Club Rugby in South East England

I was thinking about this after the Wasps move, particularly after seeing the figures that BT put up before today's game explaining why they moved.

That Wasps were only getting 15p from every £1 spent at Adams Park on gameday, losing £3 million a year, and now stand to earn an extra £20 Million from owning the Ricoh arena underlines the need for clubs to own their own stadiums. Here in the south east though, we only have 2 clubs who own their own premiership quality stadium (as I understand it, Goldington Road doesn't meet the criteria), with the rest renting etc. Its also noticeable that the club game has no presence at either the premiership or championship level in a huge area in our region - the only teams are to the north or west of London, with the south and east empty.

I was wondering what people on here thought of the sustainability of the current situation. Is the Wasps move a one off, or a sign of things to come? Will clubs move to fill the gaps to the south and east, and most importantly of all, if you need your own stadium to survive long term, are we all destined to end up as Quins or Sarries fans?

mawhis wrote:Will clubs move to fill the gaps to the south and east, and most importantly of all, if you need your own stadium to survive long term, are we all destined to end up as Quins or Sarries fans?

Not a cheap area to buy or build your own stadium...

We were discussing this after the Wasps game today in the aftermath of the club's decision to relocate to Coventry.

My mate reckons that London Irish fans should be concerned. The MadStad's owner, and Reading FC don't really want them there. Given they used to play in Sunbury, and still have training facilities in the area, they are best placed to step into the area south of the river.

The question would be where?

Hound of Harrow wrote:We were discussing this after the Wasps game today in the aftermath of the club's decision to relocate to Coventry.

My mate reckons that London Irish fans should be concerned. The MadStad's owner, and Reading FC don't really want them there. Given they used to play in Sunbury, and still have training facilities in the area, they are best placed to step into the area south of the river.

The question would be where?

There's been talk of Griffin Park in Brentford, not sure how realistic that is though. Irish's lease on the MadStad runs to 2026, so I'm not even sure they're able to move.

I had just assumed Griffin Park would be bulldozed and redeveloped as part of Brentford's new stadium plans.

I don't believe that Griffin Park is an option for us. What I do know is that the new board are actively looking at what viable options there are out there for us. I am also lead to believe that there is a get out clause in our contract at the Madejski, but I don't have details of what that entails.

Interesting Tibit from the Independent:

Hugh Godwin - Independent wrote:There was a chance for Wasps to return near to where they were born and bred, but they decided against it. A Centre of Sports Excellence is being planned for Borehamwood, about 10 miles north of Wasps' old home (now a housing estate) in Sudbury, near Wembley.

The Premiership club were invited in as partners by the landowners, Legal & General, and the local Hertsmere Borough Council, with a 15,000-seater stadium worth £22 million and a hotel on site for added revenue. But Wasps wanted to own and control it. End of deal.

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-union/news-comment/hugh-godwin-wasps-didnt-have-to-send-themselves-to-coventry-9789348.html