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How Wasps' ground share news has been received by football club's fans

Wasps (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Wasps’ potential move to The Valley in a ground share with League One’s Charlton Athletic has been met with fear by the football club’s fans over the damage it could do to the pitch.

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It was reported by The Times last week that Wasps, who went into administration in 2022, “are believed to have secured use of The Valley — where a new hybrid pitch has been laid — as they eye a return to competition ‘at the highest possible level'”.

This move would be ahead of a potential return to action for Wasps next season in the Championship, with the league set to be expanded to 14 teams.

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It was also reported that the two-time European champions still harbour ambitions to build a stadium in Sevenoaks in Kent.

Sharing a stadium is familiar territory for Wasps, who had played at Queens Park Rangers’ Loftus Road, Wycombe Wanderers’ Adams Park and Coventry City’s Coventry Building Society Arena in the professional era. Charlton too have shared their ground with Super League’s London Broncos in the past.

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Wasps’ plans were recently discussed on the Charlton Live podcast, where host Louis Mendez said that the story has been “overblown” and that “there might not be much to it”.

The greatest fear for fellow podcaster Mark Newbury is the damage a rugby union side could do to the pitch- a new hybrid surface that has only been laid for this season.

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“It seems strange that we’d spend money putting a new surface in and then let someone say ‘oh yeah let’s play some rugby on it’,” he said.

“I don’t think it’ll happen. It may have been one of those things that people put out there as a taster to see what the feedback would be.

“I don’t know much about Wasps’ home crowd, whether they would suddenly bring in two, three, four, five thousand or whether the club would say if you’ve got a season ticket you get half-price tickets or something. It’s a stadium which needs to make money so I would rather if they did want to do something they would put a concert on or something.

“But as for the rugby, I can’t see it and if it were Wasps, again you’ve got to look at the long-term planning and go ‘we’ve got a lovely pitch, would that affect us?’ Because I don’t think they’d be happy if we’d have to re-lay it halfway through a season – you know how our winters get here – and not be playable and we have to call games off, which would be embarrassing for a club of our nature.

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“So I think it was one of those ones put out there to get a tickle to see if anyone was interested and pick up some feedback for free. I can’t see it, so I wouldn’t start worrying about it now, to be honest.”

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Comments

2 Comments
C
Chief Brody 63 days ago

Worrying about your pitch should be the least of your worries Charlton, the Pests will likely swarm in and try to replace you at your own stadium, Wasps by name, Wasps by nature, be very careful if I were you. 👕 PUSB

T
TH 62 days ago

I am totally against Wasps eentering talks of groundshare. They must be made to pay their creditors and then start at the bottom of the rugby pyramid. Wasps have history talk to those who invested in their share issue whilst in Coventry.

F
FM 64 days ago

That fella who's been quoted is a right cocky shit, Wasps won the Premiership cup in 2008. Wtf has Charlton ever done? Wasps' average attendance in the last season they played was just under 10k, while Charlton FC are at 13k. How would Wasps playing there and almost doubling the number of people who would go be a bad thing? I know they wouldn't get those numbers straight away, but give Wasps a season or two, and they'd be back in the Premiership and getting those numbers in no time.

K
KS 65 days ago

Charlton need to be very careful, and talk to the many clubs Wasps f'ed over and lied to around Coventry

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JW 27 minutes ago
Did the best of Ireland leave with Johnny Sexton and Stuart Lancaster?

Certainly got lucky, their strike rate in recruits is simply to high to be another else. How many failures can you count off the top of you head?


Theyre no longer playing that attack structure, so kinda irrelevant I feel. Sexton's metronomic tempo was perfect for that sort of football though. I really shouldn't say anything disparaging about his ability and influence on a northern style as he's probably a much closer footballer to the great Dan Carter than the modern NZ tens are. Still feel the game is better off in the NH now that players like Smith and Ntamack are able to lead the way with their performances.


I suggest not falling into that trap of replacing someone. They don't need a Sexton at 10, that guy and influence can come from anywhere in the team. Wallace Sititi for example has done so much to flip the debate on the NZ midfielders needing to have Nonu/Smith level distribution. They're trying to transition their game into a fast contest, ala their two victories against SA, but also losing out on that against SA and England (possible NZ too). Nienaber being seen as more beneficial to that outcome than Lancaster. I too think they're wrong though, it was a gift Faz got provided with but I haven't seen the Irish psyche want to recognize that. Some might say it's disrespectful to credit all of Irelands success on the back of a fortuitous style of play they discovered (were gifted, w/e) but I'll tell anyone that that's all New Zealands success is based off, and if a more natural organically grown pressuring style it's still something that is ingrained on everyones instincts just the same and can easily be lost of not appreciated.

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