This is a strange one: "A Sevenoaks District Council spokesman said Wasps were considering building a multi-use stadium, training facilities and a hotel on the outskirts of Swanley."
who's paying for it ? .. I doubt the Sevenoaks council tax payers are too keen to foot the bill .. as said in the article, Wasps (former) RUFC went bust owing £95 MILLION !! .. Wasps were 'my team' before the disaster, BUT to rise like a Phoenix having incurred that level of debt should be inexcusable despite the vagaries of company law .. still, be good to have a famous RUFC outfit in the Garden of England despite the piss taking escape from paying their debts
Must admit my first thought was what this might mean for us - whether it gives us any leverage with our stadium or conversely leaves us at greater risk. With Wasps' record, they'll probably abandon this and try & take over the Valley.
A 26k stadium in an area with little club rugby interest, and poor public transport connections from London. Sounds very dubious to me.
Think there are plenty of Rugby Clubs and Schools playing rugby within a 10 mile radius…….
They might play rugby, but it doesn't follow that this would create a base for supporting professional club rugby.
Blackheath for example never made the transition to the professional game.
I don’t think Blackheath ever had enough money behind them to properly make the top table. When the game was “ amateur” they could compete but when the real money came in they struggled.
It’s a big “if” but if wasps are properly funded then IMO it could be successful. If you are in Kent and want to watch the prem at the moment you are travelling to Richmond , Barnet or Brentford.
Looking on the map there appears to be a train line running under the site of the planned stadium but no station nearby.
Road links would be very good but public transport?
And not in a major population centre
A new stadium with almost the same capacity but probably better corporate facilities and more parking but built for the wrong sport.
Can see the attraction for Wasps to share the Valley and for our owners to share at Swanley but it all seems a long way off with lots of hurdles to jump over, not least raising the money.
Wasps have become a completely plastic club, the way they've moved around, abandoning previous supporters in West London and then High Wycombe for the bizarre franchise style move to Coventry.
26k is way more than they will realistically attract, when you look at the gates the established London clubs get. If Ebbsfleet were to build a new ground, that would be a more realistic size. Better public transport links too.
Other rugby clubs that have gone bust have simply written off the professional side and rebuilt the club around the second XV. In most clubs the seconds are amateur and are legally separate from the professionals, meaning they carry on as normal when the pros go bust. If a club is really lucky, as with London Welsh, the amateur setup owned the ground so they get to keep it. There's nothing to stop Wasps fans from going to watch the original Wasps playing at tier 8.
If they really want a big stadium and a place in the Championship, they're going to face a lot of hurdles. Not least, that the Championship clubs by & large are pretty angry at the way the Premiership has stopped them getting promotion, and aren't likely to be enthusiastic about budging up to make room for an ex-Premiership club that wants in. Then, if they can get into tier 2, there's the struggle to attract investors when there's no realistic route to the top level. That's the whole reason their deal to re-start in tier 2 this year fell apart.
This seems to be to be another of their new owners' bright ideas, like sharing at Worcester. They come up with these things, but they don't think them through first.
This would be abour 3 miles from the new Millwall training ground which has got planning consent. And if it is where I think it is then there is very little residential to oppose it.
The train would be the Swanley to Farningham Road route so a decent line in To Victoria and it’s not impossible a new station could be built but realistically this spot is slap bang between the two stations and only a couple of minutes by coach from either.
on one hand you could say they would get sufficient interest because of the lack of professional rugby in the area or you could argue there is just no interest at all. Will be interesting to see if this goes anywhere
A 26k stadium in an area with little club rugby interest, and poor public transport connections from London. Sounds very dubious to me.
Disagree .. there’s a lot of rugby interest in our part of the world. In the boroughs of Greenwich and Bexley there’s at least 10 community clubs. I can see why Wasps might want to set up in Swanley. Motorway connections, rail connections. Huge catchment area. For the size of London, there are only two top tier clubs. Saracens in North London and Harlequins in West London. The South East needs a professional club, IMO.
