Home from home: Clubs' grounds and growing pains

Tony Copsey, a former second-row forward of some repute who runs England's champion club, has fully mastered the question. "Sports stadiums are, or have the potential to be, modern cathedrals for our communities," the Wasps chief executive said this week. "Think of all the outreach work generated from these places, all the social cohesion they create, the business opportunities they offer, the inward investment they attract, the local profiles they help develop – this is really positive stuff. So why do we have such difficulty making our grounds as good as they can be?" And the answer? A deafening silence.

Copsey has a problem with his club's accommodation in High Wycombe. It is not as acute a problem as Bath have with the Recreation Ground, which is the subject of the most interminable legal wrangle since Jarndyce started squabbling with Jarndyce, or Bristol have at the Memorial Ground, which they flogged off for peanuts during the dark days of the 1990s, but it is a problem all the same. By 2010-11, the minimum stadium capacity for a Guinness Premiership club will be fixed at 12,000. It is far from certain that Wasps will be able to find room for another 2,000 fans.

"We think we can get there; in fact, the drawing board is up and we're working on a solution now," Copsey said. "But it will be subject to planning and it's not a given. Everyone knows there is not a huge amount of elbow room at Adams Park, just as they know that our long-term plan is to move back into London and play at our own stadium. What happens if we can't get the extra capacity? I think Premier Rugby has to look at its core criteria. Minimum capacity should be an aspiration, not a stick to beat everyone around the head."

Premier Rugby, the body charged with administering English rugby's elite league, does not see it quite the same way. The rise to 12,000 has already been postponed once and there is little enthusiasm for further delay, despite the pickle in which some of the country's most celebrated clubs find themselves. According to Mark McCafferty, Premier Rugby's chief executive, progress on the stadium front is "a very high priority for us as the next phase of growth for the game".

McCafferty is not unsympathetic to Copsey's argument. "This is one of my hobby horses," he said. "What we absolutely need in this country is more vision when it comes to sports facilities, because people willing to make significant investments in this area are constantly frustrated by the difficulties of obtaining the necessary approval. It's not just rugby; there are people throughout English sport moaning about the complications they face.

"It is not the case that we're being inflexible about pushing through these improvements: we're not so dogmatic as to threaten clubs with being thrown out on their ear if they're in real difficulties. But this is a fairly modest measure from a business point of view and we believe it is hugely important to take some positive steps forward. If we don't, Premiership rugby could slip off the pace. Look at the facilities in France, the strides being made in Wales. Also, look at what's happening in other sports – in cricket, to use an obvious example. There is a huge amount of money being pumped into cricket. It's a competitive market out there and we can't afford to fall behind."

Fifty per cent of the clubs in the top flight are comfortable in their own skin, so to speak. Leicester have embarked on major development work that will ultimately see Welford Road house 30,000; Gloucester, Harlequins, Northampton and Worcester play in high-standard, rugby-specific arenas that already hold upwards of 12,000 and will soon be developed further; London Irish have agreed a long-term tenancy at the Madejski Stadium in Reading, which caters for 24,000-plus.

Unfortunately for the Premiership, the other 50 per cent have issues of one sort or another. Wasps are not alone in their desire to move back into the capital, from whence they came: Saracens, who play at Watford's tumbledown Vicarage Road, where one main stand was declared unfit for use four years ago, have the same idea. Unlike their fellow north Londoners, they are extremely wealthy: indeed, their board members are said to be worth more than a billion between them. Yet the future is not cut and dried by any means.

"Financial realities, especially in the current economic climate, may not allow us to move back into London," said Mark Sinderberry, their chief executive. "We're continuing to explore opportunities, because our long-term ambition is to play our rugby at a home of our own. Vicarage Road is undergoing some renovation work, but I can't deny that sharing a ground on the present terms is prohibitive. If you don't have your own ground, there is bound to be a ceiling on your potential. There again, land prices are pretty astronomical in this part of the world. It's not easy."

The two northern clubs, Newcastle and Sale, have a different headache. Both are struggling for supporters, and are reluctant to invest in further ground improvements until they find some. "We want to develop, but we need the right platform on which to build and that means filling the current stadium week in, week out," said James Jennings, the Sale chief executive. "Our focus is on staying here [at Edgeley Park, which is shared with Stockport FC], because we own the place. But we need to push on with building our audience."

