Makes no sense at all. Wasps were going bust. There either was or wasn’t a discussion in the council about a bailout. Reeves and Duggins want to say there wasn’t but if not how could Reeves say that the political administration were very clear on no bailout. Reeves and Duggins also both want to say that no money was on offer, but the Wasps Board voted on a proposal which included £30 million from the council. Somebody is telling porkies.
The line is that the process goes:
1) informal convo with bidder and Reeves
2) bidder puts outline proposal to wasps
3) bidder works up proper proposal
4) council consider proposal
So he’s saying it fell at 2 and the council get involved at 4.
I heard CWR this morning claiming the only thing that stopped it happening was the board voting it down and that’s just categorically not true. At the very least it would have had to go to full council vote.
What it hinges on it what was said in that informal conversation. Did Reeves say “yea you can have £30m” in which case why is he lying to prospective bidders because that never would have flown. Or did he say “oh maybe we can help with some funding” and Hottinger went away and made up a number, in which case he probably presented it to the Wasps board as something it wasn’t.