You're welcome! It's a handy free resource.
Back to the Vaughan interview, here's a summary:
- Baptism of fire for Vaughan: Came into the role expecting to be running a multi-faceted business (which he has) but has spent most of the time firefighting and having to make incredibly tough decisions (salaries, redundancies etc...)
- Asked specially about Wasps being under greater threat than other clubs and bats it back claiming all clubs under threat by the very nature of no income for a period of time. Wasps fortunate to have other business interests to contribute revenues (i.e. Matchroom agreement to host Darts, Pool and Snooker plus Office Lets). They're continuing to invest in the likes of Hotels and Upgrades. I'm sure this'll p*ss off CCFC fans, but specifically references (The Ricoh) being an 'extremely important asset to the West Midlands' with the Commonwealth Games, Rugby League World Cup and City of Culture all on the horizon
- Ongoing discussions with the Department for Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) for Support. Says they have sent 'reams' of information on what is needed to from them to Support Clubs but no insight into what (i.e. is it funding, or allowing fans back into Stadia etc...)
- Delighted with the Playing side of things and confident that the setup of a Head Coach (Lee) and traditional DoR responsibilities (Contracts, Recruitment etc...) being taken on by Vaughan and Kevin Harman
- The growing Player Leadership group has really stepped up who have taken responsibilities within the team to help support Lee
- No plans for Recruitment (and expects minor ins and outs for other teams) as recruitment already done based on June/July start for the new season so no change in the few weeks we're in now coming into the new delayed season
- Sits on the fence a bit re: relegation and promotion. Says he likes the romance of relegation of the battles to avoid it, but we're in difficult times and perhaps we have to consider financial viability of clubs. Suggests that if ring-fencing happens, no reason why Championship clubs who show financial viability, with fan bases and can meet prem criteria shouldn't be allowed into the Prem
- Asked about plans for a global season he says he's pro Summer rugby both from a product perspective by believing it'll produce better games but also likely bigger crowds
- Encourgingly, none of our Sponsors have dropped off. Lots of work continuing to be done with Vodafone, especially with 5G technology in/around the stadium and to help with data/analysis and all of our secondary sponsors remain. They have 3-4 others lined up too, so sponsorship looks healthy - whether it's healthy because sponsorship is relatively cheap compared to years gone by or healthy because we're a good brand to be associated with wasn't mentioned
- Lastly, he expects the Prem to start on-time and be largely issue-free and believes the measures put in place to finish off the previous season were sufficient to keep teams playing regularly