As Wasps Fans we should be wishing the Best to Clubs Financially? WWalesW?

[WonkyWasp]

Total agreement WWW.  With you all the way.   

[Rossm]

Damn right WWW.

[Neils]

First post on site to stir matters.

Agree with WWW generally.

Just remember of the remaining 10 - one cheated the cap for "at least two years"  and then again "for at least three years" , another cheated for five years by keeping their overspend marginally below the high penalty level (to my mind sneakily deliberate) and at least two others in the first batch of cheating reported. On those two we know it wasn't Wasps because the Wasps owner was only one of two owners who wanted it made public.

Where Wasps to blame for their own demise - partly yes.
Do I want other clubs to go out of existence  - yes many.
Do I want to support any of them - not a chance.

[bournender2]

Slightly o/t but just seen elsewhere that Bath have just announced their playing squad for next season. c60 names, a load of which I don't recognise but obviously includes their new acquisition - Finn Russell.

Assuming therefore they are including all sorts of academy players as opposed to just the "senior academy", but it does make me wonder about Craig's salary bill.

I thought (but correct me) at one stage we were down to 42/3 senior players?

[reutmark33]

WWW I am no Tigers lover but the squad they won the title with had been there for some time and the time period of their transgression they were rubbish so did not win any silverware based on their financial creative accounting, whereas Saracens won several titles domestic and European during the period of their cheating, hence why they were relegated and Tigers were not for far lesser offences.
You also dismiss the Tigers fans as awful in their behaviour, but I say again all clubs including our own Wasps have idiot fans so to write off a whole fan base based on a few experiences you have had either online and/or face to face is surely not representative of the 20,000 plus fans they get every home game?

[reutmark33]

Neils your last post sums up from you and many other posters a massive resentment to other clubs and whilst this may be a cathartic way of handling the loss of our great club as a Wasps supporter I take a different line. Namely, yes the other clubs and the RFU could have helped us more etc etc BUT the club should never have allowed the club to get to the stage where we were a financial basket case. Some hide behind COVID but that hit all sports clubs and I feel we just over leveraged us and were blind to the rainy day scenario and should have been more cautious, particularly given how close we came to folding in Wycombe.

The radio silence since we went bust is frustrating as I am sure we all want answers to how we descended from a proud historic club to not having a pot to p...s in! Maybe disproportionately blaming others for our demise, rather than looking within fills that void?

[reutmark33]

WWW you pulled me up for referring to fans of any club as fair weather- saying it is not a good look, unintentionally or otherwise as it makes it sound like the ludicrous "not real fans" debates you saw on DW a while back from the soccer fans. Fans are fans- whether old or new, or whatever.

Wasps have always struggled to get consistent big home gates and rarely sold out at Loftus Road, Wycombe or Coventry.

Yet a lot of Wasps fans turn out for a Twickenham final or a Euro semi final etc.

As you seem anti Tigers at least they get home gated over 20,000 so we did struggle to convert the occasional fans into regulars.It is not a problem just Wasps had as Saracens are in the same boat and Sale to name just 2.

[Rossm]

Some hide behind COVID but that hit all sports clubs

Yes indeed. However not all clubs had several expensive facilities which because of Covid generated little if any of the expected and no doubt budgeted income whilst expenditure remained high.

[Heathen]

A significant numbr of those who used to attend Wasps HQ matches were fans from the SE catchment, who never made it to Coventry.

[WonkyWasp]

I have been verbally abused at Execeter RFC, Bath RFC, Tigers RFC  and Dragons RFC.  I never felt nervous tho'.  The only time I did feel worried  and very uncomfortable was  the last visit of  Tigers to Coventry when they behaved like a football mob; even the stewards  (male and female) were verbally and racially abused.

[Neils]

Grendel?

[Rifleman Harris]

Grendel?

I was wondering the same. 

[WonkyWasp]

I thought that too - about halfway through page 1.

[westwaleswasp]

Not really going to discuss other club's fans in detail. Any evidence will be anecdotal. Their club's fans have been the worst regarding our demise in my experience, only my experience, but you can't interview all of them and as I have said,  fan behaviour does not come into it. Cheating does.

Fact is, and it is is fact,Tigers cheated systematically in years they were damn close to being relegated. That means they cheated, and any points deduction would have seen them relegated. End of debate for me. It matters not that they failed to win stuff. Anything could have happened from there, England players could have left, etc. All speculation of course, but had they been relegated the season before they would obviously not have been in the final. Their punishment to me is only proportional when compared to Sarries, who have for my money not been properly punished.

On gates, our gates at Coventry averaged very well, all clubs give away free tix, even when ours, which were big at first, were taken into account,  our gates were high compared to the average in the league. Tigers are the highest weekly attendance once distorting big games are removed. At Coventry we weren't actually far behind in average attendance, although the ground was cavernous.
We have a diaspora, alongside Irish, one reason why we were on TV so much. Still won't be calling anyone fair weather myself, it sounds like the sort of comments made by fans of small clubs like Coventry when playing big prem clubs. Thus I avoid the term personally.

[reutmark33]

Sorry you suffered that abuse Wonky W but I say again you cannot dismiss one clubs fans as dross due to a few idiots as all clubs have them.
Clearly WWW hates Leicester and I am no fan of theirs but they regularly get many more supporters than we ever did attending their matches and they have won a lot more silverware than us so they must be doing something right? I still feel our demise was avoidable with better financial controls and us the supporters plus the players and backroom staff are the real losers in our going belly up! Not sure who Grendel is, being new to this forum?