Wright gets Wasps for £5m

Chris Wright today paid around £5 million for London Wasps rugby club.

The deal is part of negotiations to solve the financial plight faced by Loftus Road plc, who also own Queens Park Rangers football club.

The rescue plan was first revealed by Standard Sport earlier this week. The sale of Wasps has also met with the approval of Wasps trustees.

Loftus Road plc went into administration on Monday after it was revealed they were losing £570,000 a month and talks are on-going with potential buyers of the football club.

We can disclose today that one of the interested parties is Brent-ford chairman Ron Noades.

Wright's deal does not yet include the Acton training ground used by Wasps and QPR but it is expected to be part of the final contract.

The rugby club are expected to continue to play at Loftus Road providing a new buyer of the stadium accepts their residency, and Wright revealed his intention to purchase the rugby club on Tuesday.

He also said he planned to sell the football club for a cut-price £6m.

Wright has succeeded with the first part of his plan but a bid for the Rangers and their ground has yet to be accepted by the administrators.

Administrator Ray Hocking said: "We are pleased to have negotiated a successful deal for the rugby club in such a short space of time.

"It will help secure their long-term future and enable the management to plan for the rest of this season and the one after."

Noades, the former Crystal Palace chairman, had said he intended to retire when he had seen Brentford move into a new stadium but his interest in QPR and their Loftus Road ground may change that.

Brentford have cleared the way for their Griffin Park stadium to be sold to developers and have an agreement to share with Woking for the 2003-4 season.

Hocking added: "We have not had a written expression of interest in either company from Noades but one thing you can be sure of is that everyone is talking to everyone.

"We anticipate this period of administration will not be a long one but it may depend on whether any buyer wants to complete before the end of the season or not."