[url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2010/feb/03/wigan-super-league-crusaders-hullWigan happy with their role as the talk of the town.[/url

'[iWigan are hoping to challenge Leeds as the best-supported club in the Super League this year, but insist that has nothing to do with the current problems of the town's Premier League football team.[/i'

Some interesting comments from Mick Hogan.

Great article, nice to see some positive feeling at the club

"We want Wigan Athletic to do well"
Well said that man

The town is big enough for both teams IMO

Indeed. Some great unrest @ Latics at the moment, coach who is a legend needing a bit of backing from a man who isnt known for having the most patience. TBH I wonder how much longer he will fund the club, he is known to be looking for a buyer, but I cant see it ever been taken up by anyone.

I'm not sure we'll feel that way when the football press starts lambasting us for the state of the pitch in a couple of weeks' time.

It's cut up pretty badly already, but the moment the RL have played a single game on it, you'll hear a deluge of complaints.

I hope I'm wrong, but I bet I'm not. That level of hypocrasy does not endear the round-ball game to the RL-loving public of Wigan (as I'd have thought they'd know by now).

The pitch is blamed on the Rugby even when we've not played on it for a couple of months so as soon as we've had these first couple of games we'll undoubtably be getting 'all' the blame.

The bad weather won't be mentioned as being a factor at all by the clowns on Match of The Day or on Sky.

Hmm, I wonder what response you'd get if you post that on 'cockney latic' !!!!!!!!

Aside from a few gobsh*te fans its the press that dredge this up, every time theres a game on 5Live it gets a mention regardless of the time of year.

Its lazy sloppy journalism, but you can't blame your average Latics fan for that.

Agree with the comments higher up about Whelan, I can't see fresh investment coming in and if it does looking at Portsmouth as an example its hardly guarenteed to bring success.

As most Latics fans will tell you the football club are run extremely well. But that is their very problem. Whelan is trying to run them like a business and won't have them lose a single penny. It's his scrimping and saving that will do for them. However it won't happen this year as there is Portsmouth

and two or three other clubs with much weaker squads.

Well he's right to do that. We ourselves know to well that overspending can kill a club. Our overspending cost us Central Park let's not forget. The collapse of the Premier League massive debt gravy train looks imminent to me.

Wigan Athletic lose money year on year and are meant to be £50m in debt which is being covered by Whelan.

I support Wigan Athletic and it's frustrating when we lose out on players because Whelan isn't prepared to break the bank for them. It's also frustrating whe any half decent player we lay our hands on gets sold off but I suppose that can't be helped. Even with selling off our best players year on year and replacing them with much cheaper options we still lose big money.

The way things are going at Portsmouth should be a lesson to all football clubs and Wigan seem to be trying their best not to go the same way. Even with the scrimping and saving though it still may not be enough of anything happens to Whelan.

I'm not condoning overspending in any way. I've been knocked on here for saying we should be prudent after past experiences.
The way football has gone the only way you can get anywhere is by spending, spending then spending some more. It has in a way evened out the playing field though. It doesn't matter if you're Luton Town or Manchester United, sooner or later it will catch up with you.

Have you got a link for that? I though sponsorship and television money covered the losses, but maybe I was wrong.