Lifelines Extended To Wasps And Worcester
Recent developments at Wasps and Worcester Warriors have moved both beleaguered clubs closer to takeovers and a route back into Premiership Rugby.
The administrators of Wasps have accepted a bid to buy the Coventry-based club from a consortium led by former players, meanwhile administrators at Worcester have selected former chief executive Jim O’Toole’s consortium as their preferred bidders
The Wasps bid, which does not include the 32,753-capacity Coventry Building Society Arena, must now be approved by both the Rugby Football Union (RFU) and the Rugby Players’ Association and only covers the men’s rugby team and youth academy.
Separate discussions are taking place about the organisation’s Netball Superleague team and the Wasps women’s team.
Wasps joint administrator Andrew Sheridan said, “This deal is a significant step forward, one that we all hope will allow Wasps Rugby to live on.
“The consortium knows it still has to meet all of the Rugby Football Union requirements, including the fit and proper owners’ test and the presentation of a three to five-year business plan with supporting robust financial forecast.
“This needs to be completed as soon as is practical in order to be in a position to play next season.”
With regards to the selection of Atlas Worcester Warriors Rugby Club Ltd.’s as a preferred bidder, Julie Palmer, from the club’s administrators, Begbies Traynor, said, “The preferred bidder arrangement gives them a period of exclusivity to deliver a final transaction to save the rugby club – and is a deal over the whole suite of the assets, effectively.
“There are key aspects of the transaction that they need to understand. The reason it has taken us a little while to get to this stage is because we’ve done quite a bit of work in terms of the rugby creditors in particular.
“But we felt this was the best deal overall for the creditors. The bidders had a very keen eye on what the shape of rugby was going to look like at Worcester in the future. And the other key factor was that they have committed to the transaction financially by putting a very sizeable deposit down to have preferred bidder status.
“That’s very important as we’ve still got quite tight timelines to work with, with the RFU and Premiership Rugby, in terms of them understanding what the shape of the league will look like next season and we didn’t want to waste time in discussions with someone who then didn’t proceed.”
In a statement, O’Toole and business partner James Sandford, said, “This is a positive and major step in the process.
“As has always been, a focus remains on retaining an elite-level rugby club, based on a viable long-term strategic business model at Sixways, for the immediate benefit of the community of Worcestershire and beyond into the wider game of rugby.
“The process remains complex, needs complete confidentiality and will require our full attention until it runs its course.”
