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We Need To Talk About Wasps

Just trying to remember who wasn't allowed to be promoted last season and if they were more solvent than Worcester or Wasps
 
The problem is Rugby itself. It's not sustainable, look at how cricket has kicked on, how often Trent bridge is full for the 20/20, how quickly 5 days for each test match gets sold out. Then look at rugby. Barely able to sustain 1 professional league. It's even worse in Wales and Scotland.
 
send spies to top 14 to figure out what they are doing
drop the premiership rugby cup and have a proper youth tournament. Don't let teams hog reserve players.
 
send spies to top 14 to figure out what they are doing
drop the premiership rugby cup and have a proper youth tournament. Don't let teams hog reserve players.

Agree on the Former the later honestly I don't know how many clubs back up players would be starting elsewhere in the league
Maybe Falcons but they don't want to spend up to the cap so doubt they would want many.
 
The problem is Rugby itself. It's not sustainable, look at how cricket has kicked on, how often Trent bridge is full for the 20/20, how quickly 5 days for each test match gets sold out. Then look at rugby. Barely able to sustain 1 professional league. It's even worse in Wales and Scotland.
That's because it's run by old farts and way too many different parties who only care about their little bit of the game and this will kill rugby.

You need a global strategy with things like a decent marketing campaign and a proper rugby video game.
 
send spies to top 14 to figure out what they are doing
drop the premiership rugby cup and have a proper youth tournament. Don't let teams hog reserve players.
I don't think it's a secret why the Top 14 is so successful, it's just not replicable.
 
a proper video game would be great (hell, even a reskin of RWC 2011 with a bunch of teams would get a crapload of money from me) but the comp needs to do a better job of scheduling.
You have six games a week. You need to schedule the games to maximize eye balls and attendance. They currently have 4 games a week scheduled for the same time slot which is bizarre. France does the same thing but they have 7 games a week.
Don't schedule the games during community games. Have a set primetime night. Don't have 66% of your games competing for eyeballs.

Edit: should add that I'd like to see Wasps saved by the clause in the RFU by-laws saying teams don't get relegated if it's not deemed the club's fault they went insolvent. Made an investment and pandemic screwed with revenues; I'll give them benefit of doubt. Warriors on the other hand look like incompetence from the directors.
 
The problem is Rugby itself. It's not sustainable, look at how cricket has kicked on, how often Trent bridge is full for the 20/20, how quickly 5 days for each test match gets sold out. Then look at rugby. Barely able to sustain 1 professional league. It's even worse in Wales and Scotland.
The international side is doing pretty well though. What's the comparison to county cricket?
 
a proper video game would be great (hell, even a reskin of RWC 2011 with a bunch of teams would get a crapload of money from me) but the comp needs to do a better job of scheduling.
You have six games a week. You need to schedule the games to maximize eye balls and attendance. They currently have 4 games a week scheduled for the same time slot which is bizarre. France does the same thing but they have 7 games a week.
Don't schedule the games during community games. Have a set primetime night. Don't have 66% of your games competing for eyeballs.

Edit: should add that I'd like to see Wasps saved by the clause in the RFU by-laws saying teams don't get relegated if it's not deemed the club's fault they went insolvent. Made an investment and pandemic screwed with revenues; I'll give them benefit of doubt. Warriors on the other hand look like incompetence from the directors.
So to say that I am heartbroken at the moment is an understatement, I truely believe that the "business" of Wasps (Concerts, Stadium, Casino, Venue etc) can keep all 3 clubs going and the lack of revenue for 2 years and the £35bn has truely knackered us.

However, with my sensible hat on, I still think Dallaglio saying what he said as a director, could still have a positive outcome. The question is. are we putting ourselves into "administration" to then push through a reduced sale price and use the "Covid" clause as a get out stating the additional revenue we are looking to make in the next year or two.

I also wonder whether the "transfer" of the training facilities was tactical rather than siphoning off? protect it from the administrators? Can only hope so but its tough
 
The international side is doing pretty well though. What's the comparison to county cricket?
County cricket is a mixed bag,
T20 makes oodles of cash with the TV rights and usually pretty good crowds.
The test counties make good money from the gate revenues of those matches.
The county championship make very little cash and is difficult to put on but produces players for test cricket which is where the money comes from.
List A cricket (50 overs) is sort of in the middle and really depends if you have a good side. But now is no longer a top class tournament as its played a the same time as The Hundred

Test cricket produces huge amount of revenue in TV rights which is distributed throughout the counties.

Some teams are obviously not doing great getting Test cricket proves important but Somerset prove you can be highly successful financial if you build a strong fanbase.


The Hundred is the elephant in the room the TV right supposedly injected huge amount of money into the counties. However the impact it has on the schedule, players and the fact traditional fans just ******* hate it as does away with history of sides it remains to be seen if that additional money will be at the expense of counties.


Cricket also doesn't compete with many other sports when it is on.

Its fine but there are issues the RFU in comparison how much money from international rugby goes back into the PRL sides?
 
Random question: now every Cov city fans dreams have come true, what happens to them now Wasps go into administration?
 
Random question: now every Cov city fans dreams have come true, what happens to them now Wasps go into administration?
Suppose technically we aren't in administration. We have appointed a Notice of Intention to Appoint an Administrator (NOI). The Restructuring Partner, FRP and the Board are in this morning.
 
You have six games a week. You need to schedule the games to maximize eye balls and attendance. They currently have 4 games a week scheduled for the same time slot which is bizarre. France does the same thing but they have 7 games a week.
Don't schedule the games during community games. Have a set primetime night. Don't have 66% of your games competing for eyeballs.
As soon as CVC got involved, I expected changes. Increasing TV revenues seems like the obvious way for them to make a return on their revenues. Early and late kick-offs on a Saturday (and maybe a Sunday) seem like a no-brainer, as is making sure there's a Friday night game every week. Saturday evening games would also be something to explore.

A lot of people online profess to know exactly what should be done with scheduling, I'd love to know where they get the information from to be so confident. My suspicion is that the most profitable way forward would be to prioritise TV revenue over crowd revenue. I'm sceptical as to the significance of the impact that scheduling changes would have on crowd sizes, partly because I think that people overestimate the increase that it would result in and partly because they seem to ignore any possible negative impact that these changes would have.

No doubt knocking Saturday afternoon games on the head would attract players, officials and supporters from other clubs, but how many people who would have been there on a Saturday afternoon won't be there at whatever the alternative time because of other commitments, travel being more difficult or their preference for Saturday afternoon rugby? Even if it netted a 10% increase in crowd size, my guess is that this would be outweighed the extra revenue that could be generated by working with TV companies to provide a schedule that suits them every weekend and charging them accordingly.

The other area where I've been surprised by CVC's malaise is in the marketing of the game. When Bristol became the Bears and Gloucester got a new logo, I thought it was going to be the start of a slick PR machine transforming each club and the league itself into much more marketable brands, but nothing much has happened since then. There are so many things that could be done to increase engagement, many of them for a minimal cost.
 

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