Relocating A Sports Team: Can It Ever Work In Britain After Wasps Go Bust?

This week, Rugby Union lost another one of their great sides from the Premiership as Wasps went into administration after amounting £35m worth of debt since their move to Coventry. It is something we rarely see in the United Kingdom and is far more common in the United States, but can the relocation of a sports team ever actually work? We look at some previous examples to find the answer. 

London Wasps to Coventry

In the summer of 2014, Wasps dropped the London part of their name with rumours of a relocation and by December, that had materialised as the club bought half of the Ricoh Arena in Coventry. 

It had been a stadium that had never been owned by the local football club, and Wasps took full advantage to secure one of the finest venues in the country for around £20m. The local council seemed desperate to bring them to the city from a revenue point of view, even at the expense of the Sky Blues. 

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Their local roots in London and a lot of their fanbase were left behind, as they now fought with the likes of Leicester Tigers and Northampton Saints for supremacy in the midlands. What has materialised in the years since has been nothing short of disastrous, culminating in administration and 167 people, including players and staff losing their jobs. 

Was it a success?

Absolutely not. In the early days, crowds of 20,000+ were seen and the move was heralded as a success by those that made it happen. However, it was built on sand. Those numbers were created by free ticket giveaways and huge losses were happening even before the pandemic. 

Over the last year, the miniscule crowds of around 3,000-5,000 showed the real extent of the issue. People in Coventry quite rightly didn’t accept this new franchise as their own, and the loyal London hardcore simply didn’t want to travel every week. It’s been nothing short of a disaster. 

Wimbledon to Milton Keynes

The most controversial move English football has ever seen. In 2003, Wimbledon from South London, were relocated to the relatively new city of Milton Keynes after almost a decade of ground sharing with Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park. Financial issues blighted the club and in 1997, owner Sam Hammam had sold Plough Lane to be converted into a supermarket. That same year, Peter Winkelman announced plans for a new development in Milton Keynes, featuring a new state of the art football stadium. 

A move to another stadium in South London failed to materialise and cities including Dublin were touted as possible new homes for the Dons. Eventually, the deal with Milton Keynes was done and they moved into the 30,000 capacity Stadium:MK. They played one season there as Wimbledon, before changing their name to MK Dons, which has remained ever since. 

Was it a success?

50/50. Two decades on, it certainly hasn’t been the disaster that London Wasps experienced, but that is mainly down the hard work and dedication of the Wimbledon fans. They set up their own phoenix club, climbed through the ranks and back into the Football League, where they have faced MK Dons on several occasions. 

Importantly, in 2007, MK Dons renounced all of Wimbledon’s history, trophies and heritage. They are now a completely separate club to the one that was formed in the capital all those years ago. For the local fans that now attend their games, they now have a Milton Keynes team to get behind, while AFC Wimbledon have rebuilt Plough Lane, which is a major success. 

It was a horrendous thing to happen to Wimbledon fans, but their journey back to the top means more because of this tribulation. Meanwhile MK Dons haven’t gone onto become the Premier League team many thought they would, but they are now an established EFL side in their own right. 

Oakland Raiders to Las Vegas

The Oakland Raiders had a 12-year stint in Los Angeles over the 80s and 90s, such is the nature of American sport, but in 1995 they returned. Relocation is so much more common in the US, there is often no threat of relegation and support seems to be far less ingrained. It couldn’t be further from what we see in Britain, especially when it comes to our football clubs. 

Clubs like Wimbledon mean everything to their local community. They in many cases ARE the local community. America doesn’t feel that, so when the Raiders moved to Las Vegas they became the third NFL franchise in the 2010s to announce a move. You don’t get ‘franchises’ in the UK, you get local clubs that simply cannot be moved. It’s perhaps why we saw such a disconnect between the fans and the American owners when the idea of a European Super League was proposed. 

For the Raiders, several years of homelessness saw them touted to several cities across the States, including Texas and LA. Eventually, in 2017, the move was completed and by 2020 the $1.9 billion Allegiant Stadium opened. 

Was it a success?

Yes. Even when the move was announced, only one thousand season ticket holders asked for refunds. Almost immediately, their tickets were sold to other fans and the Raiders' 53,250 season tickets were all sold out by late May. A new NFL team in Vegas was always going to work, and even though there has been no success on the field, there has been plenty off it. 

St Louis Rams to LA

After initially moving away from Los Angeles to St Louis back in 1995 due to a shrinking fanbase and stadium issues, the Rams found success in their new Missouri home, winning the 1999 Super Bowl just a few years after relocating. Similar issues were occurring in St Louis in the 2010s with fans naming it the worst stadium in the NFL and in 2015, owner Stan Kroenke called time on the franchise being based out of Missouri and returning back to Los Angeles.  

Was it a success?

100%. The Rams didn’t have a permanent home until 2020, playing in the LA Memorial Coliseum for five years until the SoFi Stadium opened, becoming the most expensive stadium ever made costing $5 billion. A year on, the Rams won the 2021 Super Bowl against the Cincinnati Bengals and Kroenke has continued to hoover up local property in order to develop team facilities for the Rams as well as turn the surrounding area of the stadium into consumer-friendly areas. On almost all fronts, it has been a major success and the Rams remain playoff contenders this season too.

From this sample, it seems relocation is simply something that can only work in America. When a new town needs a sports team, you have to start from scratch in the UK and the franchise model simply doesn’t work with British emotions and connections to local clubs. Wasps should never have left London, but if there was no other option, in hindsight a move to Milton Keynes would have been far more palatable and successful.