22 Sep 2017
Wasps appoint event specialist to drive commercial opportunities at Ricoh
BY Tom Walker
Aviva Premiership club Wasps has appointed events industry specialist Stuart Cain as its new commercial director to help increase usage of the Ricoh Arena’s event facilities.
Cain joins Wasps after spending seven years as commercial director of the NEC Group.
During his time at NEC, he built The Ticket Factory into one of the UK’s leading music, sport and entertainment ticketing agents, selling more than 2.5m tickets each year. He also brokered multi-million pound naming rights deals with brands such as Barclaycard and Genting.
Wasps has been looking to fully utilise its ownership of the 32,000-capacity Ricoh Arena since the club acquired the venue in 2014, as part of its relocation from London to Coventry.
As well as the stadium, which is also the home to Coventry City Football Club, the Ricoh houses a 6,000sq m (64,600sq ft) exhibition hall, a hotel and a casino.
Last year, Wasps launched a franchise team in the Netball Superleague to add a new tenant for the stadium and the club has also introduced new restaurants and bars as part of a significant upgrade of Ricoh.
“The appointment was key to ensuring the continued development of the Wasps and Ricoh Arena brands and its business performance," said Nick Eastwood, CEO of the Wasps Group.
“We are excited by the expertise and extra leadership Stuart will bring to the business as we approach our third year in the West Midlands and our 150th anniversary season as a club.”
As well as his stint at NEC, Cain has also worked as commercial director at Glasgow Rangers FC and Wolverhampton Wanderers.
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