According to Google Maps, the distance between High Wycombe and Coventry is 78.6 miles and can be covered by car in one hour and 18 minutes.

For those who like more of a challenge, it can also be walked in 23 hours and 32 minutes. I have a sneaking suspicion that not too many Wasps fans will be wearing out the shoe leather if their club goes ahead with its proposed move from Buckinghamshire to the Midlands in December.

Around 3000 Wasps supporters have signed an online petition opposing the relocation. Or, more correctly, around 3000 individuals have signed a petition, for there is no way of knowing for sure whether they are Wasps supporters or not. In fact, as Wasps followers have been pretty thin on the ground lately - and particularly thin on the Adams Park ground that has been their official home for the past dozen years - I'd wager that a good percentage of those signatories are opposed to the general principle of clubs moving rather than the particular circumstances of Wasps.

We have seen this kind of thing before. In 2007 there was an outcry in the Borders when it was confirmed that the Reivers, the area's professional side, were to be axed. The Scottish Rugby Union's handling of the closure was crass, insensitive and ham-fisted but the indignation of those fans who protested against the decision would have been rather more convincing had they been turning up in greater numbers for games at Netherdale. On their death bed, the Reivers found more friends than had ever been apparent in their five-season lifetime as an active club.

As with the Reivers, there will be a hard core of Wasps supporters who deserve sympathy, who have invested time, money and emotion in the team. Their sense of rejection is understandable. Some will make the journey to the Ricoh Stadium in Coventry for 'home' games; others will drift away. A few will bite the bullet and switch allegiance to Saracens, London Irish or Harlequins, whose grounds are rather easier to reach from High Wycombe.

Yet, anyone with any knowledge of the history of Wasps will also appreciate that the club has been the Flying Dutchman of the professional era. After the game went open in 1995, they played their games at Sudbury and Loftus Road before settling on Adams Park.

Along the way, their failure to create a support base that was remotely the equal of other top English sides has been a persistent hindrance as well as a major factor in the sequence of events that took them to the brink of bankruptcy two years ago.

The £20m purchase of 50 per cent of the Ricoh Arena will give Wasps a level of security they have never had during the past two decades. It is expected that they will purchase the remainder of the shares in the ground within the next few weeks and thereby become outright owners. Rather than being the tenants of Wycombe Wanderers they will become the landlords of Coventry City. Far from betraying their roots, they are putting themselves in a position to grow new ones.

By my reckoning, six Aviva Premiership sides - half the entire division - have moved from where they were in 1995. In the case of Exeter Chiefs, that simply meant shifting across the city to a purpose-built stadium, but London Irish and London Welsh effectively became oxymorons when they upped sticks and headed to Reading and Oxford respectively. Sale Sharks have had more homes than the Sultan of Brunei and, earlier this year, there were rumours that they might be ready to move again.

The picture is different in the Guinness PRO12, where ground redevelopments have been the norm. As a result, the Celtic/Italian competition boasts some marvellous venues, new and glistening and bristling with atmosphere. A trip to Ulster's Kingspan Stadium, formerly Ravenhill, last weekend was a reminder of just how good the spectator experience has become.

A reminder, too, of the significance of home advantage. Ulster were well worth their 29-9 victory over Glasgow Warriors, but it is hard to imagine that they would have got anywhere close to a 20-point margin anywhere other than in that febrile cauldron of a ground. The old Ravenhill was a pretty intimidating environment, and it has lost none of that character through its transformation into a spick-and-span modern stadium.

And yet, as wonderful as the atmosphere was in Belfast, it was hard not to feel some strong pangs of envy as well. For the boost that Ulster took from their crowd is a factor denied to the players of Edinburgh as they rattle around their BT Murrayfield home in front of more than 60,000 empty seats.

Edinburgh did well to beat Newport-Gwent Dragons 24-10, but their crowd of just 3156 was the lowest attendance at any non-Italian PRO12 match this season.

At the other end of the M8, Glasgow have only come to understand what home advantage really means since they took up residence at Scotstoun. Sure, not many teams relished a trip to Hughenden or Firhill but a lot of Glaswegians didn't fancy those grounds much either. Now, though, they have more than 3300 season-ticket holders and will have a new 864-seat stand in place for their match with Bath this weekend.

Glasgow's success over the past two seasons has had many contributing factors, but the significance of having a ground that they can think of - if not actually call - their own should not be underestimated. Given the relatively meagre contribution Edinburgh have been making to the national side just lately, it should be a matter of urgency to get the same for the capital side as well.