Wasps have a 250-year lease on the Coventry Building Society Arena
Wasps have followed Worcester’s lead by becoming the second Midlands-based club to confirm ongoing dialogue with Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs.
The former Premiership and European champions have responded to a newspaper report that they are being chased by HMRC over an unpaid tax bill.
“We have a strong relationship with HMRC,” said a Wasps statement.
“In common with many businesses, we agreed a time-to-pay arrangement with HMRC coming out of Covid-19 lockdown.”
The statement added: “We will continue to engage in proactive discussions with you.
“Many companies and business sectors are in exactly the same situation after the most economically challenging two and a half years in living memory.
“Individual businesses in leisure, sport, entertainment, conferencing and hospitality have been hit particularly hard and we are involved in all five of those sectors.
“We have a robust business model with a busier than ever order book for concerts, conferences, exhibitions and other events which will see us prosper into the future.”
Wasps, who played in London in their amateur days, have had three homes since rugby union became professional in 1996, spending six years sharing Loftus Road with Queens Park Rangers, before moving to High Wycombe, and then in December 2014 they relocated to the Ricoh Arena – since rebranded the Coventry Building Society Arena.
The rugby club has delayed repaying bondholders, who invested at least £2,000 each, to help it raise £35m in April 2015.
The most recent set of accounts, for Wasps Holdings, which covered the financial year ending June 2021, shows an £18.5m loss over a two-year period, with current liabilities of £54.7m.
Wasps have also been in dispute with tenants Coventry City, who have so far had to postpone three home league matches this season and switch another one due to an “unsafe and unplayable” pitch in the wake of two rock concerts and 65 games of Commonwealth Games Seven’s rugby.