DIR Return Create A Forum - Home
---------------------------------------------------------
ComeAllWithin (Harlequins Rugby)
HTML https://comeallwithin.createaforum.com
---------------------------------------------------------
*****************************************************
DIR Return to: ComeAllWithin Board
*****************************************************
#Post#: 98082--------------------------------------------------
Wasps?
DIR By: Harleys Evil Step Mum
Date: October 25, 2022, 3:49 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
Can someone answer me a simple question? Is one of the major
reasons Wasps have gone under is that they don't own/control
their own stadium? (unlike us)
#Post#: 98083--------------------------------------------------
Re: Wasps?
DIR By: Brown Bottle
Date: October 25, 2022, 4:21 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
Not really because it’s not a simple question.
#Post#: 98084--------------------------------------------------
Re: Wasps?
DIR By: Domestos
Date: October 25, 2022, 4:29 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
--- Quote from: Harleys Evil Step Mum link ---
>
> Can someone answer me a simple question? Is one of the major
reasons Wasps have gone under is that they don't own/control
their own stadium? (unlike us)
>
--- End Quote ---
I think the major reason Wasps have gone under is because their
expenditure exceeded their income over an extended period of
time.
#Post#: 98085--------------------------------------------------
Re: Wasps?
DIR By: poorfour
Date: October 25, 2022, 4:52 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
Ironically, a big part of the reason Wasps have gone under is
that they over-extended themselves in order to own their own
stadium, and then by all accounts mishandled how they tried to
get revenue out of that stadium.
To be honest, the move to buy the Ricoh looked pretty smart at
the time they did it, and it could have worked but COVID clearly
put a big enough hole in their finances that they couldn’t
recover.
#Post#: 98086--------------------------------------------------
Re: Wasps?
DIR By: SiB
Date: October 26, 2022, 12:09 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Classic “ Over reaching” by the owners
Now they are asking the bond holders for more money, or they
will loose the lot
And let’s not forget these are the same owners that took 10
million out to cover their own expenditure
#Post#: 98089--------------------------------------------------
Re: Wasps?
DIR By: Camquin
Date: October 26, 2022, 3:11 am
---------------------------------------------------------
A Premiership Rugby Club can hope to generate £7m in ticket
sales, food and beverage, hospitality and use of the stadium for
non-rugby purposes, about £3m from sponsorship and about £5m
from central funding (TV and Gallagher) and £2m from the RFU
(release of internationals and academy)
So your budget is about £20m.
The cost of sales, if you stick to the £6m salary cap, will be
about £18 - but if you have marquee players you can spend £10m
on players. Which requires the rest of the operation to be
either very efficient, or very successful.
Wasps were neither, they never got the numbers paying for
tickets, and despite having CCFC as tenants, they never managed
to generate more income from the stadium - and when they did
manage to rent it out for the Commonwealth Games, they did not
have the money to relay the pitch afterwards.
And as they were running a Netball team as well as men's and
ladies' sides, their costs were high. They were spending more
than they earned throughout the time in Coventry - on the hope
they would be successful on the pitch, and incomes would rise.
On top of all that, they had borrowed £35m to buy the lease on
the stadium, though some of that also consolidated other loans,
and £5m was contingency, used to pay the first two years
interest on the loan. This meant they needed to generate an
extra £1.5m simply to pay interest.
So they were never able to repay the bond. And they were not
given 20/20 foresight - so were unfortunate that by the time
they came to refinance they were hit with Covid and then rising
interest rates. In May, when they should have repaid the loan,
they did not have the cash, and banks wanted over 10% interest.
But, having said that, even if they had refinanced at the old
rate, they would still be losing money.
And then they missed a payment to HMRC and simply ran out of
money in the current account, and the walls came crashing down.
#Post#: 98095--------------------------------------------------
Re: Wasps?
DIR By: Mr_B
Date: October 26, 2022, 3:41 am
---------------------------------------------------------
as stated previously not that simple as such but basically I
would say yes. They moved several times over the last 20 years
or so, from where they had their grass routes in London to
ground share at QPR then Wycombe then to Cov. You cant displace
your fans that many times I think and start over hoping to win
new fans and build enough of a following, it takes many years to
earn decent levels of hard core fans. They had their most
success at Wycombe over the years winning the prem etc but
leaving your core fanbase behind to start again, I dont think
they took enough core fans to Cov with them. Cov already had a
great rugby team plus you are in the midlands heartland
competing with worcs, tiggers and Saints, they upset the Cov
footy fans taking over the stadium so there were some local
politics involved as well, they certainly won new fans but not
enough of them obviously. If covid hadn't happened they may have
been OK and had time to build more fans who knows, but basically
the cost of the stadium, lack of enough fans for revenue and
covid combined did for them. The ambitions of the club were
understandable, the execution looked sound at the time I guess
although risky, but circumstances went against.
#Post#: 98096--------------------------------------------------
Re: Wasps?
DIR By: East Sussex Chris
Date: October 26, 2022, 3:53 am
---------------------------------------------------------
They went under because the company that bought the stadium
borrowed too much money to buy the stadium, the same people
under a different company bought the sporting clubs, probably
hoping to bank role them from the profits of using stadium
complex. Covid happened and this meant they were basically
stuffed as they couldn't pay loans back and could finance sports
clubs hence they got further into debt.
#Post#: 98110--------------------------------------------------
Re: Wasps?
DIR By: deadlyfrom5yardsout
Date: October 26, 2022, 6:54 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Covid was eased by large subsidies no? Chancers the lot of them.
We desperately need a fit and proper person system and a very
large amount to be held in escrow before any more Clubs get
ripped off.
#Post#: 98119--------------------------------------------------
Re: Wasps?
DIR By: DOK
Date: October 26, 2022, 8:22 am
---------------------------------------------------------
COVID was eased by large loans.
*****************************************************
Page 1 of 5
DIR Next Page