I don't know if everybody has seen this but a a legacy member I would like your opinion TRUST MEMBERS UPDATE At the meeting held on 12th September, the Trust members agreed in principle that the Club should seek external investment, with investors taking either a majority or a minority interest in the club in exchange for the provision of a permanent capital solution. After significant debate and further investigations, your Trust Board has decided that the best route for securing the financial future of the Club is to move to a position where external investors own a majority of the shares, with the Trust owning a significant minority shareholding, being involved in the day-to-day running of the Club and having control over items such as team colours, crest and where the team plays. We have therefore continued our discussions with one of the investor groups and feel it is time to introduce them to you. The investors concerned are Bill Luby and Jim Collis. Bill and Jim are American financial professionals with tremendous experience in sports, especially football. We have known them for some time and are impressed not only with their acute understanding of the business of football, but also with their sensitivity to fan ownership and of the Trust’s continued participation in running the Club going forward. In addition, they appear to us to have the financial wherewithal to continue to carry forward the Club with the aspirations of becoming a stable, secure and competitive League 1 club and even, in time, competing at a higher level. We will continue to carry out due diligence on them, but our current view is that they will be valuable partners and proper stewards for the Club. If this plan is to be implemented, the approval of 75% of Legacy Members will be required, and a formal meeting and ballot will be held in due course. However, to start the process, we have invited Bill and Jim to join us for our home game against Oxford on Tuesday 6th November. We will then hold an informal evening at Adams Park on Wednesday 7th November to introduce them to Trust members and to give everyone an opportunity to say hello in person and to ask questions in an informal setting. It must be stressed – this evening is designed to help us get to know them and to have them begin to get to know the important stakeholders at the Club. There will be no formal presentations or votes that evening, as these will take place at a future date once the formal process has been agreed. The evening will be held in the Caledonian Suite, starting at 7.30, and doors will open at 6.00 with food being available before the meeting starts. This is the start of a hugely important part of Wycombe Wanderers’ history. The Trust board is very excited about the potential relationship with Bill and Jim and I would encourage all members, whether or not they are Legacy Members, to attend if they can. We plan to live stream the meeting again as we did for the last Members meeting for anyone unable to attend in person. More information on the streaming details will be forthcoming. Trevor Stroud Chairman
Hmm hope it's not another steve The SHARK HAYES situation. After that episode I'm very wary of anyone taking a major share in our club
A few questions 1. How did the partnership with Hayes begin? 2. With a 75% stake they are in a strong position to eventually fully own the club (ie by tempting some trust members to sell their shares 3. They will also have overriding control of the financial transactions (eg who we buy, how much we pay for players, how much we pay our players, which players we sell. They could probably sack the manager if we had a losing run. If the Trust members disagreed with their demands it will cause a confrontation which could only go one way 4. What if they decided to build a new stadium When someone wants something they are certain to be nice. Once they have it and are in control, who knows what will happen Seems to me that the Trust has done a U turn. How much do they benefit personally from any deal? This could be Hayes all over again. We know nothing of this pair. What do they do? What do they own? They are Americans, why are they interested in Wycombe? Or is it Adams Park they are interested in? That's just for starters off the top of my head As you can guess Guy, I am very sceptical
Is this them? https://www.seaportcapital.com/team/bill-luby https://www.seaportcapital.com/team/jim-collis
That's my main worry as well Ron,why would they be interested in a small League 1 club when they could probably buy into a bigger club in a higher division?
Haven't we learnt our lesson yet why as Ron says do a you turn and sell the club down the river.I could understand an investment is needed but 75 percent ownership no way I would agree to that.
They look to have enough on their plate. I just don't understand why they have picked on Wycombe. Were they around watching the Hayes fiasco and have just been holding off waiting for an opportunity to succeed where Hayes failed? Is there any link between these and Hayes in the past, however tenuous ?
I was thinking exactly the same thing Ron does hayes know them or had dealings with them in the past .I'm not an expert on valuations but I suspect our ground and or the land it sits on must be worth a fair bit of money and I question their intent on buying into wycombe wanderers is it for redevelopment of the land into housing estates or similar sounds very dodgy to me
Can't think of any other reason Rocky. Give it a few years, they will become disenchanted with the lack of success and come up with a plan that involves selling Adams Park. Almost guaranteed
Totally agree Ron this so called investment looks like it will only end one way disaster for wycombe wanderers football club and maybe even the winding up of the club.when the trust took over as far as I can remember they said that this kind of takeover will not and cannot ever happen again and the wwfc must remain the priority at all costs, well they have changed their tune now haven't they...sold down the river comes to mind.and I'm fuming
On the one hand we need investors to go up the leagues (eg Man City) but this stinks to me. Have the trustees suddenly decided that they can't handle being a fan owned club. A major swing from all the upbeat remarks about now being a fan owned club. If it were a Wycombe fan born and bred in Wycombe who has got rich I would be all over it. Like one of us winning the Lottery Rocky. After sorting out the family I would be putting some Wycombe's way
Totally agree mate but these are yanks NOT wycombe fans ,either someone is getting a back hander or these people are out to shaft our club
Though I best point out that the Trust will not be selling the ground that was agreed at a different meeting I'll see if I can find it
Sounds like the trust are trying to commit Hari-Kari to me, been there got the tea shirt, why do we need to do it all again. Now we know why Andrew Howard went back to Beechdean Ice Cream. Let's be honest about this we are a small club in the EFL with our support base unlikely to go much higher on a week to week basis, & 90%of watching your local team usually ends in disapointment, that's football. We have got promoted playing in a higher divison as the home support gone up not by much if at all from what I can see. So why would American's want to put money in, we are not Pompey when the American bought their club with 18.000, crowds & could probably add another couple of thousand to the gate if it was possible. As with Arsenal once thay get a certain % of the shares that's it game over you have to sell. As far as I know the ground is a lot more difficult they need the permission of Frank Adam's family, there is nothing to stop them building another ground & moving the football club out.
I see what you're saying about the Adams family would have to approve it but if the new investors take the club into debt the ground would have to be sold so it would be no benefit to wwfc anyway. Were not in a good position if all this gets the go ahead people or companies are out for what they can get financially and they will screw the club over eventually and we won't be able to do a thing about it. What's that noise is that the bulldozers moving in already
What has been said in the past week about the owner of Leicester City, there are very few who come anywhere near what he did for the football club & city