Seems we have sold the hotel and Wigan is buying Euxton

DECISIONS will be made to protect the short-term future of Bolton Wanderers Football Club in the next few days – I just hope those responsible recognise what is at stake.

It still seems surreal to be reporting on some of the issues that are up for debate at the Macron Stadium right now.

But attributing blame and getting accountability for the financial disaster this club has become will have to wait; it takes secondary importance. On January 18 the scheduled winding-up petition hearing is due to take place and the club that has anchored this town for 142 years could cease to exist.
Some of the choices faced by the club are temporary ones. Selling Mark Davies to Sheffield Wednesday, for example, stings temporarily.

Sparky should have been a multi-million pound player plying his trade in the Premier League – but a mixture of circumstances, both preventable and otherwise, have ensured that isn’t the case.

He leaves for Hillsborough with my best wishes but I hope Wanderers look at the sum of money freed up by his departure and realise just how suicidal their economic planning has been in the years since toppling out of the Premier League.

It may be that other players follow. I dearly hope Wanderers get their wish and hold on to Josh Vela and Zach Clough – two lads with the club at heart. I fear that at least one will be absent by the end of this window.

But other choices faced by the football club are even more important, with much more far-reaching consequences.

Selling the club’s hotel, for example, has been dismissed by supporters as collateral damage. But, my word, they could not be further from the truth.

Of all the components that make up the package being offered to potential buyers, the hotel is one of the very few things that actually makes a profit.

It is integrated into the fabric of the club. When Gordon Hargreaves and the like were planning the move from Burnden Park back in the day, who knew that a hotel would be a deal breaker when it came to selling the club a couple of decades later?

Wanderers may well be heading to League One – but that business, with a few tweaks perhaps, could sustain a club at that level. THAT is how important keeping that particular asset really is.

The potential sale of the training ground at Euxton has proved a more emotive subject. I have spoken to former players who cannot understand why the Whites would potentially cash in on the complex they worked so hard to build from portakabins and rubble in the Premier League days.

Preston North End have had the guided tour but I know for a fact Wigan Athletic are the most likely club to buy the land. Of course, that would again sting Wanderers’ pride, bitter pill to swallow etc. But with Lostock already in hand could the sale of that land be a necessary evil?

I get the sense from speaking with people who have examined Wanderers as a viable purchase the lack of a swish gym, medical centre, canteen and games room is the least of their worries.

The Whites, as a club and as a fanbase need to start addressing the fact they need to start living within their means.

I’m encouraged to say those present at the open meeting on Wednesday night appeared ready to roll up their sleeves and dig in for the sake of their club.

Whatever the immediate future, the attitude of the 1,000 people in the Premier Suite that night plus the many, many watching on around the internet makes me think there is a sound future, regardless of how much short-term pain there may be.

At least three parties want to buy the club. But if they are not going to safeguard its’ future then I, and probably many Wanderers fans, would rather bite the bullet now and accept administration to give it a fighting chance of continuing.

With a trust in place – and I am encouraged to say that looks very likely – then there is hope.

http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/wanderers/14193427.INSIDE_WANDERERS__Decision_makers_must_ensure_they_safeguard_the_club_first_and_foremost/

Ffs

Where does it say anywhere in that article that we have actually "sold the hotel" or that "Wigan is buying Euxton" (sic).....?

Apparently Wigan bought the training ground today for £2m which will go towards tax bill on Monday.

We will not be going into Administration now or in the near future.

Has anyone heard of business tycoon, Dennis  Rodgers? He is supposedly fronting a five-man takeover bid worth £25 millionand property developers the Emerson Group.

Rodgers is supposedly the man involved with Disley's bid.

Natasha Whittam wrote:Apparently Wigan bought the training ground today for £2m which will go towards tax bill on Monday.

We will not be going into Administration now or in the near future.

It won't be long before they are training on Barlow Park!

Wigan have bought the training ground for £2m, and are now entitled to £500k per season from the FA for achieving some sort of Academy status. Pays for itself in 4 years.

Makes you want to weep.

Natasha Whittam wrote:Wigan have bought the training ground for £2m, and are now entitled to £500k per season from the FA for achieving some sort of Academy status. Pays for itself in 4 years.

Makes you want to weep.

I was outraged when our Academy was closed only a few months ago and now that we're having to sell senior players we'll need it more than ever in the next few seasons.

Since when has our academy shut down?

It wasn't, was it?

Just downgraded in status.

Ye that's what I thought, Lusty obviously trying to start a riot.

i haven't seen anything official about Euxton yet or have i missed it? 

I suppose if we have to sell one thing then this would be the best option. I haven't been to the academy but it's practically brand new so we should be able to use that for the first team as well shouldn't we?

I can't even find any official confirmation that we've sold the Hotel. All I can find is that some "office" space at the Macron was sold and that's it. Everything else including the car park still appears to be ours (albeit not for much longer now)