News incoming?

[Shugs]

Interesting. Feel for Wuss. It does suggest our financial backing is fairly robust - which is good. Although I do hope it’s a business model rather than ongoing influxes of cash. We were correct to try and buck the trend of survival via sugar daddy and have suffered for it. But for the future of the game it’s still the direction things must move towards.

[Bloke in North Dorset]

Interesting. Feel for Wuss. It does suggest our financial backing is fairly robust - which is good. Although I do hope it’s a business model rather than ongoing influxes of cash. We were correct to try and buck the trend of survival via sugar daddy and have suffered for it. But for the future of the game it’s still the direction things must move towards.

I agree.

I've been thinking about that relaunch statement in another thread and the various utterances of the RFU and PRL throughout all this drama and fiasco and not once have they talked about fans, entertainment and how to grow the club fan base and how to build a solid brand.

They could argue that fans are implied when you talk about investors as fans are needed to pay a return, but its not necessarily the same fan base. If all they are going to do is build a game that designed for entertaining fickle TV audiences it could be quite a turn off for rugby fans who support their clubs and the game through thick and thin.

I don't know the solution, but if they're not talking about it they probably aren't looking for one.

[WonkyWasp]

Plus 1

[westwaleswasp]

Whilst this news is positive for us, I have some reservations.
A few years ago, on the old Wasp website message board, inhabited by a couple here, and people like Becks, etc. from DW, I wrote on what would have been my last entry, 'what happens if we succeed?'. If we became a massive business and bring them in, what happens to Bath, Bristol, Sarries, Saints etc. We can't all be top dogs, and to be top dogs the spend will just go up until rich profit making clubs like Saints (who made money then and had been successful recently with a turgid brand of rugby) start losing money. In the end it was us and Worcs, and maybe down the line one of the other smaller clubs, but it could have been anyone if the sugar daddy ego is big enough, or in the cancerous Wray's case, corrupt enough.


My new question is similar.
What happens if we do relaunch successfully and it all goes to plan off the field. If we don't get back into the prem in 2-3 years? If we don't get a ground move? I don't think Wasps can last long term in the championship, unless the new model works with 2k crowds after 18 months if we are mid table. I am sure we will get fans into the stadium at the start. The highest Ricoh attendances are for our club rugby not CCFC's. But fast forward and 10k in a 32 k stadium was a bit miserable in the prem and unsustainable long term. What is that going to be in the championship? Without the team on TV, might those in the SE at say 100 miles away, just not turn up and lose the connection to the club. Morning all won't mean much if it is a bunch of guys you can only see on a 200 mile round trip. That isn't commitment needed, it is a lot of cash in petrol.
 If there is a plan to make the championship more than it is, the French model,  isn't it in PRL interests still to find reasons to not relegate? The old primacy of ownership clause is still about. PRL don't want Ealing up. I get the feeling that if they want us it is to make the championship more attractive, which means we have to stay there. And, to be frank, that won't work unless we have a rugby ground that we own.



 

[baldpaul101]

Ashley has already done a deal to let CCFC play at the CBS for the rest of this season. SISU obliviously need a bit of their own business tactics perpetrated on them before taking him seriously.
I would suspect they will agree anew long term deal, so no reason why he shouldn't also let Wasps play there.
Not sure what a championship crowd is going to look like rattling around in a 30k stadium though...

Fingers crossed for more good news.

The Warriors situation sounds like the RFU want more over sight of club operations than the new owners are happy with. I wonder if that's related to the money coming form the US ?

Felicity Kvesic (what a lady she seems to be, all power to her)

I believe she is an investigative journalist as well as being Mrs Kvesic

[baldpaul101]

From the Warriors statement:

 "Since entering into exclusivity with the administrators, we have sought to work collaboratively with the RFU with a view to Worcester Warriors re-entering the Championship for the 2023-24 season.

"Unfortunately, it has not been possible to reach a market or institutionally acceptable, commercially viable proposition with the RFU.

"The position being taken by the RFU gives, in our view, too much control and oversight to the RFU and such control and oversight is over and above what we consider is reasonable and appropriate in the circumstances."

O'Toole and business partner James Sandford, who are backed by US investment, were given exclusivity ahead of several rival bids, one spearheaded by ex-Warriors boss Steve Diamond.

However, they say they cannot accept terms which "hinder any commercial business that is needed to support elite men's and women's' rugby".

