Wasps
Dear Wasps : an open letter to Wasps
It's been a blast.
By Hucks
October 6 2014
Dear Wasps, I meant to write sooner, to congratulate you on your fantastic rebranding exercise this season. You have finally ditched the ‘London’ Wasps tag after all these years…to return to our roots is really special. Oh how we rejoiced as supporters to see our beloved club rediscovering its old spirit.
And your #EveryFanCounts campaign is spot on. I myself work in sports sponsorship, having begun my career in advertising, so I can spot a snappy tagline when I see it. However, if nearly a decade in media has taught me anything (other than how to hide a lot lunches on expenses) it’s that a brand must act in the way that it wishes to be viewed by its consumers.
That’s sponsorship 101 in fact. Take British Airways. To Fly, To Serve. You get on a BA aircraft to be met by a frumpy, grumpy stewardess who refuses to get you some water or roughly throws your rucksack containing that blown glass sculpture you bought on an impulse in the downtown Marrakech Bazaar because you thought it would make a talking point at your next dinner party (it would make a talking point – starting with ‘what the F*** possessed you to buy that monstrosity?’) then perhaps you might get to thinking that BA aren’t exactly living their brand mantra.
Likewise – Wasps. A brand. A much loved brand. A rugby club with supporters? Or a loved brand with consumers? Once the former, now very much the latter. A brand with, frankly, not a lot going for you…historical success? Well yes. But Nintendo were historically successful. Top talent? True. But top talent will come & go. A loyal consumer base? Yes. A consumer base that may be small but is incredibly loyal. A consumer base that continued to spend when you moved from Loftus Road to Adams Park. A consumer base who continued to spend when you finished 5th in the league, 7th, 9th, 11th…
So you set out to remind your consumers – Hey, you guys have been loyal to us for years now. You’ve continued to purchase our product, even when that product was tired and faulty. Even when there were better, newer, shinier products available at the same price you still kept buying ours – because you loved us. So we want to tell you thanks. We want to say to you…
#EveryFanCounts.
And guess what? Every fan did count. ‘16th man’ is such a cliché. I never believed it. Until London Wasps vs London Irish on the 3rd March 2012. 9 successive league defeats. Relegation looming. An owner who wanted to sell. Administration on the lips of anyone who was asked for an opinion…oblivion. Survival in the premiership was the only way out it seemed. Drop through that trap door and Wasps as we know it may be gone forever. Boy did we need that win. And somehow, 18-13 in one of the worst games of rugby I’ve ever seen – we got it. That day there was an electricity around the ground I’ve never felt before or since. It was as though every fan was literally vibrating with energy and that energy was being subliminally transferred to the 15 men on the Adams Park pitch in black. It sounds ridiculous now, I know. I’m a cynic as much as the next guy. But I can tell you that that afternoon I felt something strange happening. You’d have been forgiven for thinking there were 20,000 Wasps fans there that day. The noise we made reminded me of Dublin in 2004 when 500 travelling Wasps fans in once section of Lansdowne Road drowned out 20,000 Munstermen to the point where you could hear the constant ‘Allez, Allez, Allez’ on the Sky Sports replays. Yes – I was there as well, in Dublin. I’ve been with you throughout all your highs and your lowest lows. At one point in that London Irish game, Rob Webber turned to the crowd – the cries of ‘Keep Going Rob!’ rang out and he responded. Not just by picking up his intensity (which he did). I mean he actually responded. He acknowledged the crowd. He made a gesture which said ‘You guys are out here with us. You guys are keeping us going. Keep giving your all for us, and we’ll keep giving our all too and together we’ll keep this club alive.’
The energy in the crowd that day – it was like bottling up the crowd reaction to Howley’s try against Toulouse, Daly’s penalty to beat Gloucester again in that relegation season, Wade’s last day try against Falcons that we knew all but sealed our survival, Goodey’s drop goal to beat Chiefs last year in the dying seconds, Roiser’s interception against Quins at Loftus Road to pinch an ugly win, Staunton’s penalty to nick one against Tigers away…..and rolling them all into one intense outpouring of sheer willpower from 15 players and 5,000 fans that Wasps would not be beaten.
THAT is what #EveryFanCounts is. In many ways it’s actually not your tagline. It belongs to us. The fans. The men, women & children who saw Wasps through that period of uncertainty. The fans who shouted themselves hoarse to let our team know that if we could be out there with them forming a defensive wall we would be. But if you can take that and turn it into a tagline then we’ll love you for it. Until you stop acting in line with your brand promise.
