Sunday 12 October 2014 22:36, UK
Wasps chief executive Nick Eastwood continues to defend the club’s move from High Wycombe to Coventry, claiming that staying at Adams Park would have been ‘the end of the road’ for the Premiership club.
He says they checked out more than a dozen venues close to the capital but that the Ricoh Arena 'was always the best choice.’
It just came down to move or die
Nearly 3,000 supporters have signed an online petition with the aimed of keeping Wasps in west London.
However, the club will move 80 miles north and start playing games in Coventry in December.
Eastwood, speaking after Sunday's match with Bath, said: "We looked at probably 15 sites in and around London in the last two years.
"We were left with two options: stay where we are, lose a shedload of money and say a prayer that a miracle's going to happen, or move.
"Staying put would have been a one-way ticket to going bust. Once we made that decision, Ricoh was by far and away the best option.
"It just came down to move or die."
And Eastwood believes the majority of fans will stay loyal to Wasps, adding: "A number of supporters at the fans' forum said they just can't do it because of work commitments.
"But most people have said they are coming.
"I think 80 per cent of our season ticket-holders live within a 30-minute drive, so anyone who lives west and north, it's going to be an easier journey than in and out of Adams Park.
"I'm hugely appreciative the fans got round the team and separated the decision from the playing side of things.
"The only constant in the last 20 years of Wasps' history was a lack of financial stability, and we've ended that now."
