Quite an interesting video. Confirms the move to Robin Park at the start of 2019.

Also notes he's put in ~£800k this year alone. Nice stat for people who think he does things on the cheap.

Really stressed the need for the fans to turn up and support the club.

I am sure he has spent £800K this year but the question many will ask is, on what?

What fans see is the team on the pitch and not the cost and expense of the back room staff etc and when the club makes such signings as Sarge and see popular players like MM go and not be replaced I think a lot would say he's not getting value for money. I don't think I can recall a time where there was as much apathy in the fans over the squad and potential signings. Greenwood is a solid signing and Hardaker while an obvious talent splits opinion (that may change if he turns out to be a super-star again of course) but there are too many average and poor players running around in the first 17. If he wants bums on seats he needs to make sure the club signs players (and a coach) to put them there because like it or not, that's the sport of expectation Wigan fans have.

His £800K expenditure is to underpin the entire club. You can’t build a house on sand or it will just crumble. He’s getting the infrastructure right but as he says, it’s a business and not sustainable unless fans turn up. For fans to turn up in bigger numbers, the product on the field needs to improve so it’s a vicious circle.
I trust IL and believe the club is in the right hands. I’m confident he’ll appoint the right coach and bring in more quality players which we desperately need. (Eh hem.... scrum half please)!

I have always been and still am a big supporter of IL and his tenure as Chairman at the club, he brought back the good days.

But, he has taken his eye off the ball by allowing Wane so much control, which he is now wrestling back.

Wane should not have had his contract renewed at the end of last year, but was allowed to continue, his boring one man out rugby, big losses and loads of excuses for everything has made the fans not go to games and led to the dwindling crowds.

Wane was allowed the biggest salaried team in the league with 2 Marquee players and has delivered a very poor return, really bad business, IL should have stepped in earlier.

So IL is at fault for this, if he had got rid of Wane sooner it would have salvaged a lot more fans.

For training?

Stop going off on mad adventures overseas then,I understand the need for new capitol but lets be fair, and Lenegan himself admitted the Oz trip made nowhere near the amounts being touted, and seemed to have hacked off a fair few of the traditional fan base to boot, that coupled with a dearth of "star" names, some bog awful rugby over the last couple of seasons or more has led to a clear downturn of fans at the DW,keep taking people for granted and they will abandon you.

He won't break the vicious circle by not investing in the squad and coach. Speculate to accumulate and if he doesn't (or can't afford to on his own but won't seek other investors) and responds to declining revenue from fewer fans attending by funding a poorer squad that circle will turn into a downward spiral. Fans turn up when they are excited not when the chairman asks them to watch an economy 7 side and unfortunately for chairmen and owners that means investing up front in the team and coach in the hope it puts bums on seats and brings success.

I am sure he wants it to be a self sustaining business which if it could be would obviously be great. I mean that stands to reason doesn't it but the trouble with this ambition is an RL club is not a traditional business with a guaranteed revenue stream. At times it will dip and as he has said he has had to put his own money in. What surprises me is anyone thinks this is out of the ordinary for an RL club. Most of them seem to hover around making a small profit to various degrees of loss.

Ultimately the solution is increased sponsorship, particularly off TV companies and I think increasing sponsorship is going to generate far more income than a couple of thousand on the gate average but he's the one who has to secure that. Crowd size ought not to matter. All the talk about SL running itself and growing the revenue for the game is I am sure fueled by a desire to do this.

I agree with most of this mate but don’t forget, we pay out more or less the full cap plus two marquee salaries. The players (squad) we have are probably as high a standard as we can expect in a salary capped sport. That’s the really sad part.

We have lost around 2,000 regular fans due to a combination of fixture uncertainty, competition format, apathy, lack of quality product and as others have said, annoyance at being messed about / taken for granted by the club.

2000 (fans) x 15 (home games) x £20 (average ticket price) = £600k.

Fix those problems first and I’m sure fans will return.

IMHO I think Wigan must have the largest back room staff of any team in the league, that’s what the £££ is being spent on. It seems the backroom staff is a retirement home for ex-players and I question are we seeing benefits on the pitch as this is the acid test?

It must be obvious to all of us by now that a major overhaul of the club's playing and coaching personnel is underway.

I can only assume that SW got a sniff of this, realised his days were numbered and so went early - which will almost certainly cause us problems (though not in the long-term, if we can get someone in who is better, despite what may be a difficult interim period).

It's clear that we've stagnated badly on the playing and coaching front. We have an expensively assembled squad which for at least a season and a half has been badly underperforming. I know we're second at present, but let's not pretend that this is our rightful place; much higher standards are required from lots of our players, while others just seem to be trundling along in their comfort zone, doing nothing and yet getting selected each week. The coach needs to take responsbility for this, as do a number of key players.

