Rees backs new stadium (From Bucks Free Press)

Rees backs new stadium

11:40am Friday 19th March 2010 in

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TOM Rees says Wasps could get 20,000 people through the gates on a regular basis – and if their new stadium gets the go-ahead he has challenged the club’s marketers to make sure they fill it.

He said: “There is huge potential for rugby in Wycombe and the surrounding areas.

“There are so many good schools and local clubs and top level rugby in the town is a great outlet for them.

“If the town and surrounding area gets caught up in it you can really build something here and I’d like to think that, given we sell out at Adams Park for the big games, we could push 15,000-20,000 fans.

“You get less coming on international weeks and when we’re playing what people perceive to be lesser teams, but I think the quality and competitiveness of the Premiership is driving up every week and interest in the game as a whole is growing.

“If there was top-level facility based in the town that was easy to get to I think it would draw more people in.

“It’s a case of balancing the ambition of having a big stadium and pushing the capacity, and not selling ourselves short by capping the number that can get in “But we’ve got to look to fill it as opposed to going, ‘We know we can get 12,000-13,000 in’ and being satisfied with that.”

But Rees does not think it would be a failure if it took time to really catch on.

He said: “If there was a 20,000-seater stadium there and we didn’t fill it every week to start with there is no case of failure there. That is room to grow.

“This joint venture with Wasps and Wanderers is a great chance to present both clubs with fantastic facilities, to really improve on what we’ve got at Adams Park and hopefully it’s a great site and people will want to come and be involved and get hooked into it for life.”

Rees also believes that more fans will turn up if the doubt surrounding Wasps’ future in the town is removed once and for all.

He said: “Perhaps in the past people have been dissuaded from coming down because there’s been a question, ‘Are we based in Wycombe or just here for the short-term?”

Meanwhile, with Wasps’ St George’s Day game at Twickenham in mind, Rees insists that a new stadium would not bring about the end of big days out for Wasps fans.

He said: “We’re not building a stadium because we’re having to take games to Twickenham.

“It’s just a continuation of trying to build the club up both in terms of putting on these real quality marquee events but also having a quality experience for fans to come down to on a weekly basis in our home ground.”