'If it weren't for Wasps we wouldn't need new ground' (From Bucks Free Press)

'If it weren't for Wasps we wouldn't need new ground'

1:10pm Friday 19th March 2010 in

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BLUES chairman Ivor Beeks this week admitted that Wanderers would not be looking for a new stadium if it wasn’t for Wasps.

But he says the rugby club’s desire to expand has presented his own club with a fantastic opportunity to better themselves.

He said: “If we were just Wycombe I don’t think we would probably be looking at a new stadium, but having said that, to move gives us a greater emphasis on other commercial activities.

“But we are not just Wanderers now.

“We are one unit now that Steve Hayes has both clubs. We are Wasps and Wycombe and Wycombe and Wasps.

“If you look at those two units as one we have outgrown Adams Park and probably we wouldn’t have outgrown it if we were just Wycombe.”

But he says Wanderers should grasp the opportunity.

He said: “I can’t see any downside to it. To the negative people I would say wait and see the project come to fruition.

“Don’t prejudge anything until we get to the point where we say this is what we’ve got to offer.

“At the moment we are saying we want to move, we want to do something and we are going to take a year approximately to try and find out where we could go and what we want to do.

“I’m very excited we’ve got the opportunity to bring two clubs together and become a real power in the town. We want to aspire to be as big as Wasps.

“I think this gives us a greater opportunity to develop further and find new income streams and I think we will get an impetus from this.

“There are a lot of people that struggle to come here because of getting in and out of this place. If we took that hassle away how many more people would come?”

And he says the prospect of going from landlords to paying tenants at a council-owned stadium does not scare him and shouldn’t concern the fans.

At the moment the football club own Adams Park and collect rent from Wasps as well as a percentage of the rugby club’s matchday bar and food takings.

But if they move into the proposed council-owned stadium they would no longer collect rent and would have to pay rent themselves.

Beeks said: “It doesn’t concern me. You have to take the blinkers off and look at the bigger picture and I think the bigger picture gives us the opportunity of potentially becoming a Championship club and having a larger community based club.

“We want to build from the community.”

He dismissed the critics as a minority and said: “In 20 years time we will have a brand new set of supporters.”

Blues believe the key to growing their fanbase is through their successful community scheme which sees the two clubs coaching 350,000 kids a year.

Beeks said: “We’re in 167 schools at the moment and if we get a lot more involvement those youngsters, when they come up to the new stadium, won’t need to be asked a second time.

“So it’s not only looking at those people who are here now – let’s take these blinkers off and look at the wider audience.”