The problem is that, in the age of contracts, bringing in a new broom is never easy. I think we are genuinely entering one of those much mythologised 'periods of transition'. But I'm glad the club's management appeared to have recognised that it was needed and look like they're grasping the nettle.

Saying we have underperformed for a season and a half is simply unfair.

At the beginning of last season we looked pretty good until the injuries kicked in, the sheer quantity of injuries disrupted last season beyond repair. This season we were looking good until Wanes announcement since we have dipped for 3 or 4 games.

I’m aware a lot of fans don’t like Wanes style of rugby and want him out, that’s fine but why post rubbish as fact to suit your agenda.

Clearly, it's rubbish the club agrees with.

I think you need to be honest and ask yourself the question: Is everything fine? Do we just carry on as we are, or should we try to improve?

if any club needed an input of £800k in a single year to keep going then that's a worry. when its Wigan, its even more so.

proves my points about the poor management of finances and contracts over the last few years, which I have heavily maintained on here much to everyone's amusement. funny how it is all coming to light now isn't it.

here's where I would start:

no more daft adventures, lets get the fans back where the money comes in - at home. I thought the Oz trip was a great idea, but we tried it and it didn't work as we expected. shame, but lets move on. maybe try that again in a few years.
no more stupid contract handouts or being bossed by the players and agents. the club should dictate negotiations, not a player or an agent. if they don't like it they can close the door after them.
trim your non-playing staff, and where that isn't possible take a close look at whether they have contributed in a positive or negative manner.
reduce replica / sports goods prices. a slightly lesser profit per item will surely be surpassed by a greater volume of purchases by fans.

start there, and you'll soon have your £800k a year back.

I’m hoping that there will be pre-match games/ entertainment/ refreshments in the Robin Park Arena before and after first team matches at the DW. Supporter car parking directly outside.

We need to start putting more ££ into the club coffers rather than the DW stadium company.

£5k a match at a minimum would be a start! Get them out of that bar under the South Stand and into the Arena!

Great idea have some of the junior/womens teams playing or local rl teams. I would soon put money back to the club than over pay in the ground with the club getting little or no money out of it.

That's the plan.

I genuinely don't know the answer to this but is the 800k a loss based purely on an operational level or were there one off costs that contributed to that amount?

I heard something about 600k of that figure was to do with investments/costs that were incurred on a one off type?

That doesn't make it right even if so just wondered that if the club had paid out a one off fee for something then the day to day operational costs maybe wouldn't look so bad?

That's enough to get Thurston or Benji Marshall!

I never said everything was perfect, nor did I ever suggest we shouldn’t try and improve.

2016 we had a very bad run of injuries, despite that managed to win SL, 2017 we started very well then suffered a horrendous run of injuries. We are currently 2nd in the league after starting the season very well playing good rugby, we go on a poor run for 3 games and now you’re saying we badly underperformed for 18 months.

All I’m saying is be realistic and don’t exaggerate the issues. Wane, certain players and the team as a whole are copping a lot of unfair criticism, that’s my point.

FWIW I think we are in need of new head coach with new ideas and have been for a couple of years. With hindsight 2016 would have been the perfect time to go after achieving the title after suffering with so many injuries. I also don’t blame Wane or the club for Wane staying on. It seems some on here have an agenda and a huge chip on their shoulder and want to target the club, coach and certain players at every opportunity.

The bit I've underlined is more or less what I said.

I don't expect you to go back through my posts looking for proof, but I've never been part of the anti-Wane brigade, and have rarely bagged IL (who I feel cops a ludicrous amount of negativity, given all the good stuff he's done).

I just think it's time to move on re. the coaching. I also think that certain players are not pulling their weight given the very high salaries they are enjoying (and recent events seem to imply that club bosses feel the same way).

Not sure what the agenda is there other than I want Wigan to do better than they currently are.

Can’t agree, the £800K expenditure proves nothing other than the club is prepared to invest heavily in the future and infrastructure of the club with the vast amount of it going towards the purchase of Robin Park. It proves nothing at all about mis managed finances or contracts.
As for the daft adventure, it made a profit (albeit not as much as hoped for) and for those fortunate enough to go to Sydney, some life long memories.
As for players or agents dictating negotiations, Sam moving on is proof that the club won’t be held to ransom by anybody. He was offered what the club thought he was worth but turned it down. It was the 3rd biggest contract they’ve offered in the last 10 years but less than his marquee salary. Doesn’t sound like a club being held to ransom to me!

SW doesn't do the signing of players!
Good grief!!
Your friend IL and Rads do the recruitment and wages.