The thoughts of Chris Wright

[Heathen]

Wasps former owner Chris Wright blames Coventry move for crisis
Chris Jones
Saturday May 20 2023, 12.01am, The Times

Chris Wright, the owner who led Wasps to two European Cup triumphs, has blamed the club?s 2014 move to Coventry for destroying his legacy and turning a rugby powerhouse into a ?100 million debt-ridden disaster.

Wright, the chairman of Chrysalis Vision, took over Wasps and created a joint company with Queens Park Rangers FC in 1996, with the clubs sharing Loftus Road. The millionaire businessman sold Wasps in 2008, having won 11 trophies under his ownership, handing control to Steve Hayes and becoming honorary life president. Hayes also owned Wycombe Wanderers FC, whose Adams Park ground became the club?s home.

In 2012, Hayes sold Wasps after failing to gain planning permission for a ground on an aerodrome in Wycombe. This transaction preceded the controversial move to Coventry and Derek Richardson becoming what would prove to be the final owner of the club before they went into administration and were expelled from the Gallagher Premiership in October. Now, Wasps have been demoted to the bottom tier and stripped of their licence to play in the Championship next season after failing to meet conditions set by the RFU.

Wright told The Times: ?I put a lot of my life into Wasps and that was my legacy and now it is gone, wiped off like chalk off a blackboard, and I might as well not have done it. Of course being involved with Wasps cost me a lot of money, but I have no qualms about that and I enjoyed every minute.
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?It is all very sad and of course it should not have happened. It may have been difficult to remain competitive staying at Wycombe but Wasps would still be in business. It could have been another Newcastle scenario [struggling to compete for trophies] but wouldn?t that have been better than the current situation? Losses would have been manageable.

?Derek Richardson did rescue Wasps but I would never have taken the club to Coventry and away from the fanbase. You then end up with a bond issue with a very high interest rate and so there was always going to be a day of reckoning and you were walking a tightrope.?

Wasps? debt includes ?35 million raised by a bond issue after the switch from Wycombe to the Ricoh Arena in Coventry.

Wright expects London Irish, the latest team to experience financial trouble, to lose their battle for survival and the Premiership to become a ten-team league with no relegation.

He also revealed that Wasps had survived an attempt to kill off the club in 2000. ?During my time there we won 11 trophies in 11 years, including two European Cups,? he said. ?But there was a body of people in rugby that didn?t want Wasps to be there. At the first Premiership owners meeting I attended, I found out they were having secret talks to get rid of Wasps. I derailed that plan when it was some way down the track.

?They didn?t want another London team and wanted to bring in Cornish Pirates to have a geographical spread. Wasps then became the predominant team and we did a lot of things right, although not everything was perfect, including the Acton training ground.

?I fell out with QPR and we had to find somewhere else to play and it boiled down to Oxford United?s ground or Wycombe Wanderers. Neither was ideal but Oxford was my choice ? but I couldn?t do a deal. If you were a Wasps fan I am sure you would prefer the club to still be in existence at Wycombe in front of 9,500 fans ? not out of business.?

[WonkyWasp]

But I don't recall 9.500 supporters per match in the last few years at AP;  it was more on  the  lines of 4,000/4,500 for the last couple of years. 

[Heathen]

But I don't recall 9.500 supporters per match in the last few years at AP;  it was more on  the  lines of 4,000/4,500 for the last couple of years.

Agreed.

The only sellout that I can remember in that period, was for the Newcastle game at the end of the 11/12 season. It was was a straight shootout between the two sides to avoid relegation. I think it was the LBP from that game that saved us.

[WonkyWasp]

I can remember (post 2012)  a 10,000 and even a 10500!  Packed in by the advertising hoardings they were.  Sadly, never in the last couple of years.

[Rossm]

But I don't recall 9.500 supporters per match in the last few years at AP;  it was more on  the  lines of 4,000/4,500 for the last couple of years.

Agreed.

The only sellout that I can remember in that period, was for the Newcastle game at the end of the 11/12 season. It was was a straight shootout between the two sides to avoid relegation. I think it was the LBP from that game that saved us.

I'm not sure but I think it came down to points difference. The game plan was to score first and early and dominate the game pointswise. Very shrewd planning I thought. Didn't we actually lose and still stay up.?