I fear horribly that this is happening before our eyes. I see the growing speculation about a decision to relocate the Wasps brand to Coventry, and I see the vacuum of information being made available to your customers (let alone any requests for customer input) and I worry for you Wasps. I worry that you are about to become that brand – the one that people point at and say ‘they over-promised and under-delivered.’
Now I know that business is business. I know that sites for a new stadium aren’t exactly sitting around waiting to be built on. I know that to survive, businesses must adapt and evolve. I guess I’m just cut up to find that that evolution won’t have room for me.
I can tell you that my affliction with Wasps (yes affliction – not affiliation. My girlfriend will testify that’s it’s a sickness when you live & breathe Wasps – when your Monday mood is set by the ‘W’ or ‘L’ on the board from the day before) will finally be cured should the club relocate to Coventry. Not before time either. I showed my first symptoms in the ‘96/97 season. I was taken with my dad to some hospitality at the Stoop to see Quins vs Wasps. Carling, Lacroix, Jim Staples, Darren O’Leary, Keith Wood, Dan Luger….the premiership darlings that myself & my dad were supposed to fall in love with. Instead it was a rugged group of gnarly old pros & young bucks who had already captured our hearts forever. As a 10-year old, names like Sampson, Greenstock, King, Volley & Dallaglio had already taken on some sort of superhero form. The way that group had torn up the flashboys from Toulouse a few months earlier – if ever there was perfect rugby it was then. Over the years there have been moments that threatened to show that that was not true perfection. Munster. Shaw’s rampaging and Worsley’s defence against Toulouse in ‘04. The dismantling of Gloucester by King, Lewsey & Abbot in ’03. Cipriani and Sackey combining to sink Clermont. Hendo’s flyhalf hat-trick against Gloucester – I’ll never tire of the memory of the ‘Irish sidestep’ he put on Simon Mannix – the Nicky Robinson, Wade & Varndell-inspired first half against Quins in the Double Header 3 years ago....but none have quite touched the heights of pure aesthetic brilliance that that team of young swashbucklers produced as they cut the European kings to ribbons.
Of course I was hooked. A sickness that took hold overnight and has consumed me steadily for the following 18 years of my life. Stand-out moments?
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Hendo’s hat-trick
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Sammo living up to his ‘pschyo’ nickname as he gave Dan Luger a Yorkshire welcome
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Lewsey’s intercept try & try-saver on Tuigamala in the ’99 Tetley Bitter final
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Kinga’s inspired chip & score in the same game
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Howley
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Cips’ tackle on Alesana Tuilagi in the 2007 HEC final
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Hasks’ 90 metre run in the same game that so nearly saw him score in front of myself & my tigers-supporting mates
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Hasks’ 15-minute game-changing hat-trick off the bench in a cup game at home to Gloucester
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Shawsie hitting a drop goal against Bath at Loftus Road in an otherwise tedious defeat
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Offiah’s last-minute try away at Falcons and Logan’s touchline conversion to win it
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Sammo hitting a 50 metre drop goal at Loftus Road against falcons as if he was down the local rec
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Daly’s 55 metre winning pen against Gloucester
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Goodey’s winning drop against Chiefs after he’d had a ‘mare all game – and the response of crowd and players as such a popular man gained redemption
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Haughton’s try and Powelly’s reaction as we beat Tigers at home
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Lemi’s try under the posts to nick one at home to Toulouse
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A team try by Waters against Bristol that started on our own 22 and went through Cips, Flutey & Lewsey to create one of the great scores
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Erinle powering to a score with a London Irishman hanging despairingly to his shorts
Any many more of course - names like O’Connor, Weedon, Dowd, Green, Gotting, Denney, Amor, Sampson, Roiser & Hart all mean something to be. They represent my childhood, my teens and my adult years. They remind me of time spent with the people I love & have loved – my parents, ex-girlfriends, best friends – watching something we all felt passionate about.
And now my sickness feels close to an end. In some ways perhaps we’ll look back and wish that Wasps had slipped away silently into the long goodnight. If only that Elliot Daly penalty has faded wide on a whisper of wind. If only Vesty hadn’t allowed himself to get mugged by a determined Varndell. We’d have grieved of course, as you do when a loved one dies. But we’d have moved on too. ‘That was a chapter in our lives’, we would have said. ‘And that chapter is now closed’. How much worse to consider that the one we love is not gone but is leaving us. It feels like we are being broken up with by the partner we thought we would be with forever. And it feels like they are doing it behind our backs. The nausea we will feel in the pit of our stomachs next season if we’re forced to catch longing glimpses of our beloved Wasps from afar, stalking them on BT sport, never to get close again, never to feel the intensity and passion of game day, because they chose to leave us and put enough distance between us that we could no longer visit.
