Worcester Warriors’ new owners have confirmed the team will remain at their Sixways home following a takeover by a consortium that includes the former Swindon Town chairman Jed McCrory.
Worcester have been up for sale for the past year with the former owner, Sixways Holdings Limited, reportedly valuing the club at £26.7m. Since then Worcester have posted pre-tax losses of over £8m – revealed in a special report by the Guardian to be the most significant in the Premiership.
The consortium is led by Errol Pope, described on the Worcester website as the primary funder and “a finance specialist in property and commodity trading [with] a passion for community-led projects in sport”. David Seymour, the former Sale and Saracens flanker, is also part of the consortium.
In the past 12 months the former Saracens chief executive Edward Griffiths has been linked with leading a takeover bid while the Scottish Rugby Union was also interested in the club and last November the Worcester chairman, Bill Bolsover, admitted he could not rule out a move away from Sixways.
But the new owners have revealed plans to develop the site “with the intentions of making the club self-sustainable and achieving long-term success on and off the field”.
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Worcester’s finances were laid bare by the Guardian in August. They were the only club last year whose wage bill exceeded turnover and the finance director, Kirsty Fisher, resigned in July after only 18 months at the club. Worcester were also shown to have loans worth over £26m still outstanding. In their strategic report the club noted that central funding was not tracking in line with the hike in the salary cap, resulting in increased player costs, but the new owners have made a commitment to “investing above a certain threshold into the rugby budget”.
Bolsover, who will remain on the board, said: “We have found long-term owners who are capable of taking the club to the next level. Our search has been extensive and the whole process has been a thorough one to ensure we found the right owners who have the backing to take this club forward.
“The new owners have that backing and, with it, a clear vision to ensure Warriors can achieve long-term success and become one of the top clubs in the Premiership. They have shown that they have the capability and commitment to invest millions of pounds into Warriors to further develop the club.”
Worcester are currently 10th in the Premiership after one win from five matches.