The English Rugby Stadium/Attendance thread

[TRF_Olyy]

Someone should call some health professionals or something - someone is willing to pay thirty million pounds to move to ​COVENTRY

 

[goodNumber10]

that makes me sad!

Wasps is a West London Club, it should stay in the Boundaries.

 

[psychic duck]

Wasps need to be careful here they don't get seen a plastic team.

 

[j'nuh]

Risky move. Could work. Expenses will be a hell of a lot cheaper, potentially a good market to tap into, the Wasps brand will help in setting up a Coventry fanbase. Best case scenario is that they get 8000ish after a few years and become a consistently bottom 4 Premiership club. The long, long term picture may be better. Short-term, they will alienate their entire old fan base. The vast majority won't make the trek regularly.

 

[Tony Manx]

For one minute forget the fans.......how are the players going to react to moving from the capital? Sure they get used to moving in their careers individually but all what 40 of them plus staff? Big cost and disruption for families!

I have little doubt that handled properly they can link into the South Birmingham fan base that has been denied top rugby since the golden days of Coventry, Moseley, and the others!

 

[j'nuh]

Maybe it's just me, but being paid the same to live in a city with a much lower cost of living would be okay in my books.

 

[ratsapprentice]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/ru...ke-over-Ricoh-Arena-and-move-to-Coventry.html

Looks like this is definitely happening boys and girls.

Time to metaphorically wash my hands of this club.
**** you and goodnight, Wasps.

 

[Tony Manx]

Maybe it's just me, but being paid the same to live in a city with a much lower cost of living would be okay in my books.

Do not let just money cloud your judgement......most of the wives and families of the players do have an enormous input into where they live whether being close to family, education, cultural or entertainment!

For example, I know that the Bayonne ladies are a very tight knit bunch (they were out until very late on their own after their menfolk whipped Toulouse last week) and, as Ian Balshaw has shown, many families stay in France after retirement because their wives (and themselves) find they so enjoy the lifestyle even after the money stops............I am not using/starting another France v England argument here, merely trying to use this as one example of there being more than money to agreeing moves!

Personnally, give me the choice of living in the Capital (of any City) or the peaceful countryside around the Midlands, I know which I would choose................when I worked in and around London, I lived in the IOM and commuted as many people do!! But then I was not brought up in a city or like spending time in them but many people feel lost outside of them!!!

 

[ratsapprentice]

You commuted from the IOM?!
Every day?

 

[Patchey]

Oh god. This is really happening isn't it?

Wuss have just opened a load if regional academies, one based in Cov I think. They're going to be rather hacked off...

You commuted from the IOM?!
Every day?

If Tony's commute wasn't by private jet I'll be disappointed.

 

[ratsapprentice]

I'm putting my money on helicopter.

 

[goodNumber10]

For one minute forget the fans.......how are the players going to react to moving from the capital? Sure they get used to moving in their careers individually but all what 40 of them plus staff? Big cost and disruption for families!

Training base staying in London though, they will travel to Coventry for games.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/ru...ke-over-Ricoh-Arena-and-move-to-Coventry.html

Looks like this is definitely happening boys and girls.

Time to metaphorically wash my hands of this club.
**** you and goodnight, Wasps.

Agreed.

i'm really sad about this as i have really close ties to the club, so i'm hugely dissappointed they will be heading out of the immediate vicinity of London.

 

[ratsapprentice]

Some suggestion that Wasps were taken over in order to facilitate the procurement of the Ricoh at a knock-off price.
Don't know enough to judge whether it's just cynicism or not.

 

[Tony Manx]

You commuted from the IOM?!
Every day?

Haha.........nah!! A lot of people went out Monday morning and back Friday evening! I worked in IOM and travelled down Tuesday am and back Friday night!! BA and then Manx Airlines,,,,, although there is an argument it would have been cheaper by private plane!!!!

