care who wins or loses in a sport you have no interest in whatsoever. I'd rather watch paint dry than some over paid prima donnas rolling around faking injury because somebody looked at them funny.

The trouble with some Latics fans, it seems to me, is they start from the belief that everyone cares about football because it's the most popular sport. If we follow that logic all football fans must be Barbie loving Taylor Swift fans who eat only McDonald's. It's a stupid notion but they can't seem to get past it.

They think all rugby fans are secretly jealous of their one Cup win because...well, we just must be because it's football! I couldn't care less if they'd won every trophy available. Good on them. It probably means something to them. Personally, I couldn't care less.

Obviously I support both but I'm very much in the camp that I would cheer for Wigan against anyone in anything. I want Wigan to be the sporting capital of the world whether I watch that sport or not.

There seems to be a lot more acceptance towards this new era than I expected but you'll always have that animosity from some on both sides. It is what it is.

Bringing the pennies in, just seen on one of the Warriors fb pages a Calvin Harris/Sam Smith music video where they're using the DW carpark as a Fast and Furious type car meet track, all income welcome

its because both sides believe a lot of false news on both sides which has caused a lot of anger, needs a line drawing under it, you know more than most as I bet you've heard everything

https://wiganathletic.com/news/2024/mar ... ewcwxG3jyo Ouch, I imagine ours won't make good reading but...

https://wiganathletic.com/news/2024/mar ... ewcwxG3jyo Ouch, I imagine ours won't make good reading but...

There are changes afoot. Mr Danson will cap the losses and expect the club to become more self-sufficient which I think is a sensible way forward. Expect the big earners to be shown the exit door.

A sure fire way of losing all his money if he doesnt

Football clubs are money pits aren't they. Fair play to Danson putting his hand in his pocket and bailing them out.

Hopefully they have a solid base to build on now and don't have any more dramas. I know that sentiment might not be shared by all of our fans, but remember we have a common owner now. Any financial difficulties they have means less money for the rugby. If they become a basket case again that's a drain on the time and attention of Danson which could have been spent on us. Its in our interest for Latics to be well run

They really are.

Whilst I don't agree with the agro Danson is getting from the Latics fan base, I can kinda see why some are worried/hesitant towards him.

Unless it's some kind of unbelievable deal, no one buys a sports team to make a profit. Most teams, across all sports are money pits. Most owners do it for a love of the club they support, or because have plenty of money to play around with and boost their ego via buying a play thing.

Danson doesn't strike me as a diehard "tic" and whilst he's wadded, he doesn't seem like the kinda guy to go for a vanity project either. He's bought Latics because it makes sense for his 1st love, which is us.

It probably means Latics will be run like a business i.e smartly, without huge losses and with a focus on ROI. Players will be bought cheaply and sold on for a profit. Like we saw at the United game, fans will be moved to maximise financial game too. Basically, smart business decisions.

As an outsider looking in, whilst also factoring in their recent and well publicised issues, it makes perfect sense. I just don't feel like Latics fans will ever really love Danson. They might tolerate and even thank him for keeping their club alive, but I feel the diehards will always want more.

I know for a fact that he is going to cap annual losses.

I will give the majority of Latics fans credit, they are supportive of Danson and thankful for what he’s done. As with anything, the loud minority are listened to and they’ve moaned pretty much from day one that Danson isn’t spending any money and is instead spending it on the rugby. I don’t actually think they believe it but if they do, it’s incredible, as today will only highlight.

The club has been under a transfer embargo anyway but even not being able to spend money on transfers doesn’t save Danson from having to cover a huge monthly wage bill and the loses, all of which are on the back of a couple of disgraceful ownership groups running the club to the brink. The club is going to be run completely differently going forward and that is the way it has to be.

Unfortunately he probably won’t please every one and that element of empty heads prefer promises of all blue seats and traces of the rugby club’s existence at the stadium being scrubbed away. As I’ve said before as a fan of both clubs, if those sort of Latics fans decide to move on, then that’ll be great news.

I think you're probably right, at least in the short term. He's tainted as a rugby mon, and he'll be compared to freespending former owners. Plenty Latics fans will remain suspicious, old habits die hard.

But maybe if he can take some of the lessons we have learned about investing in youth and focusing on culture he can achieve progress without breaking the bank. We've seen teams like Luton right their way to the Premier league without breaking the bank, with some good management and a bit of luck Latics could fight their way back

Truth is and its an incofortable one the worst thing that ever happened to wigan athletic was being promoted to the top flight, the town, frankly isn't big enough to support a top flight club when things go wrong as they did this seemed to be proven correct, far to many huge football clubs surround wigan so while it was fun in the sun for a little while it was always going to end in tears, thank god for Danson or else the club would have folded of that im sure who else was going to put up with a club so mis managed as that one?

Now Danson clearly has ordered cloth to be cut accordingly and that's the right way to go. surely no more near misses with bankruptcy has to be the way to it couldn't nor shouldn't carry on as it has been doing basically since they got relegated from the premier league.

£17.5m is the price of overpaying for duds and also pandering to a minority of knuckle-dragging rugby-haters by attempting to marginalise and exclude the Warriors, stoking up division and hatred at every opportunity. The previous ownership clearly didnt realise the benefits of working together. Going forward, I doubt the combined losses of both clubs will be even 25% of what the Latics seemed to accept as normal.

Unfortunately those supporters have lived through decades of "send the owner the monthly bill to settle" culture that is across most of the professional clubs. The last owner was either a penniless chancer or someone who didnt buy into this philosophy and it nearly cost the town their football club.

Having both clubs under one ownership will, in time, repair the division. I have attended a couple of football fixtures this season now that the ownership isnt anti-rugby, which is and always will be my sport of choice in Wigan. Hopefully as time goes on and joint working becomes more embedded, then the divide will heal.

Sadly, I think an entire generation of Latics fans will need to disappear - as in grow old and die - before there's any chance of that. And before anyone jumps in and says some rugby fans are just as bad, while I wouldn't disagree with that, I would add that I don't know any rugby fans who want Latics out of the DW Stadium - they're mostly a bit too pragmatic for that.

As for 'all traces of the rugby club’s existence at the stadium being scrubbed away', that wouldn't take much, would it? They are virtually there already.

Its slowly returning. The women playing a fixture at the DW would never have happened under any of the previous owners. Pictures outside the front entrance went up pretty quickly. I would imagine as refurbs come round as part of the standard cycle, more joint sporting club wigan will become evident. The owner has had to dig deep just to save Latics from folding, so I understand that he probably doesnt see a complete makeover as the #1 priority right now.

It would be nice to have the flags hanging from the South stand again - they looked great.

Saw a post on twitter during the week showing a couple of chaps on abseils tinkering with the DW sign above reception at the stadium.

Obviously raising speculation that a stadium rebrand is imminent. Makes sense as a new sponsorship brings in revenue and its been years since Whelan actually owned the ground, so it's well past its due date (maybe the only thing delaying would be the seat changes to remove the DW logos from inside) - massive job in itself, may as well change all 25k seats.

Whoa whoa
Some other Mug is going to have to do it! My knees definitely won't take it anymore

Wonder if they can trade in that god awful statue for scrap metal too. A nice new one of IL, or better still Uncle Mo would be a suitable replacement.

Went up once and my knees caved in immediately