[wasps]

I completely accept that it hasn't worked after 8 years in Coventry, and I can see why people blame the move on why we're out of business.


However, I haven't seen anyone come up with a viable solution for our problems in 2013/2014 that would have secured our long term future.


It's all well and good saying that we could have stayed at high Wycombe, but my understanding is that we were broke, Steve Hayes didn't want us any more and no other obvious options were open/available

[WonkyWasp]

Agreed, Wasps.  I heard that we had 69p. in the bank, and were rescued with literally 10 minutes to spare.  Rigby managed to assemble a Consortium.

[Bloke in North Dorset]

Dai was paying for stuff out of his own pocket so that games could go ahead, IIRC.

[Wombles]

I have said it before, but creating a 10 team league and stopping promotion and relegation will kill off the professional game.

No-one wants to see the same ?elite? clubs battle it out season after season whilst every other club with ambition is held back.

It seems more clear the RFU need a clean out with a stronger leadership group brought in that controls the whole game in England whilst doing so equitably. This current RFU are poor with money, unbalanced in support and limited in ability (they cannot get a thriving championship going, and given we are one of the strongest rugby playing nations is simply criminal).

The PRL needs to be dissolved and the RFU assume control as their nepotism and navel gazing, whilst inability to manage clubs nefarious actions decisively has bought about these problems.

[NellyWellyWaspy]

I have said it before, but creating a 10 team league and stopping promotion and relegation will kill off the professional game.

Maybe it needs to die? The professional game I mean.

[AndyL]

I have said it before, but creating a 10 team league and stopping promotion and relegation will kill off the professional game.

No-one wants to see the same ?elite? clubs battle it out season after season whilst every other club with ambition is held back.

It seems more clear the RFU need a clean out with a stronger leadership group brought in that controls the whole game in England whilst doing so equitably. This current RFU are poor with money, unbalanced in support and limited in ability (they cannot get a thriving championship going, and given we are one of the strongest rugby playing nations is simply criminal).

The PRL needs to be dissolved and the RFU assume control as their nepotism and navel gazing, whilst inability to manage clubs nefarious actions decisively has bought about these problems.

But doesnt this all stem back to the game turning professional. I was really young so can't remember it happening but I've heard that the RFU fought tooth and nail against the IRB and SANZAR and the FFR to not go professional. So once the decision was made they were on the back foot. And because of that they were out muscled by the owners of the premiership.

Not saying that knowing any of this can change the past but it just seems like history repeating itself.

[Neils]

I completely accept that it hasn't worked after 8 years in Coventry, and I can see why people blame the move on why we're out of business.


However, I haven't seen anyone come up with a viable solution for our problems in 2013/2014 that would have secured our long term future.


It's all well and good saying that we could have stayed at high Wycombe, but my understanding is that we were broke, Steve Hayes didn't want us any more and no other obvious options were open/available

This.

I like many others went to meetings to explain the move and unless we were told barefaced lies we had no option.

[Vespula Vulgaris]

That's exactly what we need right now. Another person who doesn't know what actually happened, using their outdated connection to the club to rehash the same old b******t just to hear their own voice.

I'm sure that's really helped everyone, thanks Chris.

[wasps]

As an ex-owner, and someone who owned the club during our most successful period, he has as much right as anyone to express his opinion.




However, he sold the club to Steve Hayes who clearly had no interest in us specifically.
If anything, that could be pointed to as the beginning of the end.
We won the Heineken cup in 2007, he sold in 2008 and after that we were no longer a real force. 6 years later we're broke and up for sale.


This is an interview with Chris Wright in 2012 talking about the precarious position wasps were in at the time.
https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/rugby/chris-wright-i-can-t-save-wasps-but-i-fear-for-them-if-they-go-down-7657209.html


Based on all that, I don't feel he should be pointing too many fingers

[westwaleswasp]

Yeah, he sold us. Of course we all have Ph.Ds in hindsight.
Bottom line is he found us an owner in Hayes who threw toys out of the pram. We would not have been able to continue at AP if the club's new owners did not want us, the issue was Wright sold us and had he not sold us we would not be in the mess. Rumour has it LBND was persuasive in getting Hayes on board, and frankly that is where it went wrong, along with the whole not building our own prem quality ground in the first place.