Wasps go into administration
It was announced that Wasps have gone into administration today. While I feel very sorry for the 167 players and staff who’ve lost their jobs, I have little sympathy for an organisation that effectively tried to destroy Wycombe Wanderers and have since done similar to Coventry City.
I have sympathy for genuine rugby union fans but personally it’s not a game I like. However, since money came into the game it’s been taken over by the shiny suited, pointy shoe “executives” who will stop at nothing to achieve their goals. And that includes established football clubs.
So what exactly are Wasps as a club? I’ve heard comments that administration will be “a great shame for the community”. But where is Wasps “community”. Coventry, High Wycombe or Sudbury in Middlesex? A club without its own ground has little tie to an established community.
It appears rugby union has bitten off more than it can chew with both Worcester & Wasps going into administration. Worcester have an impressive ground & seemed well set up. However, the financial pressures in this modern game of sport poker pulled them down. Rugby union cannot compete directly with Premier League football but a scaled-down version should be economically viable.
Rugby probably needs to be at the level of their current Championship (second tier) where clubs attract 2-5,000 fans and grounds still reflect the culture of rugby Union as it’s been for most of its history.
A sad day for many but I can’t forget the way Wycombe Wanderers were almost relegated to second-class tenants by that odious club. Perhaps when they operate within their means and build a ground of their own somewhere they can rightfully say they are a community club again.
Comments
To be honest, when Wasps moved to High Wycombe, I felt like they did reach out to the community really well. There were several community, sporting and school events where their mascot and one or two of their players attended.
The fault of Wasps decline is their owners or CEO and making the wrong calls. While their move from QPR to us wasn't their choice (they were evicted while Fulham needed to ground-share with QPR for their 1st season in the PL) they made they choice to move to Coventry which has cost them their future to a community that already had 3 well-established teams close by.
One thing that has been really clear is the lack of support or help from those players that made Wasps successful. There has been nothing in the press from people like Dallaglio or Dawson or any of those players which could have looked to save them. There has always been potential rescue offers from groups that include life-time fans or past players (like with Derby last season) who try their best to save a club that they love. It just seems as though Wasps lost the love of their supporters which is a sad and lonely place to be
Superb post Mr W
The way certain members of the council and our football club indulged themselves in this so called glamour tribe was truly sickening. They have got what they deserved, the fact they were the prime movers that would see us sell our home, to help fund the pie in the sky, Stade de Shark. Where we would have to pay rent, for a stadium we didn't need.
Absolute nothing but disdain for that club.
Dallaglio was on TV the other day basically saying none of the points suspensions or other rules should be applied to them as they used to win things. Very Derby. Only real difference is Derby found the next wealthy mug, doesn't look like Wasps have. To be expected really if you up and move to wherever you think the grass is greener and don't look after fans who go week in week out.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0cS3hn1i66o
Agree with you wholeheartedly @ChasHarps - "The way certain members of the council and our football club indulged themselves in this so called glamour tribe was truly sickening"
It's a pity that some of those 'certain members of our club' were ever allowed near AP again. Beeks for one of course, not forgetting a certain Mr Parry too.
I get where you are going, some of those supportive may have had good intentions in the clubs interests but it seemed pretty clear it would always all go this way, the only change being it's Coventry who got the brunt.
Stadiums are incredibly expensive and only make you more money if you have a large number of people queuing up to pay more each week. The likes of Spurs seat hundreds for posh dinners every match day, sell probably tens of thousands of pints, and host boxing and the NFL , they attract tourists and families that have decades of history watching their games, was that ever going to happen in Bucks based on a Rugby team that would play on the moon given the right fees.
If they build a stadium on the moon, ant see there being much atmosphere
If they are only playing rugby....
Their debt was £95million
Quite extraordinary really. The bondholders got fecked large, as did the dear tax payers.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/63874443
Got to feel for Coventry being served stadium eviction notice by Mike Ashley’s Frasers GroupI've noticed their fans doing the Derby excuse. 'they are treating us like we cheated'. Cos not ponying up £95million gives you NO advantage over other clubs who do pay their dues.
