Wasps face online backlash from Coventry City fans after fixture fiasco

Many Coventry City fans have been left far from happy with the fixture changes that they believe have been made to ‘accommodate’ Wasps.

CoventryLive reported early this morning that fans of the sky blues club had labelled the changes an, “absolute joke”, and that there was, “no consideration for the fans”. This is in light of scheduling that sees League One matches against Peterborough and Burton Albion being moved forward from Saturday to Friday evening.

Fans of the Midlands club made their irritation clear on social media.

That's two matches now moved for the egg chasers. I thought @Coventry_City had priority of matches at the Ricoh? Season ticket holders who travel a long way for home matches will not be happy #PUSB

— Steven Carpenter (@stevecarpo) July 13, 2018

How can there be a clash a football league club as priority on the stadium on a Saturday afternoon.

Looks like 4 games could be charged. Because I didn't foresee this happening can I have a refund and just buy 6 match packages. I buy a ST to attend games. Really cross about this

— Neil J (@njones179) July 13, 2018

It is apparent that some City fans wanted their games to be played on a Saturday rather than a Friday evening, where traffic is known locally to be far more congested.

I think Wasps are being deliberatly awkward. Rugby folk would rather play on Sundays

— Tom (@ticope87) July 13, 2018

Wasps moved to the Ricoh Arena from London over four years ago in an attempt to find a permanent home for their club away from West London. Since then the club has enjoyed increased attendances with an average of 17,000 people passing through the turnstiles in 2017/2018. Despite enjoying this spike in attendances, they still struggle to fill the Arena to over fifty per cent of the stadium’s capacity. There has consistently been increased tensions between both Coventry City and Wasps fans over issues such as the standard of the pitch, and the colour of the seats in the stand.

In 2014, Wasps CEO Nick Eastwood stated in a YouTube video that, “we now have a sustainable business model which allows us to build for the future and to invest in our squad”. Despite these promises of increased future stability for the club, it was evident that supporters in the comment section did not agree. Some fans demanded season ticket refunds whilst others complained about the state of City’s pitch.

It is difficult to tell whether this online backlash will affect Wasps’ future fixtures, however, this does in many ways highlight the problems that arise when Rugby and Football clubs share stadiums.