You have to go back to late October 2023 to find any reports of progress in the sale of what was Worcester Warriors Rugby Club in either national or even local newspapers. The board members of WWST have, however, been kept informed of any developments through communication with the current owner of Atlas Worcester Warriors. This communication has been effective and honest but, understandably, much of it has been given in confidence; as such we have not been able to divulge much in the way of detail. In late December, Mr Holland invited us to meet him at Sixways, to discuss his plans for the club and any potential place for the Supporters' Trust within those plans. With busy diaries for both parties, the first opportunity for this meeting was early last week. As such WWST's Society Secretary, David Verralls, and Chairman, Marcus Mulcahy, arrived at the stadium on Tuesday 6th February. It was a pleasure to enter the building and find a manned front-desk, a busy reception area and staff upstairs to meet and greet us. The impression was of a building being used and looked after.
Chris Holland was kind enough to reiterate how his involvement in Warriors came about. His tale of how he became the inadvertent owner of two rugby clubs could, perhaps, be the subject of a new film by "Hollywood Director Beau Kerouac." The initial priority at Sixways has been to balance the books of the operating company by reducing the costs of running such a large facility and increasing its income. We were pleased to hear of significant progress on both fronts thanks to the management and twenty-one staff members still employed. Future exciting projects and events are in the pipeline but it is not our position to announce these.
With regards to the potential for a phoenix Worcester Warriors men's team, it has been widely reported that the RFU would like to see the likes of Worcester in a Tier Two competition in 2025/26. This is also the clear objective of those in control at Sixways. If the RFU and Championship clubs can come to an agreement over the next few weeks, we believe that the last significant barrier to the return of top class men's rugby will have been removed.
At the meeting, David Verralls stressed that the overriding intention of WWST is to do all we can to help facilitate such a return. We discussed various ways in which we might be able to help and received positive feedback on our ideas. The board will have much work to do over the next few weeks to substantiate these ideas.
It is our strong belief that the direction of travel is firmly back on course; we are hugely optimistic that we will be part of a packed crowd watching Worcester Warriors begin a new campaign at Sixways in September 2025.
We discussed many other details in a ninety minute meeting and are very pleased to have been offered regular progress meetings in future. Much of the detail cannot be publicly posted due to the nature of business transactions and the confidentiality of others - we hope that supporters will be understanding of this.
The reason WWST was founded was the lack of any unified voice for supporters. We now have a voice and that voice is not just being heard, but listened to. The more members we have, the more credible we become as an organisation and the more relevant that voice becomes. If you have not yet subscribed as a member, please do consider it. If you are already a member but know of Warriors fans who aren't, please share with them the following link. For the price of a round or coffee & cake for two, you could be part of the new future of your club.
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