Always a Wasp
General Category => Wasps Rugby Discussion => Topic started by: Rossco on May 20, 2023, 09:15:29 PM
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See the Daily Tele, it?s behind a pay wall. Looks very promising though
Can someone upload the link
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Wasps handed sensational late lifeline
Exclusive: Discussions have taken place within RFU and Premiership to keep the brand alive with prospect of a franchise Championship place
By
Gavin Mairs,
CHIEF RUGBY UNION CORRESPONDENT
20 May 2023 ? 9:00pm
Wasps could be handed an incredible lifeline to prevent the club from becoming extinct, Telegraph Sport can reveal.
It is understood that discussions are taking place at a senior level within Premiership Rugby and the Rugby Football Union about finding a process in which the club could be offered a ?franchise? place to return to the second tier of English rugby within the next five years.
Wasps, one of the most recognisable and successful brands in English club rugby, faced oblivion on Thursday night when the RFU board decided to withdraw the club?s licence to compete in the Championship next season, meaning the four-time English and two-time European champions would have to drop to the bottom of the league pyramid and start next season in Counties 4 Midlands West.
Wasps win Heineken Cup
Wasps were European champions for the second time in 2007 but were facing the prospect of starting next season in the Counties 4 Midland West CREDIT: CARL DE SOUZA/AFP via Getty Images
Chris Holland, who owns the club?s training ground and its intellectual property, had gained approval to play at Solihull Moors FC?s ground and was looking at leasing Worcester?s Sixways stadium as they attempted to secure funding for the club to play in the Championship next season.
It is understood the RFU also attempted to help the club secure funding, including introducing Holland to a potential investor and holding meetings to attempt to get the funding in place. But uncertainty about the future structure of the top two tiers and whether or not promotion and relegation would be retained proved to be a stumbling block.
The RFU rejected Wasps? plea for a 10-day extension to confirm their funding arrangements but the decision was taken after the club were unable to provide assurances on several conditions, including the payment of their rugby creditors and the appointment of a director of rugby.
However, while the decision has devastated those who were attempting to revive the club, it now seems like the door will be left open for their return in ?the medium term? as both PRL and the RFU see the Wasps brand and their supporter base as key to growing the success and status of a rebranded Championship.
With both the Premiership and Championship set to move to a franchise basis as part of the new professional game agreement with the RFU to be signed next year, Wasps could be offered the opportunity to apply for a franchise once the new leagues have ?become established.?
?We need brands like Wasps and Worcester in the Championship and there must be a way in the medium term to bring them back more quickly by restructuring the championship to refranchise them in the right place in the country,? said one senior Premiership source.
Another senior source said: ?We need strong brands to make Prem 2 viable.?
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Looks promising but must include Warriors and Irish to be valid
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Looks like the RFU trying to counteract some points made by Wasps.
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It?s the hope that kills you!
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Yet more making up strategy on the hoof:
1. We need a 14 team premiership
2. No, wait. We need a 10 team premiership
3. Oops, better look like we care about the Championship, so let?s have a cup competition between the two
4. Phew, we?ve got air cover for ring-fencing
5. Oh wait, again, we need to set a timetable, so let?s just say soon
6. Oops, again. Wasps can?t get funding because of the uncertainty we?ve created
7. Woohoo, problem solved. We?ll rescind Wasps? licence and blame it on the uncertainty for the Championship caused by their slowness in getting funding
8. Oops, yet again. We seem to have put the game in a death spiral.
9. No sweat (as Prince Andrew would say) let?s create a franchise system for the Prem and the Championship. Ring-fence the ring-fence. We could call it the Motte and Bailey.
Tune in next week to see if either the PRL or RFU can find its own arse in the dark. Spoiler alert ? they won?t, but they?ll be sure to take some further crass decisions to keep you all entertained.
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Flippin' Ada. Can anyone now explain all this please?? Is this a cunning escape ploy? by RFU etc?? Have they read the Wuss and Wasps threads? Have they finally realized that you can't have any Championship with only 10 teams (or fewer) and no promotion/demotion? Have they all been replaced by rugby fans? ???????????Thank you Neils..
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A franchise implies they?re dividing up the country and giving 1 professional club exclusive rights within that area.
No doubt the current sugar daddies will have first dibs and it?s been made clear there?s no room left in London, so exactly where will the exclusive area be because once they?ve set it up nobody is going to want to give up territory or their own franchise without a fight.
My guess is someone doesn?t understand the franchise model of business and yet again they're making it up as they go along.
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Thank you BiND; very helpful. It would be interesting to discover what instigated this sudden lurch into action.
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Finally working it out- a club with one if the biggest TV audience is not one you can afford to lose.
Ditto, WW and if it comes to it, Irish.
