It's hard to unpick the intricacies of this deal but the key, like with the Brentford stadium project, is to forget about the sporting side of things and look at it as a property deal. There is lots of land with potential for development around the stadium and the gains from that dwarf potential profits from even a successful rugby club. It looks like Wasps was the trojan horse to get control of the company that owns the stadium. I presume that Coventry City's financial situation ruled out any consortium lead by them but the interesting thing that although Wasps notionally own the stadium, the football club have first dibs on it. This may just be a recognition that rugby attendances will be minimal until the club establishes roots or it could be that Wasps were always seen as secondary to the deal. The Land Rover deal and the BT Sport money make the club pretty flush with cash at the moment which explains the high quality recruitment over the Summer. However if the club starts to struggle on the pitch and are playing to crowds of 2,000 rattling around a huge stadium they may find they have served their purpose and get little further financial support from the owners. The loss of the Academy should not be underestimated as it provided a steady stream of players and there were apparently some great ones to come through. The older players have a high salary to pay for moving costs and will get a free Land Rover but the younger ones won't be able to and Quins and Sarries will soon sweep up the best of them. There are far fewer potential recruits in the Midlands and there are already three clubs there competing for talent. Hopefully, like AFC Wimbledon, the amateur side will be spurred on by this desertion. They have a home game against Welwyn this Saturday and I'm tempted to pop along just to see what sort of turn out they get. I suspect a lot of Wasps fans will turn up just to make a point.

Entire Thread

Topic	Date Posted	Posted By
Petition to Keep Wasps in London	06/10/14 14:29:00	Alan Fairclough
Re:Petition to Keep Wasps in London	06/10/14 15:00:00	Richard Greenhough
Re:Petition to Keep Wasps in London	06/10/14 15:03:00	Michael Robinson
Re:Re:Petition to Keep Wasps in London	06/10/14 18:18:00	Andrew OSullivan
Re:Re:Re:Petition to Keep Wasps in London	07/10/14 08:59:00	Andrew OSullivan
Re:Re:Re:Re:Petition to Keep Wasps in London	07/10/14 09:59:00	Michael Robinson
Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Petition to Keep Wasps in London	07/10/14 10:08:00	Andrew Cumming
Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Petition to Keep Wasps in London	07/10/14 14:02:00	Paul Corcoran
Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Petition to Keep Wasps in London	07/10/14 20:29:00	Chris White
Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Petition to Keep Wasps in London	08/10/14 09:26:00	Paul Corcoran
Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Petition to Keep Wasps in London	08/10/14 11:30:00	Richard Greenhough
The deed is done	08/10/14 11:31:00	Andrew OSullivan
Re:The deed is done	08/10/14 11:45:00	Francis Rowe
Re:Re:The deed is done	08/10/14 20:46:00	Paul Corcoran
Re:Re:Re:The deed is done	08/10/14 21:47:00	Michael Robinson

Forum Home