Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
NZ NZ

How Wasps lost the battle for Coventry's hearts and minds

By Ian Cameron
James Gaskell of Wasps looks dejected following their sides defeat in the Gallagher Premiership Rugby match between Leicester Tigers and Wasps at Mattioli Woods Welford Road Stadium on June 04, 2022 in Leicester, England. (Photo by Alex Davidson/Getty Images)

A recent statement issued by Wasps’ Chief Executive Stephen Vaughan addressed the latest instalment of the Gallagher Premiership club’s turbulent relationship with its ground-share tenant Coventry City.

ADVERTISEMENT

However, his silence about the Black-and-Golds’ precarious financial position has been deafening – and with the top-flight season only a month away rumours regarding Wasps’ possible inability to plot a survival path are gathering momentum.

RugbyPass columnist Paul Smith is a born-and-bred Coventrian who spent three seasons covering the club for the Coventry Telegraph before hopping over the fence for a spell as Wasps’ Media Manager. He is therefore ideally placed to provide local insight into what happens next for the Coventry Building Society Arena club.

Video Spacer

Video Spacer

“I am really struggling to see a long-term future for Wasps unless a new owner with very deep pockets is found,” he says.

“The scale of the debt, their mounting losses and the ebbing away of local interest in the whole Wasps project all add up to a very problematic situation.

“Even if the club manages to get over the immediate hurdle and refinance £35 million of bond debt it is still losing the best part of £10 million most years.

“Professional rugby is almost 30 years old and no-one has yet found a way to make money from it, so there isn’t a blueprint they can follow and it has a feel of throwing good money after bad.

ADVERTISEMENT

“Owner Derek Richardson deserves huge credit for putting £20 million of his own money into a club which ten years ago meant nothing to him. Wasps were minutes from extinction when Derek bailed them out and since then he has certainly thrown everything at this famous old club but it does feel like he has almost run out of options.

“The CVC cash injection, revaluation of their Premiership shares and several upgrades of their stadium valuation have all helped keep Wasps afloat but it now seems they need a very rich Sugar Daddy – and soon – to survive much longer.”

Related

To those looking from the outside, Wasps’ 2014 relocation from a dilapidated training base in Acton and ground-share arrangement with Wycombe Wanderers to purchase a modern stadium accompanied by a hotel, casino and other commercial outlets seemed a guaranteed road to future riches.

However, Smith says that the well-polished veneer presented to the rugby public hid some deep-rooted issues which have never disappeared and as a result while turnover has accelerated so have the losses.

ADVERTISEMENT

“Football club Wimbledon’s reinvention as MK Dons and the club’s relocation to Milton Keynes left some very deep scars and the same issues have undoubtedly bedevilled Wasps,” he says.

“In America no-one bats an eyelid when the Oakland Raiders become the LA Raiders but sport in England is much more tribal than across the pond. Not only were plenty of the club’s Wycombe and London-based fans offended by the move to Coventry, but the wider sporting public also struggled to get on board with it. The label ‘franchise’ is inaccurate in Wasps’ case but it is also a very emotive and it has never gone away.

Wasps
Jimmy Gopperth shakes hadns with a fan at Welford Road /PA

“A blaze of publicity, big marketing budget and loads of giveaway tickets to watch some of our sport’s biggest names including George Smith, Charles Piutau and Danny Cipriani masked this for a while and there were some great days at the Ricoh when 30,000 were roaring the team to the Premiership and Europe’s knock-out stages.

“But once the marketing hype subsided, the budget left room for fewer superstar names, Covid hit and fans had to pay for their tickets crowds dwindled fast and even given this passage of time locally the ‘franchise’ label has never gone away.

“MK Dons moved to a purpose-built stadium, but Wasps moved to a ground which historically was solely used by another club. This doubled their headache since as well as being viewed as a franchise that deserted its fan base, the majority of people in Coventry also believe Wasps ousted the city’s football club from its rightful home.