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Someone needs to make the RFU make sense!
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Someone needs to make the RFU make sense!
Impossible
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Journalistic sensationalism aside this is probably no different to the way the Premier 15s works. Of course the devil will be in the detail and I've zero expectations in the RFU.
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They don't know what to do with the championship or prem.
If they push on with the current ideas, they will need all the bankrupt teams to establish a strong tier 2 fully pro. Without that people are not going to start turning up in high thousands across England to watch semi pro rugby.
The relegated bankrupt teams playing in that competition are almost the only way it will work.
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The article by Sale's Orange owner suggests that the 10 clubs need ?300m over the next five years to survive. (Mail I think).
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Within the next 5 years?
Read after 5 or 6 years.
Well, that is no different to Wasps starting as Henley Wasps next season and working their way up (heavy presumption they would get promoted in successive years).
So. Let's think about this. Let's say Wasps say, 'We are NOT waiting for the RFU, let's just get started now.'
Let's say they put money in to it. Not a lot needed, but enough to get a better squad each year then the league they are in (after all, all the other clubs are amateur, yes?). Is there a rule saying you must be amateur outside the Championship, or is that merely the reality of small club finances?
In effect, for not a lot of money, Wasps buy promotion each year. Isn't that what Cecil Duckworth did with Worcester Warriors?
How would you feel being the club that didn't get promotion that year? Pretty plssed. Is it possible they have already been shouting at the RFU (at county level I would guess).
Wasps (and Warriors) new owners both said, with the PRL being ring fenced, rugby creditors cannot be paid, as we cannot raise the finance. The PRL sugar daddies are happy without us, and so refuse to budge on that one, and insist on ring fencing as the price for their continued 'investment'.
The arguments simply don't work. The RFU are panicking, trying to obfuscate and delay. I say to Wasps, get your finger out, get the process started and get back in to a league. Don't wait for the RFU to make up its mind. It can't and won't.
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Just taking what was in the Tele story - I'm with everyone who think the RFU are both panicking and making it up as they go along...
If this is true - the RFU allegedly tried to "help" by looking to introduce a source of finance BUT.....apparently at the same time, didn't understand that given the value difference between Champ and Prem, having no certainty/potential ringfencing would mean such "sources of finance" wouldn't be interested?
I'd guess that this is linked to the Prem potentially losing Wasps, Worcester and LI on short order, a risk that's not the end of the matter (other clubs at risk) and the RFU are suddenly seeing that any lights at the end of the tunnel are attacked to a large train....
As for Wasps I'm beyond getting where anything is frankly - but I am prob being a bit thick...
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Totally agree NWW, especially this ↓
The arguments simply don't work. The RFU are panicking, trying to obfuscate and delay. I say to Wasps, get your finger, get the process started and get back in to a league. Don't wait for the RFU to make up its mind. It can't and won't.
Why would anyone trust the RFU to keep their word tomorrow let alone in 5 or 6 years? They haven't got a vision, aim or strategy for next season let alone the next 5 years.
If (when?) LI drop out and if the rumours are to be believed another club goes the RFU will go in to full panic mode and will make Cpl Jones seem rational and goodness what proposals will follow that.
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Reading Peter Scrivener on Twitter it seems no one at Wasps has been approached/informed about this franchise business. Looks like a dead duck of a story. Well, looks like we start at the bottom in Henley.
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I suspect that this came from PRL as part of the PGA negotiations with the RFU.
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Peter Scrivener
@peter_scrivener
Gav, if these high level discussions are going on you would think wasps are being consulted? We are not! A investor did meet a senior rfu individual but his conclusion was it not investable in the current state and structure.
7:56 am ? 21 May 2023
?
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Could it be that Messrs Sweeny and Massie-Taylor are trying to appear to help in order to avoid another DCMS hearing?
And before anyone else says it, they are trying - very trying!!
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I just posted on the Irish thread another article from The Telegraph. Doesn't look good.
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I just posted on the Irish thread another article from The Telegraph. Doesn't look good.
Not a surprise though.
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No where have a I seen anything explaining what a "Franchise place in the championship" means.
If Wasps don't have the money to properly finance a Champ team, how will it be any different if its a "Franchise" ? Unless theres some kind of central RFU/PRL funding planned?
What about the rugby creditors, who will pay them, as Wasps can't currently?
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Obviously no-one really knows. but it would appear that Holland had investors lined up that pulled out due to the uncertainty of the structure of the pro game and lack of clarity as to if and when promotion to the PRL would happen.
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@WaspsRugby: It?s hard to kill a Wasp ? Keep the faith, #WaspsFamily
https://twitter.com/WaspsRugby/status/1661671002160365569?s=20
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Every time I watch that I reach for a hankie. It makes me cry.