Wasps move step closer to pro rugby return

Wasps’ hopes of hosting professional rugby back in the south east of England have taken a positive turn with the news that land has been secured to build a new stadium in Kent.

Club owner Christopher Holland said the club had secured a 10-year option on land as part of a wider development scheme in Swanley, Kent.

“It is rewarding that we have managed to achieve this milestone with the support of key stakeholders,” he said.

“It brings our aspiration of a new home in the region closer and hopefully demonstrates our determination to recover Wasps sustainably.”

Wasps led a nomadic existence in the professional era after leaving their spiritual at Repton Avenue in Sudbury to play at QPR’s Loftus Road ground.

They stayed there for six years before moving to Adams Park in Wycombe, winning seven trophies in a glorious six-season spell from 2002 to 2008.

Controversially, they upped sticks again and relocated to Coventry, despite the city already having a well-established club to call its own, and one which hopes to entertain top-flight rugby at some point in the near future.

The Ricoh Arena move in 2014 was fraught with difficulties, not least the inability to sufficiently widen its fan base, and played a considerable role in the club going to the wall in October 2022 with debts of £95 million.

While Kent is an untapped rugby market, that does not automatically equate to drawing in new fans. London Welsh’s move out of London to play Premiership rugby in Oxford, for example, was hardly a success with average gates struggling to get much above 5,000 in their first season up.

Crucial to Wasps’ success is securing a place in a revamped Championship, for the 2025/26 season. Wasps have put forward an expression of interest and hope to be one of the 12 clubs involved in a new dawn for Tier 2 rugby in England.