I suppose we’ll have to move on. Find another passion. Ealing perhaps. Esher. Even London Welsh. Just never Saracens. Or perhaps rugby will taste ever bitter. Perhaps girlfriends and wives will reclaim their partners from the grip of rugby. Perhaps families will expand their cultural horizons. Perhaps Wasps are being generous after all – thinking of the relationships that will be mended and the children whose minds will be broadened once rugby no longer consumes so many people’s lives.
Of course this doesn’t matter a jot. None of what I’ve just written. I’m not even sure what I’m hoping to achieve. Not change. Not even an admission of anything. Business is tough, I get that. Perhaps I’m just starting that grieving process and this is my break-up letter. The one that I hope will bring closure. Because suddenly one of my life’s certainties – that one day 3 generations of my family would watch Wasps together – no longer looks so certain. Perhaps I will one day watch Wasps with my kids and their grandparents. I just hope its Wasps as we know them and not Wasps FC or a breakaway team. I can promise you now that should Wasps become a franchise based in Coventry, then you will go into next year shorn of three season ticket holders who have been ever-present for 18 years each (maths was never my strong point but that’s 54 years of service it appears you are about to throw away).
I hope against hope that we will all awake one day soon to news that this was a bad dream / bad joke / bad information.
Until the point where this becomes real, Wasps will have my unwavering support. At the point where this is confirmed you can expect my season ticket & shirt returned. Perhaps you could use a few spare shirts to dress the empty, soulless rows of sky blue seats at the Ricoh next year.
I know you’re busy Wasps. You have a game to prepare for at Sale tomorrow. I’ll be there to cheer you, just as I was there in Stockport not so long ago when my team declined to play. I felt so let down. So ashamed, isolated in my Wasps colours as hundreds of Sale fans jeered. I thought we’d got past that Wasps. I thought we’d fallen in love again when you told me that every fan counted.
Thank you for taking the time to read this Wasps (I want to believe you care enough about your customer opinions to have stayed with me on this rambling journey). After all, I’ve stayed with you on a journey from Shepherds Bush to Wycombe, via Abu Dhabi. A magical mystery tour, an adrenaline-fuelled rush, an 18-year endorphin high that included 11 trophies, 4 girlfriends hooked on rugby, 4 club owners, 2 home stadiums and a relegation battle.
Wasps - It’s been a blast.
Yours disappointedly,
Mark
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Although I haven't been a Wasps fan for as long as Hucks, he very much writes my exact feelings here.
Link to the petition...
[www.thepetitionsite.com]
So many of us have been with Wasps and experienced the highs and the lows! To lose those emotions and to be disconnected with the club would be horrendous for us all!
Well written!
Angry? Dissapointed? Upset? Disgusted? Probably a mixture of all of these.
Still a tiny part of me hoping that this is all a load of rubbish and we've all been led astray by some incredibly imaginative journalists. But I can't see it.
I've invested thousands of pounds and hours of my spare time supporting this club - season tickets, shirts, merchandise, travel, away games, trips to Europe. To have that all taken so we can become a city jumping franchise makes me sick to my stomach. And makes it feel like all of it was a waste of time.
The worst thing? Watching Sale yesterday I really couldn't get myself excited about watching us play. if this move is confirmed I really don't know if I'll want to continue watching us this season. What would be the point in continuing to support a team that's about to be taken away from me?
As I said - here's hoping to this all being rubbish. But I'm already feeling like they're gone.
This could happen. JLR Wasps at the 32500'JLR Stadium ?
A very tempting and plausible business investment opportunity.
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I may have been born a Londoner, and it may have taken me thirty six years to discover my destiny, but one thing is certain - I was born to be a Pirate!
Now the Ricoh Arena saga. I don't have to remind any of you that Coventry RFC have a long and proud history. At one time in the 1970's, they provided 13 of an England side! Yes, they are now having a hard time and are in English National League 1 but that is no reason to cast them to the wolves! Coventry people will not support Wasps and Wasp supporters will not travel to Coventry! Yes, the DOT have given permission for a station to be built at the Arena but no one has come forward to fund it. Wasps have played a game at the Ricoh 2007 semi against the Saints (close neighbours) but the novelty factor gave them a modest crowd, way below the best that have been there. They would not fare well there so it seems like a strange move?
Just like I support CCFC playing in their home city I support Wasps playing in London. Contact the Sky Blue Trust (http://skybluetrust.co.uk/) and co-ordinate a campaign that is based on suppoters not owners. We all must show them that we are the fabric of the respective codes and they cannot just trample all over us from there cosy tax havens in Monaco and the Cayman Islands. My thoughts are with you.
