Pinsent Masons and Kennedys scrum down on Wasps' Coventry stadium deal
Pinsent Masons and Kennedys have advised on the sale of Coventry's Ricoh Arena to Wasps in a deal that will see the Premiership rugby club play their home matches 80 miles north of their current ground as of December.
October 20, 2014 at 07:09 PM
2 minute read
Pinsent Masons and Kennedys have advised on the sale of Coventry's Ricoh Arena to Wasps in a deal that will see the Premiership rugby club play its home matches 80 miles north of their current ground as of December.
Wasps' £20m bid for a 50% interest in the 32,000-seat stadium was unanimously accepted by Coventry City Council earlier this month, but supporters have expressed their frustration at the club's decision to ditch its current base in High Wycombe, with more than 2,500 fans signing an online petition against the move.
The club's chief executive Nick Eastwood insists relocation is essential to the future financial stability of the club, which currently loses £3m a season playing at Wycombe Wanderers' Adams Park ground.
Pinsent Masons advised Coventry City Council on the sale of its stake in the arena.
The Pinsents team acting on the transaction was led by Graeme Fyfe, a legal director in the firm's structured solutions team. The deal also involved Pinsents' global sports team, led by partner James Earl, with other lawyers involved including Alan Cassels, Stewart Carlile, Ian Stewart, Kevin Beattie, Heather Porter and David Quinlan.
Earl said: "This is the type of deal which we are going to see happen more and more, in an era that will see more financial success dominate many areas of the business of sport, particularly in terms of increasing utilisation of sports stadia assets."
Two years ago, Earl was part of a Pinsents team that successfully appealed a decision by the Rugby Football Union to deny Championship winners London Welsh promotion to the Premiership because of a failure to meet the minimum standards criteria.
A Kennedys team led by corporate and banking partner Robert Dawbarn advised Wasps on the stadium purchase.
Dawbarn also headed up the Kennedys team which advised an investment consortium led by former Wasps captain and current chairman Mark Rigby when it acquired the club for an undisclosed sum in 2012.
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