Wasps went under because the only person with enough money to get us temporarily out of the hole we were in did not have enough money (to pour down a black hole) to acquire a ground and provide a finance stream big enough to sustain the club. Instead, the purchase was heavily leveraged and that gamble did not pay off. The additional income streams did not arrive quickly enough. Had we been a club that had land and had organically grown from scratch, we probably would have gotten there with a more modest investment. In effect, as Exeter have done.
But, we started out where we were at AP. In a deep hole with no prospect of getting out and no prospect of being financially stable. The gamble was highly unlikely to succeed. Was there financial mismanagement that made it worse? Who knows, maybe. Was buying the Ricoh the right decision? I highly doubt it. It was worth then probably less than Mike Ashley reportedly paid for it last year (not a lot). It was certainly not worth a quarter of what we paid. Not to Wasps. Remember, something is not worth what it cost, but only what a buyer will pay. When we went bust, CCFC still couldn't afford to buy it even at that knock down price (despite all that their fans might say, CCFC never made a firm or realistic bid).
So, way back then, when Wasps bought the Ricoh, CCFC did want to buy it, but for far less than Wasps offered. At that time CCFC might have had the money, and it would have been a fair price. A massive loss to the Council, but a ton of money that went in to building it came from EU grants and Tesco. It should never have been built though. CCFC were gifted a stadium when they lost Highfield Road through totally inept financial management of the then owners (that was when I stopped supporting the Sky Blues). The council should never have stepped in to 'help' them.
Wasps should have gone bust a decade ago, and reformed. Where would they be now? A Championship club? What did we win in the interim? Was it worth it to all those who lost a ton of money? I can't help but think the answer to that is not.
You might call it hindsight, but it isn't. It was never going to work.
Always a Wasp