Good luck.
Once business takes over sport these things happen. Didnt an American team relocate one season from New York to LA ??
So sorry to hear about this monstrous decision from the club's owners. Wasps fans must be bitterly disappointed. Rugby fans all over England should shudder at the thought that their club could be next.
Anything we as rugby fans can do in these desperate times, we will do. Good luck getting the club to see sense and overturn this ridiculous decision.
Top of the League 2014-2015 Season
I think this is any fans worst nightmare, to think we were nearly joined with Bristol and they are only 16 miles away.
I cannot begin to know how you Waspies feel and I wouldn't presume to do so. I can only say that if this happened to my club Bath, I would be devastated. Like that wonderful letter by Hucks my Bath memories are many and I love them.
Sorry is so inadequate but it is all I can say- I am genuinely sorry for you.
Lesley from Bath
Many congratulations Hucks.
All the more moving because of the universality of your severe "affliction" shared by we fans up and down the country.
How sad to see this impending divorce of the hard-nosed money men (who, yes, have a job to do) and the true heart and soul of the club -- the passionate, never-say-die gutsy supporters who create the atmosphere that brings out that extra litle spark of magic from the stars on the field.
Anyway, fear not: When HS2 gets underway you'll be able to get to the Sale ground quicker than High Wycombe and support a truly top club :-) But by then, our great club will be but a fading memory in the local old folks homes as it plies its trade in some far-flung Chinese province, or wherever the money men and their RFU chums reckon they can make a quick buck.
So all the very best to you. The rugby family feels your pain.
I remember sitting at Twickenham,amongst 10 Munstermen when Howley went over for that try to secure the Heineken and feeling the joy in Wasps fan's hearts. Truly great days and a great club. Nil desperandum. I have signed your petition. Keep stuck in and hold your heads high.
You have always shown loyalty to your club and the passion I have been aware of is clearly pointed out through what could be a modern history biography of your club.
In addition to all you say of rugby, I would like to add that enjoying the rivalry has enabled us to stay in touch more often and to always know you will be catching up again each year. It can be too easy not to meet up, enjoying both sale v wasps over past 6 years has been immense - it has also helped strengthen a friendship which I hope will last a lifetime and I will be ever thankful for that.
You have my full support, hope this is still able to be averted even at this late stage. Good luck and I have signed the petition.
M
In solidarity.
"Your days are numbered. Use them to throw open the windows of your soul to the sun. If you do not, the sun will soon set, and you with it."
-- Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor 161-180 A.D.
It makes me think of the great lifelong friends I made in my early days supporting Wasps. On the right of the picture is Slim Sladey, with whom I am still friends with years later. He in Singapore and me in Abu Dhabi.
When I first went to watch Wasps, I had just graduated from uni. It was the Autumn of 1997. I bought myself a season ticket, and started attending matches by myself. Before long, I was not going to games on my own, because I got to know a few of the others sat around me. Such was the welcome of the Wasps community. What originally started out as a way to while away a Sunday afternoon, soon turned into an event to rival Fridays and Saturdays for the big night out. (Such are the powers of recovery for twenty-somethings.) Then came the away games, then came tours.
For each and everyone of you I have shared a beer with, toured with sung with. Thank you for the memories. Thank you for the bits I don't remember, which I am sure were good given the way I felt the mourning after.
Many of your memories are also memories of my own.
I too was one of those 500 at Lansdowne Road, it is a game an experience I will never forget, especially Big Trev's try.
It's a shame that it seems from now that will be all my memories I will have.
How can I offer loyalty, when no loyalty is offered to me.
The trouble with doing something right the first time is that nobody appreciates how difficult it was.
Great article. I would feel exactly the same if it happened to us. I have always loved our rivalry. Wasps in Coventry just isn't Wasps.
Very sad.
At Supporters Direct, www.supporter-direct.coop, we are here to help organise fans into a sort of co-operative to help give the fans a voice and an influence in the club they support in a democratic one member one vote way. We have experience of many fans groups i football and rugby league but also in rugby union and ice hockey, we work with any sports where the fans want a say in what happens at their club.
Please get in touch and let's have a conversation about what's happening, not just at Wasps but in Rugby Union.
Best wishes
Jacqui
supporters Direct
jacqui.forster@suppoorters-direct.coop
07736184282
Why do I tell you this, simple, the link is Coventry.
can I have a link to the petition?
I despise the current drive in professional rugby that is attempting to create movable franchises out of clubs that have many stakeholders, not just owners.
I hate this move to Coventry and the rugby model it represents. My best wishes.
