Wasps name where they want to play if and when they return

Wasps CEO Stephen Vaughan has named the venue he wants the club to play at if and when they return to playing. The Gallagher Premiership club ceased trading on Monday and was put into administration, a decision that resulted in 167 people being made redundant – including Vaughan.

The former London club have played their home matches in Coventry since December 2014 but their fall into administration means they are no longer landlords of the Coventry Building Society Arena, the stadium that was previously known as the Ricoh Arena for the majority of their time in the city.

Wasps’ demise on Monday was greeted popularly by fans of Coventry City FC, who have had their issues with the rugby club being landlords at a stadium that was initially built to house the city’s football club in 2005.

However, despite that angst and question marks over what will happen to the Arena in the coming days as that part of the operation didn’t fall into administration, the preference of Vaughan would be for Wasps to play again at the CBS regardless of what level of rugby they are allowed to participate at.

Automatic relegation from the Premiership is usually the penalty for top-flight clubs that go into administration, meaning that Wasps would restart in the 2023/24 Championship if they are taken over and look to play again.

“We would all absolutely want to stay in Coventry,” said Wasps chief Vaughan in a local area BBC CWR radio interview. “Coventry, the people, I know you get the naysayers which we will always have but all the authorities, we have got a wonderful training facility in Henley-in-Arden, absolutely, our first choice would be Coventry and the West Midlands, without a shadow of a doubt.

“The venue is amazing. The staff in the venue haven’t been put into administration, it is a very profitable organisation in a fantastic part of the world and we hoped to host many other events there and Coventry City etc for a long time.

“But as far it goes for Wasps, all rugby clubs make a loss and without that benefactor the debt pile, we have been in dialogue with PRL and the RFU with regards to relegation. They have been very good, very honest with us. They understand the situation and the difficulty the RFU faces is the precedent it may set with other clubs but yes we are in dialogue to see what we can possibly do.

“Of course, we have gone into administration but that doesn’t mean we are still not having conversations with people and we will still do that. We probably understand that we have to come back in the Championship next year but there are a lot of players in there that would love to stick with Wasps whether it is in the Championship or the Premiership.

“This club has been going for over 155 years. If it means six months elsewhere to bring it back with really good solid honest ownership, a great leadership team and the core group that is in there now then I think we would take that.”