Battle to keep Wasps buzzing

Chief Executive Jim Race today revealed that the amount of money the club have hoped would come in through gate receipts and sponsorship had not been forthcoming.

He was responding to recent letters in the Evening Press by Wasps' supporters and a statement by his predecessor, Phil Elliott, and made the following statement:

"I feel, despite the board of directors' wishes that I don't, I must answer the points they raise.

"During Mr Elliott's time office, it may have been true that the club were paying 80 per cent of their income in players' wages. In fact, the first salary cap return of last season showed an outrageous figure of 92 per cent.

"However, this year the equivalent return shows a figure of 48 per cent, and I can assure everybody this is an accurate representation, having been audited by the Rugby Football League's own accountant.

"Gaining promotion to the now defunct first division, was an extremely costly experience, although at the time it was also completely necessary.

"Subsequent events have shown it to have been a futile exercise with the merger of both divisions.

"The current board of directors have had to dig deep into their own pockets to alleviate the enormous amount of debt which the club accumulated from several seasons in the doldrums, augmented by the phenomenal cost of promotion and deserve praise, not flak, for so doing.

"While the monies received from News Corporation funds are greatly increased, they are spread over the whole of the season, and budgets were made at the beginning of the year taking into account the fact that many of these debts would need to be serviced in the early part of the year if the club was to survive.

"Unfortunately, budgets set for sponsorship income and gate receipts, have not yet been realised and this has resulted in a cash flow problem the club now faces."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.