The statement adds: "As a result, should the RFU not find the flexibility to remove the over-onerous terms they are seeking to impose on Atlas, we will have no alternative but to conclude the deal with Begbies without the approval of the RFU and without returning elite level rugby to Worcester."


The final sentence is critical, "if the RFU won't agree to the deal we'll go ahead anyway", not sure how that could work as without RFU approval surely they can't play in any league?

[DGP Wasp]

I have real doubts about the viability of remaining at the CBS in the Championship.

When Wasps first made the move, Coventry were in National 1, and a reasonable case could be (was) made that there was a local appetite for Premiership rugby that Wasps could satisfy and attract crowds big enough to justify (if not actually fill) a 32k stadium.

Now Coventry have moved up and Wasps down, both now find themselves in the Championship competing for a slice of the same fairly meagre pie, with Coventry having an established local history and a ground that is appropriate to that level. Wasps are no longer the biggest show in town, and a couple of thousand in the CBS is not going to make for much of a match day experience, or for that matter any kind of financial benefit.  The financial benefits of the Ricoh (as was) are gone as it is no longer ours and never will be again

The EPIC remains an important tie to the area, and is surely key to any future, so that limits the geography of where we go, but I feel we should now be looking somewhere other than Coventry.

[baldpaul101]

Whilst I agree that the CBS is no longer any kind of money earner, it is also no longer a drain on resources & time/effort which it surely became over the time Wasps have been in Cov.
If Wasps just have to pay a rent, its much easier to plan & budget for.

[Shugs]

Agree with that. The viability of the stadium is now someone else’s concern. Given the amounts we were losing there it will be easier to make a profit as a tenant. I imagine it will be a one stand open scenario but I can’t see any reason why it shouldn’t work for us.

[BlackAndGoldSunglasses]

The drip feed of slow information and rumour is killing me... looking forward to some certainty and planning for next season.

Isn't it a stipulation of phoenixing into the Champ that we have to play at the same ground as before for three years? Agree that reduced level crowds in the CBSA will not be the matchday experience one would want, but for three seasons it might have to do.

Who knows, we might be back in the Prem in three years. Depending on what the league structure all looks like by then!

[Heathen]

I am sure that the 'consortium' will have done all the numbers and demonstrated due financial prudence to the RFU.

My big concern is the alienation of bondholders who will lose serious money. Many will have supported Wasps for a very long time.

[baldpaul101]

Isn't it a stipulation of phoenixing into the Champ that we have to play at the same ground as before for three years?

I believe so yes. But you would expect some room for flexibility as long as no one elses territory was infringed upon.

Apparentlythe RFU board will be meeting to discuss this matter on Friday so we may hear some more today...

[Rossm]

I am sure that the 'consortium' will have done all the numbers and demonstrated due financial prudence to the RFU.

My big concern is the alienation of bondholders who will lose serious money. Many will have supported Wasps for a very long time.

Never gamble with money you can't afford to lose.

[DGP Wasp]

Agree with that. The viability of the stadium is now someone else’s concern. Given the amounts we were losing there it will be easier to make a profit as a tenant. I imagine it will be a one stand open scenario but I can’t see any reason why it shouldn’t work for us.

Hang on....

8 years ago, Stadium ownership was the only way to be viable and was the cornerstone of the business case to move to Coventry. Now it's an onerous drain on resources and it will be easier to turn a profit as a tenant.

So which is it?

[Vespula Vulgaris]

I'm a bondholder, and to be honest I only invested as much as I was willing to lose should it all go wrong.  So that is the least of my worries.

I'm concerned that there has been no transparency to the process so far.  There is no thought of the fans in the decisions that have obviously been made.  I don't want to support a team that doesn't care for me and my fellow fans.

I'm concerned that the new Wasps won't actually be anything like the old Wasps. yes it'll be the same logo on the same sort of shirt, but I've followed players from their academy days to retirement and beyond.  How will a new club maintain this?  And if it isn't the old club why bother supporting them?

I'm concerned about us staying in Coventry. In all honesty I'm not going to spend a penny of my money in Coventry again.  We've spent 8 years dealing with the bile, the abuse, and the insults from large numbers of people there, and the only thing that made driving for hours attractive was that it was our home.  It isn't any more.

I'm concerned that even if I find I really want to follow the club I won't be able to. No TV coverage and only social media and here to get updates.

I'm also concerned that we might end up back in the premiership.  I am deeply angry at the way PRL have treated us and Wuss and I'll be damned before I do anything that might support those bunch of money grabbing, conniving parasites.