www.wigantoday.net/sport/rugby-l ... -1-8761858 Two interesting points for me here: 1. A drop in sponsorship income, from £1.2m to £833,000. Where are all these rich southerners supposedly enticed by our game at Millwall? Does that mean the London experiment has failed spectacularly? 2. Nearly £165,000 in contract termination payments to former players and coaches. Who has been released (at the request of the club) last year whilst still in their contract?

www.wigantoday.net/sport/rugby-l ... -1-8761858 Two interesting points for me here: 1. A drop in sponsorship income, from £1.2m to £833,000. Where are all these rich southerners supposedly enticed by our game at Millwall? Does that mean the London experiment has failed spectacularly? 2. Nearly £165,000 in contract termination payments to former players and coaches. Who has been released (at the request of the club) last year whilst still in their contract?

I’d assume Lee Mossop / Greg Burke with Mossop getting a chunk of it after the Bateman debacle. The sponsorship loss is not good enough given IL’s reasoning for branching the club out.

Not sure we can say that to be fair to IL. We've just announced sponsorship with 3 organisations and unless u are part of the inner sanctum, how do we know they are not connected to the Millwall game?



What it does show is that all those who say our chairman is tight are wrong. The loss will come out of his private funds and he doesn't appear to be running for the hills and trying sell his share of the club.



The club does need to address the falling attendances though, it's a huge issue for us.

The simple fact is that we are not very pretty to watch. You can't rely on fan loyalty to keep bums on seats, you have to entertain people in order for them to keep coming back. It's ok saying ancient and loyal and all that, that's fine for the older more established fans that live and breathe the game. I'm talking about new people to the sport, to the Wigan club and brand, unless they feel entertained they aren't going to keep coming back.



To a lot it's sport, it's something to do on weekend that you enjoy, it is something to look forward to and a reason to spend your hard earned. Even some of the most hardened fans at the are finding it tedious to watch games, imagine what the new-comers must think?

I note that rental of the stadium has also gone up.



I wonder if this is in relation to Latics' gradual demise.



I'm sure I remember it being said at a fans forum once that if Latics got relegated, we would have to carry more of the costs - think this was one reason why IL wanted them to stay up.

I agree on both of your above post Cruncher. Getting bums on seats has to be a major consideration and concern for the club moving forward and the match day experience has to be exciting and entertaining which sadly over the last few years, it mostly hasn't been.



Latics demise is without doubt the cause of the rental cost increase.

We've lost around 2,000 fans per game on average in recent years. Suppose each match day fan is worth around £20 to the club, that's over £500k in lost revenue. There's the shortfall right there.

I doubt it. When was the last time you heard of a company CEO bailing out a loss making organisation out of their personal wealth? He might have done this but it's just as likely the club has borrowed money (as all business do) to finance their operations.







Needs to factor in even more cash for severance pay then.

Noticed it mentioned the value of Orrell as £3.6m, isn't the rumour that we have sold the site for housing?



If so, that will sort out any losses short term anyway!

The whole sponsorship of our shirts has been a mystery to me, we seem to have unheard of or parochial companies whereas some other SL clubs have managed to attract national household brands.



We should be casting the net to catch a Vodafone (tie up to NZ warriors?), a Samsung (PL and SL champions link), Emirates (deep pockets) etc. etc.



Are we the most famous club in the world or not?







selling land and assets is not a viable long term model

It depends how much they are offering though. I'd rather have a more small local sponsor than a big global name if they are willing to pay more. Realistically I suspect improving attendances and (probably more importantly) Sky viewing figures would need to happen to improve our attractiveness to sponsors.

If Im honest the fact that average crowds have declined by a couple thousand when we have been relatively successful says it all - if we had won not pots the decrease would have been significantly higher.

The biggest worry for IL will be new applications for season tickets i.e. first time buyers. The stat on that will be horrendous.

Personally I like IL and I would be amazed if there are not significant changes next year in the squad and coaching.

He does do this.



The club has a bank overdraft with Barclays which stood at £378k at the end of the financial year - Lenagan personally guarantees this with the bank on behalf of the club.



At the end of 2016 the club owed Lenagan £5.9m (up from £4.8m in 2015) through the loans provided by his investment company (which is the club's parent company).



Without Lenagan the club would be up poop creek.

The increase in rental cost is in relation to increased match revenues (i.e. higher ticket prices etc). The lease we have bases rental costs on match revenues.