The brief answer is that the professional Wasps team organisation (inc ground et al) folded-up, and the new parties involved haven’t been able to reconstruct a new professional set-up (with all necessary resources) in line with the deadline set by the RFU.
Blaming the RFU for the perils and problems of clubs is aiming at a very soft target IMHO. Yes, the RFU share some money but Premier League Rugby is better placed to impose governance on clubs (as the EPL in footie do). Worcester failed due to some suspicious management/owner activity (a polite term) and Wasps due to some crazy financial & strategic decisions, which left the whole operation financially exposed.
Sad to hear that Alun Wyn Jones and Justin Tipuric have announced their immediate retirements. Thank you lads for your magnificent contribution to Welsh rugby.
This is what became of Wasps’ spiritual home at Repton Avenue, Wasps ground from 1923 until the move to Loftus Road in 1996. I think the building at the top right of the picture was actually the old club house. The new roads bear witness to a rugby heritage, particularly noting (Neville) Compton Avenue. I reckon the houses at the outer edges of Hastings Close and Compton Ave. are about at the goal lines and the houses at the north end of the picture in the centre are where the small permanent stand was situated. It’s all so sad.
It was actually while they were homed at Loftus Road that they had their greatest successes under the captaincy of Lawrence Dallaglio and the coaching partnership of Warren Gatland and Shaun Edwards. What joy that team brought! I loved watching Trevor Leota with his wasp striped hair and the unifying force of Va’aiga Tuigamala (Inga the winger). And what about Simon Shaw, Andy Reid, Joe Worsley, Rob Henderson, Kenny Logan, Andy Gomarsall, Alex King, Darren Molloy, and those astonishing cross-pitch passes of Gareth Rees? Such great memories of an amazing team. And now it’s all just memories with no hope of any future greatness, or any future at all.
I enjoyed their Loftus Road stint. Partly because I could walk it, partly because I could sit down with a roof over my head yet be right next to the play! It was cosy.
Ah, yes, from a time when Wasps flourished when under the ownership of Chris Wright (of Chrysalis fame). There’s a piece in The Times now, I think under his name.
But, let’s not overlook, even then the club needed external support to function. As a financial construct it was always challenged.
IMV this is a legacy of the poorly managed transition from an amateur to professional game where the governance of the game has failed. Sadly, it applies to cricket too. Both games need a rethink about both their funding, governance and management.
The RFU and PR “governing” bodies should be put up against a wall and shot for the damage they are causing to the game. Someone suggested they want a league of 10 another a league of 4 (like Ireland), but there is a wanton lack of foresightedness and disregard for the grassroots of the English club game and they are just killing the golden goose. A similar destruction in Wales. The SH and French unions must be laughing their way to the RWC and beyond.