Alright mate, feelings are getting strong here, but there's no need to change the font!
sorry I got all emotional, got to feel for the city of Coventry again as lost one of their favourite sons. RIP Terry Hall
https://fanbanter.co.uk/coventry-city-fans-plea-for-special-kind-of-tribute-for-terry-hall-who-died-age-63/
Seems the old chaps at Twickers are a bit less receptive to clubs pissing them about than the EFL
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/65634760
None of this latest news comes as any surprise to me.
The new owners were never going to raise anywhere near enough funding to pay off the £95m owed to various creditors. And they had no chance of attracting a playing squad capable of competing with the leading well run and properly funded Championship clubs, such as Jersey, Ealing, Cornish Pirates and Doncaster.
One wonders whether Man City, if found guilty of various FFP breaches, will start next season in the North West Counties League.
Being three levels below the amateur side Wasps FC is the ultimate indignity.
Well done RFU.
Would be great to see other sports will follow suit, however will never happen.
The EFL prefer to see clubs wipe their debts clean, at the expense at local suppliers, while giving a tiny 10 point deduction that is often quickly offset when the newly debt free club can outspend everyone else again.
They should have to take the field with a ring of roses around their necks. So people don't get contaminated by them.
They are the ultimate stain on sport, well they would be if Rugby was a sport.
I remember quite clearly reading their forum when we were in trouble trying to keep things going . There was very little sympathy for us and the discussion was mostly about what they could pick up at bargain basement prices .
Sooooo feck em.
I want Bargepole to say that Wasps should come back to Adams Park. Just to see if the thumbs down can go to triple digits.
Not going to happen. Given that they are likely to be playing in Warwickshire League 3, against opponents such as Old Leamingtonians 3rd XV, the spectators attending will comprise three men and a dog.
They won't need any kind of stadium for at least a decade, and as previously stated, all of Loftus Road, Adams Park and particularly Coventry, were loss-making exercises, which have all contributed to the present situation.
the spectators attending will comprise three men and a dog.
And therein lies the real difference between football and rugby. Football has fans, Rugby has spectators. No loyalty, no sense of belonging, just people who will happily turn up to watch whatever rugby team happens to be nearby (or to have forced their way into a local football club's stadium).
At what level and what location would the Loathsome Parasites had to have arrived at ? Before Lord Bargy returns to support them ?
This Forum needs to know ?
The Wasps club as it was for 156 years, always at the top table of English Rugby is gone forever. All of the players who were made redundant in October have now signed new contracts with other clubs in England, France or even Japan.
The rump that remains may as well join forces with the amateur Wasps FC side, and play at that level in the minor leagues.
I don't feel any particular attraction to any other Premiership club, but will watch games on TV just to see how former Wasps players are getting on. The only team I can get behind now is England, but I don't fancy their chances much in the RWC later this year.
I'm now fully committed to WWFC for the foreseeable future, and have my season ticket ready to go when the new season kicks off. As previously stated, you know where I'll be sitting, and will happily buy any gasroomer a beer, even @ChasHarps .
I think the 20,000 or so who turn up for every Leicester Tigers home game, and have done so for years, would disagree with that.
The last home game in Jan 2022 saw a gate of 14000 between the two teams, just six weeks after Wasps managed around 4500 home fans against the big boys of Gloucester. These two gates were during Covid but both games were played in fully open stadiums.
Looking at the Wasps forum hardly any fans (not supporters) of the club look like they have any interest in watching at Level 10, in fact most of them have said the club is dead. If that was us and we dropped down to Level 10 you would still get 2000 people every other week going to home games against the likes of Burnham, Flackwell Heath, Ascot United etc.
Just until Leicester Tigers go bust and then some other rugby club starts ground sharing with Leicester City. Then they'll just go watch that team.
Shouldn't egg chasing posts be on the "Not Football" section?
My genuine question @bargepole and anyone else, is why does professional rugby appear to be unsustainable?