ICSM Business Membership Group: fighting late and non-payment – anger as Rugby Union Club Wasps announce plans to move to Kent and build a stadium despite going bust

By Harry Mottram: You would think that if your rugby club had gone bust owing £100million pounds and were in administration you wouldn’t have the brass neck to announce plans to building a new stadium hundreds of miles away and then apply to rejoin the topflight. This is exactly what the owners of Wasps have done. Having gone bust in 2022 and being kicked out of the Gallagher Premiership and leaving the Ricoh Stadium in Coventry – a ground they had moved to from High Wycombe – they are now talking about building a new stadium in Kent.

In an announcement to the media the defunct club’s owner Christopher Holland, said: “It’s very rewarding that we have managed to achieve this milestone with the support of key stakeholders. It brings our aspiration of a new home in the region closer and hopefully demonstrates our determination to recover Wasps sustainably.”

His words have gone down like a lead balloon with Wasps’ supporters who have been venting their anger online – and remember these long suffering fans have seen their London based club moved several times in recent years and so are understandably upset. Also upset are the creditors who are owed around £100 million. They include the taxman (£7m), Coventry City Council (£270,000), Warwickshire County Council (£600), Stratford District Council (£2,868), West Midlands Police (£20,570), West Midlands Ambulance Service (£1,755), former owner Derek Richardson (£16.4m), Wasps bondholders (£27.8m), Moseley Signs (£92,000), Tom White Waste (£11,336), Compass catering and events (£7.6m), and Delaware North catering and events were owed £4.5m.

Apart from those creditors there were the 160 or more staff and players who were made redundant without pay at the beginning of the 2022-23 rugby season. The cleaners, office staff, maintenance people and physios along with the players had to find new jobs or clubs – when most clubs had already signed up their teams for the season and spent their budget. They received the statutory redundancy pay-outs available for all workers left in the lurch – with some players dropping out of the sport while others relocating to other teams.

The club also featured the topflight Wasps Netball Team who became casualties of the collapse and were disbanded in 2022 despite having won the Netball Super league twice. Since then Wasps have been in a state of purgatory – unable to play rugby having been turned down for the second tier of the rugby pyramid – and unable to clear their debts as they linger in administration. Technically the club is not dead and if they can find new money then their plans to relocate to Kent could happen in about four years when much of the debts are wiped out.

The very idea has caused a storm of anger online with all commentators saying the same thing: the club should restart as an amateur team at the bottom of the rugby pyramid and play their way back up the leagues – and return to their original area of Sudbury near London.

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