New Zealand legend Sean Fitzpatrick expressed his sadness as at the news of Wasps going into administration, on this week’s The Rugby Paper Podcast.
Fitzpatrick, a former World Cup winner who is widely regarded as one of the greatest players to grace the game and a board member of fellow Premiership club Harlequins, was particularly moved by Wasps and England great Lawrence Dallaglio, who described himself as ‘heartbroken’ upon hearing the news.
Although he agreed with many of the sentiments of his fellow podcast guests, Nick Cain, Chris Hewett and Brendan Gallagher, about the risks involved in the club’s 2014 move to Coventry, he also highlighted the impact of the Coronavirus Pandemic on the CBS Arena’s lucrative hospitality facilities.
“Seeing Lawrence Dallaglio talking about it, it’s a very sad situation.” He said.
“What has not been mentioned regarding the move to Coventry is Covid. In terms of everything they banked on with a model that looked very good, very bold, there was no conference, casino, or hotel use for two years.”
Reflecting on the financial model in English club rugby, Fitzpatrick – who has long made the case for central contracts since his time on the Harlequins board – felt that radical change was needed to allow the quality of governance off the field to match the quality of rugby on it.
Fitzpatrick added: “I think it’s just really exposed the commercial model in the English game, and the world club game probably, is not viable. We need to get the commercial model right.
“The central contracting of the players is something that I think works much better than the private ownership of these clubs, because as we’ve seen when the owners leave, it’s not a product you’re going to want to buy.
“I’m really sad because I think the Premiership game in England is a fantastic product on the field, so financially we need to fix this, and listening to [Bill] Sweeney talking about this, he’s probably right about the way the game is being run at the club level.
“We need people to make sacrifices and give away things that they don’t want to give away.”
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