“The club’s hierarchy and its loyal supporters like to say it is only a vocal minority who oppose their presence, but eight years on that really isn’t the case. I remember speaking to a 75-year-old neighbour of my late mother who knows nothing about sport and when I said I watched a lot of rugby at Wasps she asked: ‘Is that the club that stole our stadium?’

Related

“Facts state that that the Sky Blues chose to relocate to Northampton (then Birmingham) and had long since sold their stadium share to a company jointly owned by the city council and a charity. This left Wasps buying a vacant stadium from an organisation only too glad to rid itself (and the taxpayers) of a loss-making white elephant.

“But sport fans don’t deal in facts and logic, it’s about emotion, and if you ask the average uncommitted Coventrian about the Ricoh Arena (as it will probably always be known) you will hear it described as Coventry City’s home ground.

“The football club has a big latent following as demonstrated by the rapid growth in spectator numbers since it returned to the Championship. Because Coventry City climbed from the old Fourth Division to the top flight under Jimmy Hill, then stayed there for 30-plus years while also winning the FA Cup in 1987, many multi-generation families have grown up with ‘the City’ as their team.

“Throw into the mix that Coventry Rugby Club has an outstanding heritage and a loyal supporter base and it is easy to see how the ‘London Magpies’ struggle to win over casual sports fans in their new city. Plenty were happy to pay a few quid to flirt with Christian Wade running in a hat-trick against Bath on Christmas Eve, but few went on to give their sporting hearts to a club whose very presence in the city challenged established football and rugby clubs.

“I remember being amazed on my first few days working at Wasps when I saw the size of the back-office which must have numbered close to 100 people. I called a friend who worked at Newcastle Falcons to find they had around 15!

“Wasps clearly threw massive amounts of cash at sales, marketing and development including lots of community initiatives and ticket giveaways. With hindsight they clearly realised that they had to make a massive initial impact – and perhaps with this in mind the squad Dai Young assembled was built to play expansive, entertaining rugby which drew fans in.

“However, it was also a big commercial gamble, built on massive levels of debt and eight years on unless a benevolent investor emerges soon it is hard to see how that gamble does anything other than fail.”

ADVERTISEMENT

Join free

Aotearoa Rugby Podcast | Episode 6

Sam Warburton | The Big Jim Show | Full Episode

Japan Rugby League One | Sungoliath v Eagles | Full Match Replay

Japan Rugby League One | Spears v Wild Knights | Full Match Replay

Boks Office | Episode 10 | Six Nations Final Round Review

Aotearoa Rugby Podcast | How can New Zealand rugby beat this Ireland team

Beyond 80 | Episode 5

Rugby Europe Men's Championship Final | Georgia v Portugal | Full Match Replay

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

J
Jon 4 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

35 Go to comments
j
john 7 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

30 Go to comments
A
Adrian 9 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

30 Go to comments
T
Trevor 11 hours ago
Will forgotten Wallabies fit the Joe Schmidt model?

Thanks Brett.. At last a positive article on the potential of Wallaby candidates, great to read. Schmidt’s record as an international rugby coach speaks for itself, I’m somewhat confident he will turn the Wallaby’s fortunes around …. on the field. It will be up to others to steady the ship off the paddock. But is there a flaw in my optimism? We have known all along that Australia has the players to be very competitive with their international rivals. We know that because everyone keeps telling us. So why the poor results? A question that requires a definitive answer before the turn around can occur. Joe Schmidt signed on for 2 years, time to encompass the Lions tour of 2025. By all accounts he puts family first and that’s fair enough, but I would wager that his 2 year contract will be extended if the next 18 months or so shows the statement “Australia has the players” proves to be correct. The new coach does not have a lot of time to meld together an outfit that will be competitive in the Rugby Championship - it will be interesting to see what happens. It will be interesting to see what happens with Giteau law, the new Wallaby coach has already verbalised that he would to prefer to select from those who play their rugby in Australia. His first test in charge is in July just over 3 months away .. not a long time. I for one wish him well .. heaven knows Australia needs some positive vibes.

21 Go to comments
FEATURE
FEATURE Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby? Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?
Search