MP insists he’s tried talking to Wasps over City’s Ricoh future
THE man tasked with mediating in the Coventry City fiasco says he has attempted to contact Wasps – despite the rugby club’s incoming chief executive insisting no contact had been made.
Nick Eastwood, who has been Wasps’ vice chairman since quitting the CEO role in 2015, will take over from the man who replaced him, David Armstrong, in June.
Mr Eastwood told the Telegraph “We haven’t been approached by anyone” when asked last week if Wasps were willing to be involved in mediation being led by Conservative MP Chris Heaton-Harris.
But the Tory MP insists he had reached out to Wasps and had not received a reply.
A spokesman for the Conservative Party said: “He wrote to Wasps, he believes the CEO and chairman, and never got a response back.
“He is happy to get in touch again to discuss issues.”
Conservative MP Chris Heaton-Harris was appointed by the government’s sports Minister Tracey Crouch in March to mediate in the Coventry City fiasco. Ms Crouch pledged to assist with mediation following a parliamentary debate into the situation at CCFC secured by Coventry MP Jim Cunningham. That debate was organised as a result of the Telegraph writing to all the parties with the potential to resolve the situation in Autumn last year, enquiring about the possibility of third party mediation in a bid to prevent the Sky Blues leaving the city again.
But Mr Eastwood said the club had not yet been invited to take part in mediation.
He said: “All we know about that is what we’ve read in the public space. We haven’t been approached by anyone.”
Coventry City’s deal to play at the Ricoh Arena expires at the end of next season and Mr Eastwood told the Telegraph Wasps are “willing to talk” with Coventry City about extending the club’s deal to play at the stadium.
His predecessor pulled the plug on talks with the football club over a long-term stadium deal almost a year ago. He cited the “distraction” of ongoing legal action over the Ricoh Arena being pursued by the two companies which make up CCFC and the Cayman-Island based Arvo – all of which are owned by London hedge fund Sisu.
The judicial review names Coventry City Council as the defendant and challenges the terms of the sale of the Ricoh Arena to Wasps – who are named as an interested party.
Wasps insist they want City to stay at the Ricoh Arena. The football club have previously said they need a stadium that gives them access to nonmatchday revenues and chairman Tim Fisher recently told fans that plans for a ground share at Coventry Rugby’s Butts Park was “the preferred option because it keeps us in the city”.