Worcester’s woes

[Wayne Richardson Fan Club]

Conveniently overlooking ourselves and Saints historically the two Midlands sides in the Premiership.
Worcester are more West Country and Wasps were simply squatters in Coventry.

My guess is a WM BBC penned report.

[TomWeston]

Fair point that I have seen mentioned on Twitter, if the buyers are so interested in developing Stourbridge and giving them a new name, why do they not simply invest in them, let the Diamond consortium take over Worcester and then share Sixways if that is where they want to play, everybody is happy then.

My opinion. they messed up. They let too much out of the bag too soon (parlty due to the RFU deadlines that needed a response) and so the opposition to their plans had the chance to build before it was a done deal. Now there is all sorts of backtracking to keep enough of a smokescreen in place to let them get the land they want.

Whoever plays rugby at Sixes&Sevensways, it would not be viable as a stand-alone rugby venue.

https://www.gloucesterbid.uk/news/glouc ... ng-crisis/

Only greater commercial activity/development would make it viable. Coventry Wasps had the right idea but the outlying location and COVID put an end to them.

[Cagey Tiger]

a really good summary of the whole situation with both Worcs and Waspsby the beeb. Not sure what happens next but hope that a decision to keep Wasps out of 6ways is made very soon,

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/64623376

"The 2022-23 season, which began with two Midlands-based clubs in the Premiership - Worcester Warriors and Wasps - will end with none, after both suffered financial collapse, went into administration and were relegated."

Where are we then?

It's the BBC!

And their Birmingham centric views (well it is the 2nd largest city, so I suppose I can forgive them that ) . Back in the 60s and, I think, 70s, there was one regional news programme for East and West Midlands called, logically, Midlands Today, based in Brum, with a very heavy West Midlands bias. Eventually we got East Midlands Today, but Midlands Today, which then only covered West Midlands, was (arrogantly in my opinion) left alone and not renamed West Midlands Today. At a guess, the reporter who did this piece works out of the BBC Brum office, so only covered Wuss and Wasps and doesn't realise that the East Midlands exists and has the 'true' rugby heritage in the professional era in the Midlands.

[Tigerbeat]

Quote "The 2022-23 season, which began with two west Midlands-based clubs in the Premiership - Worcester Warriors and Wasps - will end with none, after both suffered financial collapse, went into administration and were relegated."

That statement is correct as was commenting on two West Midlands clubs - Wasps and Worcester. Saints and Tigers being East Midlands.

[TigerFeetSteve]

Quote "The 2022-23 season, which began with two west Midlands-based clubs in the Premiership - Worcester Warriors and Wasps - will end with none, after both suffered financial collapse, went into administration and were relegated."

That statement is correct as was commenting on two West Midlands clubs - Wasps and Worcester. Saints and Tigers being East Midlands.

The article has been corrected, probably due to people pointing out Tigers and Saints to them.

See the archived version which had it wrong


https://web.archive.org/web/20230214121 ... n/64623376

[Old Hob]

Quote "The 2022-23 season, which began with two west Midlands-based clubs in the Premiership - Worcester Warriors and Wasps - will end with none, after both suffered financial collapse, went into administration and were relegated."

That statement is correct as was commenting on two West Midlands clubs - Wasps and Worcester. Saints and Tigers being East Midlands.

The article has been corrected, probably due to people pointing out Tigers and Saints to them.

See the archived version which had it wrong


https://web.archive.org/web/20230214121 ... n/64623376

Defining "The Midlands" has always been problematic. Oxford oscillates between the Midlands and the South East; Wuss definitely MIdlands (West or South) and at the other end Staffordshire eg Burton on Trent is in a sort of limbo.

[ads]

Quote "The 2022-23 season, which began with two west Midlands-based clubs in the Premiership - Worcester Warriors and Wasps - will end with none, after both suffered financial collapse, went into administration and were relegated."

That statement is correct as was commenting on two West Midlands clubs - Wasps and Worcester. Saints and Tigers being East Midlands.

The article has been corrected, probably due to people pointing out Tigers and Saints to them.

See the archived version which had it wrong


https://web.archive.org/web/20230214121 ... n/64623376

Defining "The Midlands" has always been problematic. Oxford oscillates between the Midlands and the South East; Wuss definitely MIdlands (West or South) and at the other end Staffordshire eg Burton on Trent is in a sort of limbo.

Also depends if you live in Scotland. Yorkshire is midlands then!!

[bendy]

Do we know when we'll hear about what was / wasn't submitted for yesterday's deadline?

[CrumblingTerrace]

Defining "The Midlands" has always been problematic. Oxford oscillates between the Midlands and the South East; Wuss definitely MIdlands (West or South) and at the other end Staffordshire eg Burton on Trent is in a sort of limbo.

Wherever you draw the Midlands boundary, Leicester is always going to be inside it!

[TigerFeetSteve]

It's been confirmed Wasps have met the conditions and will be in the Championship next season.

No update on WHERE they are playing as yet.

Nothing as yet on Worcester.

[Old Hob]

Full statement here:

https://twitter.com/RFU/status/1625902865440026636

Or, for those without twitbook:

https://www.englandrugby.com/news/artic ... r-warriors

[AceRugby14]

This all seems a bit fishy to me!

How can Worcester fail the tests for not having the finances to pay the debtors, yet Wasps pass who had amassed over £100m of debt and have no ground to play in.

Surely first question you ask is, where will you play? Do you have a team? The computer says no.......

[TigerSID]

Not 100% sure but in my simple view I believe that the requirement is to pay all rugby creditors, i.e. club staff, players etc. Wasps main debt was a bond that they couldn't pay rather than the rugby creditors.

I do feel for Coventry rugby who will have another team parachuted into their league.
I did like their take on it from December:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/64026368
"But they could be playing in Scotland by the time the season comes about, knowing them lot."
"To be honest, I don't pay them much attention."

[TigerFeetSteve]

Not 100% sure but in my simple view I believe that the requirement is to pay all rugby creditors, i.e. club staff, players etc. Wasps main debt was a bond that they couldn't pay rather than the rugby creditors.

I do feel for Coventry rugby who will have another team parachuted into their league.
I did like their take on it from December:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/64026368
"But they could be playing in Scotland by the time the season comes about, knowing them lot."
"To be honest, I don't pay them much attention."

There was also the fact the stadium and the club went into seperate administration processes, allowing Mike Ashley to purchase the stadium, but that side of the administration had much higher debts so they are likely to be getting significantly less money on their debts.

However the club side had essentially only rugby debts to settle so those are being paid in full.

[Scott1]

Free Pass Wasps,could be seen a mile off what was going to happen!