REPORTS that Tesco have increased their offer to buy Central Park from £8 million to £12 million have been firmly denied by Wigan chairman Jack Robinson.

The Warriors chief said that he had only read about the increased offer in the newspapers.

"At this moment there is no substance to those reports but if anything changes in the future we will have to take a fresh look at it.

"We are in the middle of negotiations with Dave Whelan which we expect to take between four to six weeks. We are trying to get the best deal but negotiating a lease for 100 years is complicated and takes time."

Shareholders voted for Wigan to sell their Central Park ground to Wigan Athletic owner Whelan who would redevelop the stadium and ground share with the two clubs.

The second proposal was to move to Bolton Wanderers' new stadium at Horwich with Tesco buying Central Park.

If the giant supermarket chain increase their offer it could rekindle the interest in a ground sharing plan with Wanderers.

The Warriors are hoping there will be no delay in getting a work permit for Va'aiga Tuigamala. They will travel to London today with a replacement passport after his old one was misplaced.

The powerful centre missed Sunday's friendly against Lancashire Lynx and problems over renewing his work permit is the last thing the Central Park club needed coming after speculation that he could be on his way to big-spending rugby union club Newcastle.

Tempt

THERE are still tickets on sale at Central Park for Saturday's big RL Challenge Cup clash between St Helens and Wigan. Saints have allocated their opponents 4,000 standing and 700 seats for the all-ticket affair and there are still some available in both areas.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.