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London Wasps' Coventry move will 'break partnerships'

Former player and director of London Wasps Rugby Club, Rob Smith, has said that the club’s planned move to Coventry will break “partnerships” with local supporters.

Smith said he would not go to the Ricoh Arena in Coventry, which the club are to buy into as he believes Wasps have links with schools near their High Wycombe home.

Coventry councillors are supporting a deal to sell the council’s 50% share in ACL - the company that runs the Ricoh Arena - to the Premiership club.

The former player said the Ricoh Arena was “too far away” for him to travel to.

However, he said Wasps’ relationship with Coventry Rugby Club, who play at the Butts Park Arena, could be “a very positive one in the end”.

The Rugby Football Union (RFU) said the Professional Game Board (PGB) have also agreed to the Ricoh Arena deal.

Wasps chief executive Nick Eastwood has said the club would continue to communicate with season ticket holders to explain what they would offer them to thank them for their loyalty.

Eastwood said: “The reality of our situation is clear - less than two years ago Wasps was just hours away from going out of business.”

Wasps’ relocation to the West Midlands would be purely for matches and will not come into conflict with the academy systems run by the neighbouring professional clubs to the Coventry area, the club has said.

Mr Smith said: “You’ve got (Leicester) Tigers, you’ve got Northampton Saints, you’ve got Worcester… and Coventry Rugby Club itself.

“They’ve been into the (local) clubs, into the schools trying to drum up their support for their clubs for some 20 years or more - or a lot longer in the case of Coventry itself.

“We’ve been doing the same in our area in Buckinghamshire, in Middlesex and Oxfordshire and all those links and all those partnerships that have been built up over a long, long time with clubs are going to be broken.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ellen Forster .