Worcester Warriors women's side 'not a financially viable business', say ex-owners
- Published
Worcester Warriors finished sixth in the women's top flight last season
The former owners of Worcester Warriors' women's side say they pulled out of funding the club because it was not a "financially viable" business.
Cube International had agreed a 10-year deal to support Warriors in May but ended that on 18 October and withdrew the club from all competitions.
Speaking for the first time since the decision, Cube chairman Andy Moss said the move had left him "devastated".
"The support just doesn't exist for it," he told BBC Hereford & Worcester.
Cube's initial funding deal ensured the survival of Warriors women following the collapse of the men's team at Sixways 13 months ago.
Although that cash injection enabled them to finish last season in sixth place in the Premier 15s, they didn't get the chance to start the rebranded Premiership Women's Rugby this term after Cube's withdrawal.
"Quite simply, it wasn't financially viable," said Moss, who added it costs £1m per season to run the club.
"I stepped in to rescue it until Christmas on the basis that whoever bought Sixways were going to buy the club."
Although the Atlas Group struck a deal to buy what was left of the men's club at the beginning of May, taking on the women's team wasn't included.
Since that purchase agreement was reached, control of Atlas has been taken over by Wasps owner Chris Holland with the deal yet to be signed off by the administrators with more than £1m still owed.
Moss said when it was clear the women's team needed saving, they stepped in "with great ambition".
"We looked at the finances, we looked at the support incomes we could generate and we felt that with the support that seemed to be out there at the time, we should be able to generate a certain amount of revenue and would support it and the Cube would underwrite the rest," he said.
Moss said Cube had tried "very hard" to make things work but found "simply no financial backing" and, together with low attendances, said they found themselves "in an untenable position that we couldn't take it forward".
Moss 'personally devastated' club could not be saved
The end of Warriors' women's side was described as "heartbreaking" by the club's director of rugby Jo Yapp, who said the news of Cube's decision had come "out of the blue".
Moss said Yapp's passion for the club was "unwavering" and said having to tell the coaching staff and players was "so sad".
"I'm personally devastated that we weren't able to take it forward," he said, before confirming staff had been paid their salaries for October but would not be getting any for November, although Cube were working with the Rugby Players Association (RPA) on the "best way forward".
Moss also offered some further clarity on the financial situation at Cube which, ultimately, led to their decision to pull out.
The company have gone through an amicable management buyout in order to restructure their finances, with the new investors unable to include the rugby club in the process because it needed to prove it was a sustainable business in its own right.
"There needed to be some clarity on the future but with no real commercial support it was very challenging to put a case forward," Moss said.
Moss said the decision to take the club out of competition rather than try to find alternative financial backing was based on the struggles they'd encountered since taking the business on - including trying to raise £50,000 to finish last season, which Moss said brought in "a couple of thousand pounds".
"How many times has the Warriors situation gone round and round?" he said to BBC Hereford & Worcester.
"How many times have we reached out to try find support? We even put a JustGiving page up and set a target - but the support just doesn't exist for it."
Sixways is currently the home of non-league football club Worcester Raiders
Club needed a 'sugar daddy' figure
Moss said he'd been putting off aligning the Women's team too close to the men's given what he called the "toxic nature" around "everything that's gone on over the last 18 months with Worcester Warriors and Sixways".
He also revealed "several interested parties" had come forward expressing an interest to buy the club since Cube announced their withdrawal but said the prospective investors "didn't understand the enormity of running it".
Moss said with costs around £1m to run the club, the only realistic way for the business to survive was to have a "sugar daddy" in the mould of Warriors former owner and benefactor Cecil Duckworth.
But, he said "those people, as far as I'm aware, don't exist. We've tried but the commercial viability of a rugby club in Worcester at this time just doesn't exist".
Moss also pointed to the financial meltdowns across the sport that have seen Wasps and London Irish disappear from the men's game, along with Worcester, in the last 12 months as a depressing guide to the problems Cube faced with Warriors' women's side.
"The men's teams are generating anywhere between 6,000 and 20,000 people watching a game - all buying a ticket and supporting the club and generating revenue," he said.
"We've got no-one coming to watch, no commercial interest - it's not a viable proposition at this moment."