Design & Development

‘Wasps Nest Stadium’ planned for M40 corridor

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Wasps RFC is seeking funding for a new stadium with the aim of supercharging the English rugby union club’s return to the top division following its financial collapse last year.

The club is working on plans to build a new 24,000-capacity stadium called the Wasps Nest Stadium near the M40 motorway, which links London and Birmingham, according to the Guardian.

Work on the complex, which would also feature a hotel, conference and community leisure facilities, could begin in 2025, subject to planning requirements. It is hoped that the stadium would be fully operational by the start of the 2027-28 campaign.

The club relocated from its traditional home in London to Wycombe, north of the UK capital, in 2002, before moving to Coventry, 10km east of Birmingham, in 2014. The club was suspended by England’s Rugby Football Union last year and then expelled from the top-tier Premiership Rugby division after falling into administration, although it has been cleared to play in the second-tier Championship next season.

There has been speculation that Wasps could play at the Sixways stadium in Northamptonshire next season, with a groundshare agreement with an unnamed facility having been reportedly in place since December.

Wasps previously played at the Coventry Building Society Arena (pictured), which is now owned by Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group.