Westcombe Park play nearby and are now in the 4th tier. A successful community club but I think that the collapse of London Irish shows that London would struggle to support another club nowadays.
A 26k stadium in an area with little club rugby interest, and poor public transport connections from London. Sounds very dubious to me.
Disagree .. there’s a lot of rugby interest in our part of the world. In the boroughs of Greenwich and Bexley there’s at least 10 community clubs. I can see why Wasps might want to set up in Swanley. Motorway connections, rail connections. Huge catchment area. For the size of London, there are only two top tier clubs. Saracens in North London and Harlequins in West London. The South East needs a professional club, IMO.
If it needed a professional club it would have had one.
I just don’t buy there is interest in Club rugby that requires a stadium with a capacity of more then 18k, not even Bath or Gloucester are aiming beyond that.
Also still to be convinced that London has the market for more then two established premiership clubs
Piece in the Times about this which says that the stadium will derive most of its income from "concerts, exhibitions, conferences and an on-site hotel" and compares it to the O2 arena. So, possibly the audience for rugby mataches is secondary in any business case.
This would be abour 3 miles from the new Millwall training ground which has got planning consent. And if it is where I think it is then there is very little residential to oppose it.
The train would be the Swanley to Farningham Road route so a decent line in To Victoria and it’s not impossible a new station could be built but realistically this spot is slap bang between the two stations and only a couple of minutes by coach from either.
on one hand you could say they would get sufficient interest because of the lack of professional rugby in the area or you could argue there is just no interest at all. Will be interesting to see if this goes anywhere
I just don’t buy there is interest in Club rugby that requires a stadium with a capacity of more then 18k, not even Bath or Gloucester are aiming beyond that.
Also still to be convinced that London has the market for more then two established premiership clubs
The article does quote it as a multi use stadium The mooted development ain't just focussed on the funny shaped balls Wasps might not fill it very often but to limit the capacity to 18k would have to be short sighted, wouldn't it? KCC planning will put it through on 'the nod' if the application reads like it adds up and all aspects and "fees" have been taken care of. If anything gets off the ground the developer will have to budget loads for site security given the extraordinary mobility of anything at all of value in the Swanleyarea that isn't very securely tied down and locked up.
It’s a good job that the Dartford Bridge / M25 / A2 /A20 area doesn’t suffer any forms of traffic problems at all and is well suited to Chuck another few thousand cars into the mix
Comments
What's the parking like in Swanley?
Blackheath for example never made the transition to the professional game.
Road links would be very good but public transport?
And not in a major population centre
A new stadium with almost the same capacity but probably better corporate facilities and more parking but built for the wrong sport.
Can see the attraction for Wasps to share the Valley and for our owners to share at Swanley but it all seems a long way off with lots of hurdles to jump over, not least raising the money.
26k is way more than they will realistically attract, when you look at the gates the established London clubs get. If Ebbsfleet were to build a new ground, that would be a more realistic size. Better public transport links too.
If they really want a big stadium and a place in the Championship, they're going to face a lot of hurdles. Not least, that the Championship clubs by & large are pretty angry at the way the Premiership has stopped them getting promotion, and aren't likely to be enthusiastic about budging up to make room for an ex-Premiership club that wants in. Then, if they can get into tier 2, there's the struggle to attract investors when there's no realistic route to the top level. That's the whole reason their deal to re-start in tier 2 this year fell apart.
This seems to be to be another of their new owners' bright ideas, like sharing at Worcester. They come up with these things, but they don't think them through first.
on one hand you could say they would get sufficient interest because of the lack of professional rugby in the area or you could argue there is just no interest at all. Will be interesting to see if this goes anywhere
All part of Millwall's move to Kent
The mooted development ain't just focussed on the funny shaped balls
Wasps might not fill it very often but to limit the capacity to 18k would have to be short sighted, wouldn't it?
KCC planning will put it through on 'the nod' if the application reads like it adds up and all aspects and "fees" have been taken care of.
If anything gets off the ground the developer will have to budget loads for site security given the extraordinary mobility of anything at all of value in the Swanley area that isn't very securely tied down and locked up.