Wigan? Close, mate, but Reading! (Admittedly I did go to university in Manchester, but I didn't think I had picked up too much of their accent!)
Soccer in England, or really any of the top European leagues, have examples which show the importance of promotion and relegation on a club, and how it can go horribly wrong if you over-extend yourself. But it also creates strong rivalry with your local opponents, and even some far-flung opponents if there's a crunch match (Woking vs Doncaster springs to mind, over promotion from the 5th tier to the 4th!).
Yes, the money in soccer has created some mega-clubs which are too big to get relegated (although tell that to Villa or Blackburn or Coventry or Juventus!) but if Leicester can win, then there was hope for the Force if a perfect storm of occurrences happens.
French Top 14 or the English Premiership handle promotion and relegation in rugby perfectly well. A club getting relegated loses some of it's players, but then they probably needed to in order to reduce the wage bill and it just encourages the club to promote the academy players. I wonder whether the Italian sides in the Pro 14 wouldn't be so poor if they had the threat of relegation rather than guaranteed entry into the same competition the following year despite losing 90% of their games. The Lions nearly went out of business because there wasn't a real layer below Super Rugby to get relegated too (the Currie Cup might be profitable, but not if you are paying players Super Rugby wages).
Going into a second tier at least gives some income and gives the fans the chance of getting a few wins next year. I know a number of fans of English 2nd tier soccer clubs (like Reading, Middlesbrough, Sunderland, etc) who enjoy the years out of the Premiership more because they are playing teams more on their level; Chelsea or Manchester City might be more skilful, but it's no fun watching your side getting beaten 3-0 every week.