Firstly, let me apologise for the woeful attempt at computer aided design above, but stay with me, I swear it has a point.
Watching London Welsh vs Leicester today, I was disheartened to see the barely quarter full Kassam Stadium. Whether this was a concerted statement from the fans that they don't like the idea of playing there, or whether they woke up on match day and realised it is NOT VERY CLOSE to where they used to go and watch their team, it does not bode well for the 'franchisation' (probably not a word) of professional rugby clubs. London Welsh deserved to come up, no doubt. But at what cost.
How on earth can moving London Welsh from the very strong rugby heartland of South-West London to a town that did not really seem over enthused to have them anyway be a good thing. I get that the RFU had some conditions to meet ground wise, but if there was a case for 'exceptional circumstances' this was it. London Welsh had to battle to get into the Premiership following an appeal, and after the Brentford groundshare (spitting distance from Old Deer Park across Kew Bridge) fell through, they were left with very few options. At first, it seemed like a barely reasonable alternative to non-promotion, but there are rumblings of longer term residency.
Old Deer Park is one of my favourite London grounds, alongside The Stoop and The Athletic Ground which homes Richmond and London Scottish. I live in Watford, and I could be in Kew in roughly 45 mins, about the same time it will take me to travel to Sarries new ground in Barnet. If they would have stayed in Richmond there would have been a very realistic chance of me going to watch them play. This is no longer the case. What's more, they have been given permission to play a couple of their Amlin Challenge Cup games at Old Deer Park, the standard for entry into the ERC competitions is apparently not high enough for the RFU.
This leads me on to a wider, bigger moan. Reading Irish and High Wycombe Wasps. What is going on there? If you look at the map above (as much as it may hurt) and you can work out the intricate colour coding system, Irish moved from the quaint suburb of Sunbury to a soulless industrial estate just outside Reading which works out to about 30 miles by road. Sudbury (where Wasps were based before Loftus Road) is roughly the same. Irish's old ground was a great little venue, however development was a problem but surely moving 30 miles away wasn't the best option long term. Wasps moving from Loftus Road (which was a dismal venue anyway) meant that West London become a total desert of top class rugby for the foreseeable future. Their move of training facilities to Acton has done little to stimulate rugby growth in the area apart from their thriving amateur section.
In short, unless clubs can be bothered to think a little laterally like Saracens have in terms of maintaining links with their roots and traditional supporter base whilst benefiting the growth of the sport and community in untypical areas, then half-empty stadiums seems like fair payback of the lack of forethought and consideration of long-term goals. If we don't work harder to keep our teams where they started, then the opening scene from the brilliant comedyfilm, Baseketball, looks like it could easily transfer to the UK context, if it hasn't already.
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