Wasps‘ stay in the CBS Arena may be nearing its end as a result of the club entering administration.
Although Wasps have a 250-year lease on the site, BBC Sport has found that this may have to be forfeited “if the tenant enters into some kind of insolvency regime”.
Wasps were recently given another 10 days to find a way of paying a £2 million tax bill owed to HM Revenue of customs after filing a second notice of intention to appoint administrators, repeating the claim that talks with new investors were at an “advance stage”.
But a statement from Coventry City Council read: “It is true the lease may give rise to a right to forfeit if the tenant enters into some kind of insolvency regime but there are restrictions on that.
“We continue to monitor the situation and will act in the best interests of Coventry City Council and the arena asset.
“We are closely monitoring the situation and we are engaging with advisors and some potentially interested parties if requested as part of the process, in line with our role and responsibilities as freeholder of the asset.”
With £35 million of their reported debt of over £110 million being owed to bondholders that enabled them to buy the stadium, Coventry City Council recovering the lease would be seriously damaging to any hopes of paying that back.
Roughly half of that debt is current liabilities, with the bonds – included in those liabilities – already nearly six months overdue, and a loss of Wasps’ most valuable asset would likely end any hopes of the club recovering in its current form.
Head coach Lee Blackett was positive in his assessment of the current situation, citing the owners’ and directors’ honesty as being helpful to the club getting through a turbulent period.
“We were updated today personally by Steve Vaughan and Chris Holland. They were both down and gave us where we were,” Blackett said.
“They explained about filing a second notice of intention to appoint the administrators. They talked about interested parties. They were very honest with the group and positive at the same time as well as being honest.
“At the moment, everything they have said to us has always been 100 per cent truth and have got the full backing of everyone here.
“They have given us nothing to say that they are not being completely honest. We are completely behind them. There is a feeling here that we are all in this together. It’s not an ‘us and them’, that’s for sure.”
The absence of an ‘us and them’ culture sharply contrasts with the plight of Worcester, whose playing and coaching staff began openly criticising the owners in early September.
By the middle of that month, staff working in their media team were retweeting and liking criticisms of Colin Goldring and Jason Whittingham, and ultimately tweeting criticism directly from their own account.
The below tweet – after a defeat to Gloucester in the Prem Cup for which two players came out of retirement – has two cowboy emojis in the bottom corners, referring to the owners who have regularly been labelled as such by rugby fans.
Despite the somewhat different situations, Blackett had no shortage of sympathy for those involved with Warriors.
“It is never nice to see and I have been through something similar myself years and years ago when I got relegated with Rotherham, so I know how tough it can be,” he said.
“I am just gutted for everyone. I know several people there really well. There is a quality group of players, a lot of quality staff and hopefully they can find jobs.”
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