Which leaves Bath, whose entanglement with trustees and charity commissioners and local Nimbys has been a running sore for longer than anyone cares to remember, and Bristol, whose recent history with landlords, planners and here-today-gone-tomorrow investors is very nearly as miserable. Of the two, Bath are in the more acute position: they have just about given up hope of staying at the Recreation Ground, perhaps the most legally sensitive patch of sporting land in the country, and expect to be playing in Swindon next season. But as Bristol are not in a happy place either, it may be that within five years, the two will end up sharing accommodation.

"Our focus is still on staying at the Rec, but our discussions with the Charity Commissioners, who have the major say on the future of the ground, are really very difficult," said the Bath chief executive, Bob Calleja. "Yes, we are talking seriously with Swindon Town about sharing their football stadium as an interim measure. I'd like to think we can find a permanent solution that involves us playing where we play now, but if you ask me for my gut feeling, I'd have to say that I don't think we'll be here next season.

"One of the questions we now have to ask ourselves is that even if we were granted permission to develop the Rec, could we reasonably expect to build a stadium big enough for our needs? It may not be long before club rugby commands regular audiences of 20,000. With that in mind, we're looking at potential sites for a new venue to the east and west of the city. If we went for the west option, a groundshare with Bristol would make sense. Of course, in saying that, I want to make it absolutely clear that the clubs would remain entirely independent of each other. It wouldn't be anything like the situation we had a few years ago."

This was a reference to the events of 2003, when the great West Country rivals were filling the bottom two places in the Premiership and a merger proposal was on the table. Had Bath been relegated, the clubs might well have joined forces. Instead, Bristol took the fall and negotiations were abandoned.

Should talks resume – Bristol have been eerily quiet on the subject – there will be fierce objections from sentimentalists at both clubs. They can howl all they like, for the professional game has no room for nostalgia. Ultimately, the two teams will play in a place, or places, where the sums add up. If not, they will not play Premiership rugby at all.

Grounded Who has what

Bath: The Recreation Ground
Capacity: 10,600
Average gate last season: 10,460
Condition: Uniquely ramshackle
Past: Once known as Pulteney Meadows, rugby played there since 1894
Future: Dire. Modernisation plans consistently fall foul of legal challenges

Bristol: The Memorial Stadium
Capacity: 11,976
Average gate last season: 9,175
Condition: Far from brilliant
Past: Bristol built original stadium on Buffalo Bill's field in 1921
Future: Uncertain. Redevelopment on hold because of cash-flow problems

Gloucester: Kingsholm
Capacity: 16,500
Average gate last season: 14,167
Condition: The best club stadium in the country
Past: Gloucester have played on former college sports field since 1891
Future: Rich potential for expansion

Harlequins: The Twickenham Stoop
Capacity: 12,638
Average gate last season: 10,946
Condition: Brand, spanking new
Past: Quins started developing the old athletics track in 1961
Future: As healthy as Kingsholm's

Leicester: Welford Road
Capacity: 17,498
Average gate last season: 17,206
Condition: Undergoing a transformation
History: An active rugby venue since 1892
Future: Unlimited potential for growth

London Irish: Madejski Stadium (Reading)
Capacity: 24,100
Average gate last season: 9,950
Condition: Good enough for Premier League football
History: Built on old rubbish dump in 1998
Future: Irish have a tenancy deal which is good until 2026

Newcastle: Kingston Park
Capacity: 10,200
Average gate last season: 7,529
Condition: It ticks all the boxes
History: Rugby moved on to the old works sports ground in 1990
Future: No obvious problems, despite the club's links with Northern Rock

Northampton: Franklin's Gardens
Capacity: 13,500
Average gate last season: 11,494
Condition: As good as any stadium in the country
History: Once zoological pleasure gardens, but a rugby ground since 1887
History: As bright as at Kingsholm and the Stoop

Sale: Edgeley Park (Stockport)
Capacity: 10,641
Average gate last season: 8,772
Condition: Hopelessly out of date
History: Built in 1901 as a rugby league arena
Future: In urgent need of a facelift

Saracens: Vicarage Road (Watford)
Capacity: 18,214
Average gate last season: 8,980
Condition: Rather less than pristine
History: Watford's football stadium since 1922; Sarries appeared in 1997
Future: Unsure; rugby club keen to move

Wasps: Adams Park (Wycombe)
Capacity: 10,000
Average gate last season: 8,886
Condition: Fast falling behind the times
History: A football ground, built on industrial-estate land in 1990
Future: Too cramped already and no potential for expansion

Worcester: Sixways
Capacity: 12,068
Average gate last season: 9,658
Condition: Good, and getting better
History: Worcester started developing the green-field site in 1975
Future: Up, up and away