 

[Tony Manx]

Training base staying in London though, they will travel to Coventry for games.


i'm really sad about this as i have really close ties to the club, so i'm hugely dissappointed they will be heading out of the immediate vicinity of London.

for the move to be a financial success that can only be a short time solution as to attract a fan base, work in the community must be high on the agenda!!!

 

[TRF_Olyy]

for the move to be a financial success that can only be a short time solution as to attract a fan base, work in the community must be high on the agenda!!!

That's just what I was going to say.
Keeping their training base back in London sends the wrong message - if they're going to upsticks to Cov then it should be all or nothing. People aren't going to feel like it's their local side when it's just a bunch of southerners driving up every other week for a game.
Especially as everyone there who's interested in rugby will already be Tigers/Saints/Wuss fans.

 

[Peat]

Maybe it's just me, but being paid the same to live in a city with a much lower cost of living would be okay in my books.

I'm basically just going to repeat what Tony said in different words, and we know they're not moving there anyway, but I wanted to make this post when I went to bed this morning, so I'm going to be utterly redundant and do it anyway.

It's different strokes for different folks. Personally, you'd have to pay me a lot of money to move from London to Coventry. Remember George Skivington returning from Leicester post-haste to a London club? However, even just taking about personal taste ignores a lot of big issues - what about guys studying at London universities? What about guys who have girlfriends studying at London universities? Or guys who have girlfriends or wives working in London, doing the sort of job that simply doesn't exist in Coventry? Or those who have side businesses or stakes in family businesses that are firmly rooted in the Home Counties? Sick parents still living in Surrey? None of those things are insurmountable, but they're all part of the everyday fabric of life that means if they'd actually been about to move everyone up en masse, there'd probably have been trouble. Hell, what about their academy? If the entire club had been based in Coventry, they'd basically have had to lose 90pc of their academy. I'm not sure Quins/Sarries/Irish would have the space to take on everyone even if they wanted to, but there's a Coventry club could have kept a London academy.

Joe Launchbury has an expiring contract. What if he hadn't wanted to leave London? Hell, what if he doesn't want to have to commute to Coventry every other match day? Wasps have already said that Saracens are sniffing around, which is the least surprising thing in the entire world. He wouldn't be the only Wasps player lined up if they had moved entirely.

But anyway, apparently they're not, so this is a completely pointless post, so lets make this relevant with some really brave preaching to the choir -

This is mental.

Coventry's only about an hour away from Northampton. It's close enough to Wuss too. It's also filled with Coventry City fans who will be enraged at their club's rightful place being usurped by a bunch of blow ins. They're not going to get any fans. They will rattle around in that ground. Anyone ever seen Embra play in Murrayfield? Even on TV, it's a surreal and horrible thing. That's what Wasps are going for. Even the most dedicated Wasps fans will struggle to get up to Coventry regularly, I'd have thought.

It smells like suicide, which is why I'm willing to believe Wasps were taken over just to get the Ricoh at a knock down price - not sure the numbers make any sense at all otherwise.

As previously noted, and with all due sympathy for the problems of finding stadium space in London, I hope they go to the wall. I also really hope that Quins somehow manage to sign Launchbury, although gods only knows why he'd go or where they'd find the money for squad space for another front line England international.

 

[Tony Manx]

Peat.....why do you say it is not going to happen?

All I got from the BBC site is that the council are due to vote on Tuesday. Have they and I missed something?

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Peat.....why do you say it is not going to happen?

All I got from the BBC site is that the council are due to vote on Tuesday. Have they and I missed something?

I think he meant the players won't move there, rather than the club won't.

 

[Peat]

Yeah, what Olyy said.

In all seriousness - at what point does Joe Launchbury figure in having to travel to Coventry to play in front of nobody in a big stadium every other Saturday when deciding whether to stay or leave? Not a discomfort point, although that doesn't help, but simply that Wasps are basically giving away everything home advantage actually means, and that if he wants to play for a top 4 club, it reduces the chance of Wasps being one.