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Leaving the city would wreck Bath

BATH's Recreation Ground has survived being bombed by the Luftwaffe and several dousings by the adjacent River Avon over the years, but the historic ground now faces its biggest threat: the strategic review into the legality of Bath staying and redeveloping their home since 1865 into a facility fit for the Premiership.

For many Bath supporters it's hard to quantify what The Rec means to them, it's an emotive situation where the amount of covered seating the ground can, or cannot, provide is irrelevant.

Everyone has their favourite memories; mine are both from a personal and playing perspective.

As a schoolboy operative of the old wooden scoreboard in the north-east corner of the ground, I once received the biggest cheer of the afternoon for incorrectly adding an extra 0 to the score, which should have read Bath 10 Wasps 0 instead of 100-0!

And from a spectator point of view, whilst there are many, my fondest memory is of a bumper crowd, reportedly 14,000, cramming into The Rec on a wet Wednesday night to see Bath record a nail-biting 16-13 victory over a formidable Cardiff team in 1985. Health & Safety would have had a field day!

Bath showed the dogged determination that was to serve them well in the years to come, and produced a result that confirmed the balance of power in club rugby was shifting from the Welsh to the English well before the advent of the Heineken Cup.

However even the most stuck-in-the-mud supporter, as is often the case at the rain-sodden ground, knows that the facilities on offer are not up to scratch and something has to be done - just not the unthinkable.

With no alternative sites identified as suitable venues it's down to a straight battle between developing The Rec into a 15,000-capacity arena in keeping with its surroundings or moving out of town and ripping the heart and soul out of the rugby club.

Opposition fans may wonder what all the fuss is about, having had to endure matches in all weathers in an uncovered, restricted viewing area, and that's after the hassles of getting in and out of town.

But none of them would deny that a trip to Bath to watch a game of rugby in an improved stadium would be infinitely better than traipsing to a concrete bowl in the middle of some trading estate.

After all, the match day experience at Bath doesn't just take place in the stadium; it takes place within the whole city as rugby fans intermingle with shoppers and tourists. It's an experience not falsely built around loud music or cheap gimmicks, but one that has naturally evolved over the years to incorporate dropping in for a pint at the Green Tree or the Pulteney Arms on the way to the ground.

Bath chief executive Bob Calleja was initially brought in by club owner Andrew Brownsword as a businessman with the remit to stop “an ailing business haemorraging money".

But in the seven years since then, and now promoted to the role of chief executive, Calleja has bought into the romantic side of the sport and admits the "future of the club" is at stake.

"The focus is not on having an extension to the East Stand for another year and another year after that, no, the focus has to be on the feasibility of developing the ground," he told Rugby Times.

"This hotch-potch of buildings, temporary buildings, which costs us £250,000 a year to put up and take down and to rent, is just a waste of time, money and energy.

"Anyway, apart from trying to increase the capacity, we must improve our facilities.

"This is quite a challenge, but we've got to take this opportunity, this is the future of Bath rugby.

"It's all well and good having a strong squad on the field, but if we don't get the resources off the field and the particularly the ground, it's going to be very, very difficult.

"There's been a number of different sites over the years that we've looked a and surveys have been conducted - the Racecourse, the University, etc - but for various reasons they are unsuitable. There is not an alternative suitable site within Bath.

"The Rec is in a wonderful location, but it needs to be modernised and updated.

"It's a fact that the club are falling behind," he added.

"Irrespective of the pain to our long-suffering supporters who get cold and wet, as a business we have to look forward to better facilities, not wasting so much money on temporary accommodation and looking for greater capacity because the demand is there.

"If you look at the attendances on the weekend when we had our first home game (against Leicester) we were one of the few clubs to sell out."

Another sell-out crowd will be in place for the visit of Worcester on Saturday, and the Bath Supporters Club will be launching a petition at the match calling for the rugby club to be allowed to develop an enhanced arena.

Calleja, meanwhile, is calling on the whole of Bath - residents, business folk and the media - to get behind their bid to stay at the club's spiritual home.

"This strategic review gives everyone the opportunity to get behind the club and off the proverbial fence.

"A number of people say that Bath Rugby must stay at The Rec, and then they just stop.

"What people have to do, and there will be a co-coordinated campaign of petitions, letter writing and lobbying of politicians, is to ensure that the consultant in charge of the review is made fully aware of the strength of feeling."

The man they have to convince is consultant Jeff Bishop of Bristol-based firm, BDOR.

Bishop been appointed by the Trustees of the Recreation Ground - as an impartial individual to conduct the strategic review, which has been paid for by Bath and North East Somerset Council (BANES).

The trustees - three BANES councillors - have been responsible for The Rec since the Government's Charity Commission decided the land should be governed by a charitable trust.

Time is of an essence for Bath. With ground capacity running at virtually 100 per cent the club's financial clout is being severely held back.

Whilst other clubs, in line with the recommendations from Premier Rugby over ground criteria, continue to update and expand their home bases, Bath are stuck in limbo and falling behind.

"The strategic review will not be finished until December and I don't know how long the Charity Commission needs to digest that info before a decision is made," continued Calleja.

"Hopefully it won't be too long, but I'd say it'll be February/March next year at the earliest.

"Once that amber light is given then at least we'll know legally we have an opportunity to develop The Rec.

"As for the time-frame after that, as soon as possible would be my answer.

"Wed like to reach 15,000 with associated facilities in 2010, that's our target."

What the legends think:

Graham Dawe (Bath hooker 1986-1997)
It would be unthinkable. You could say that the heart and soul would be taken out of the club. Maybe I'm living in the past, but I'd say that watching Bath play Leicester, Wasps and Gloucester is worth getting wet for. Nobody ever died getting wet

Richard Hill (Bath scrum-half 1982-1994)
As far as Bath's future is concerned they've got to try and remain at The Rec at all costs. It's in one of the best locations of any city. I was in town on the morning of the Leicester match, it was a lovely sunny day and the whole place was buzzing. If rugby was taken out of the city the whole atmosphere would change and traders would lose the hundreds of pounds that are spent by fans. But there's no doubt that massive improvements need to be made because some of the facilities are shocking.