Wasps' request for £13m public money bail-out fires up Twitter

Wasps have encountered heavy criticism online after it emerged they have asked the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) for £13million of public money as the financial strain builds on their stadium business. A story broken by the BBC claimed that no decision had yet been reached on the application for funding and that Wasps had not yet commented on why they had made the request.

Shortly after acquiring a 250-year lease on the Coventry Building Society Arena, which was then known as the Ricoh Arena, Wasps launched a bond scheme in April 2015. Bondholders invested at least £2,000 each and most of the £35m raised was used to pay off previous debts, including a £13.4m loan from Coventry City Council and £10m of loans from Wasps owner Derek Richardson.

However, the Arena business has struggled financially and the latest set of filed accounts from November 2021 showed losses of about £18.5m over the past two years and net liabilities of £54.7m.

It also recently emerged that Wasps delayed repaying their bondholders who should have been repaid last month only for the club to announce that the repayment date was pushed back until the end of June to allow additional time to finalise terms with HSBC to refinance that bond debt.

A statement at the time quoted Wasps CEO Stephen Vaughan: "We thank bondholders for their continued support and look forward to updating them further in due course.”

Now that it has been revealed that Wasps have since requested access to £13m of public money, social media has been busy and most of the reaction has been negative towards the Gallagher Premiership club. One critic summed up the mood, tweeting: “I tell you what, as a local, if Wasps wanted to make themselves any more unpopular with the critics of them being based in Coventry (of which there are many) this is how you do it. A sizeable chunk of sports fans here never wanted them and now… well.”