The Stadium should be owned by a independent concern with any club that plays there paying a rent to the leaseholder like they do at Huddersfield, Hull, Leigh, Salford etc.
In the case of our town, that was the original idea when the idea of a joint Stadium was first mooted at a meeting of Warriors Shareholders at the Riverside Club in 1994 with the name of Wigan Sporting club suggested as a name for the independent company owning the Stadium.
That is until Whelan got all his own way with with Wigan Council and bought off 79% of the Warriors Shareholders with his offer of £125 for every £1 share.
As a result of Wigan Council supporting Whelan in anything he did at the time, the Stadium ended up in the hands of Whelan, who during the period of trying to attract a buyer for his "beloved" Wigan Athletic, transferred the DW Stadium to the football club in order to get a price for himself from the sale as any potential buyer of a football club would want the Stadium to be part of the sale. If Whelan had put both companies as separate sales, the Stadium could have been bought by a independent concern, who then would have made the football club pay the same rent as the Warriors. Hopefully that will be the case in the near future if the Administrators sell Wigan Athletic and the DW Stadium as separate sales.
Like the other towns and cities I have mentioned above, the same criteria should have also applied to the Stadium at Robin Park in the late nighties, with both Wigan Athletic and Wigan Warriors being tenants and paying rent to a independent owner of the Stadium ie. Wigan Council.
Leigh Centurions are in a better situation than us as the Leigh Sports Village Stadium is owned by a independent Wigan Council who are the landlords.