Executive Decision
SMBU EditorialIn July 2004, 94 members of Wycombe Wanderers FC voted against the idea that one day the club could be controlled entirely by one single person. Over four years later, that one person, Steve Hayes, now finds himself in such a position. The debts owed to Hayes mean that his vision, of life intrinsically and inescapably linked to London Wasps Rugby Club, is the one we are forced to follow, with the only alternative being financial ruin. The appointment of Mark Ashton as a non-Executive director of Wasps, as well as Chief Executive of Wycombe, is the clearest indication yet of the future we as fans have to look forward to.
Mark Ashton’s past at Vicarage Road is largely irrelevant. The ferocity of the criticism directed at him by Watford fans doesn’t bode well, admittedly, but it remains the actual appointment itself, rather than individual appointed, that should send warning signs to Wycombe supporters.
Firstly, if there was ever a token, miniscule attempt by the football club to even slightly address the level of debt and its levels of spending, then the idea of a Chief Executive at Wycombe would be laughed at like the idea of playing David Gipp in goal. But there isn’t, because everything is bank rolled by Steve Hayes, and while he is happy to pay for everything, nobody at board level will do anything other than buy him a beer. Wycombe supporters still talk about tightening our belts and living with our means, yet we’re so far away from that it’s almost laughable. Such phrases have been rendered archaic by the way the club is now run. If Steve Hayes wants a Chief Executive, then Wycombe Wanderers has a Chief Executive, employed on a salary that could buy two Paul Bensons and win us the league. It’s not about balancing the books; it’s about what Steve Hayes wants, and his ambitions with London Wasps.
Secondly, Mark Ashton’s position as a non-Executive director of Wasps and what is represents, which is the idea, once again, that Wycombe Wanderers are not enough. Not enough for Steve Hayes, not enough for Wycombe District Council, not enough for Mark Ashton. Steve Hayes couldn’t have attracted someone of Ashton’s experience and ambition by only offering a role at Wycombe. And WDC won’t build a new ground for Wycombe Wanderers without London Wasps. Steve Hayes wouldn’t pump millions of pounds into WWFC if all there was at the end of it was a League 2 title for Wycombe and an open top bus ride through Downley. It will never be enough. This is the future we face – a football club that sits as an after-thought, an irritating little brother that keeps failing his promotion exams, despite its Uncle Steve spending millions on their education. Buck your ideas up son, or it’s Military School/John Beck as manager for you.
For us, Wycombe Wanderers are more than enough and it’s been that way for a hell of a lot of other people for over 120 years. It is a thoroughly depressing realisation that the future of the club we love is in the hands of people who, frankly, need something else to keep them interested.
If we have to accept that we’ll never be Manchester United, or we’ll never sign a player for a million pounds, or we’ll never have a ground that holds 20,000 people, then so be it – we are what we are. Tagging ourselves onto a rugby club in order to chase some strange reflected glory in a stadium that isn’t ours, financed by people with one eye on the rugby results, personally, just isn’t my cup of tea. But, with a Wasps director installed as the Wycombe Chief Exec, there’s very little chance now of being able to drink something else.
Chin chin, and all that. Excuse me if I pass.
13.02.2009. 15:30
Excellent, thought provoking article.
History will judge Mr Hayes and his entourage, but it may be too late by then.
Shardenfroyder on 17.02.2009. 13:48
I wrote this prior to becoming one of the 94, and as preparation for one of the pre-vote meetings. This article reminded me of it.
“…a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step…”
To vote against this change is not the easy option. In fact it couldn’t be further from the easy option. It will be the first step on a long hard road and, although this step is always the hardest to take, who wants to take the hard road now when the easy one looks so appealing? However the longer it is left the harder it becomes, and the easy road will not go on forever.
We have taken the easy option too many times. We have run at a loss year after year, and every year when this is questioned we have been reassured by our elected board that :
“…everything will be fine if you leave it to us. The finances aren’t as bad as they look. I know it looks like we are losing money hand over fist but it is only a cash loss and the accounts include several portions of whatever from whenever so in actual fact everything is fine…”
Every year we have bought into their explanations, whilst they we have elected gambled the future of the club with contract extensions and short-term ground-share deals in the same manner as the alcoholics in the Frogmoor bookies do every day. Now we must admit these errors and look to right them or in the eyes of history we will be viewed in the same light as other club killers like Charles Koppel. We will be viewed as those responsible for destroying a community sport in the names of business and cold hard cash. And we will be guilty as charged.
The decision we will take today could set us apart from the rest of the footballing world. It gives us a chance, an all-too-rare opportunity these days, to show everyone else in the game that there is another way. It will be a difficult process, it will be a long process, it won’t always be pretty. But It will be our legacy, and I for one do not wish to be known as one of the ‘fabled’ four hundred and odd who had the chance to stop the rot and didn’t take it.
I remember a question at last year’s AGM about passing on our ‘share’ in the club to our offspring/grandchildren, let’s forget giving them a share and make sure we give them a club. Vote against the change, bring a return to accountability and let’s all go forward from here together in the best interests of WWFC.
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jkdh on 13.02.2009. 16:41
Great article, which captures some of my thoughts far more eloquently than I usually manage to. I am struggling to work out what it actually is that I/we support anymore. Certainly not the club that captured my imagination far too many years ago. To even be having conversations about MD's, CEO's, rugby clubs and 20,000 seater community stadiums is depressing and hollow enough, the worst is I suspect very little will (can?) be done about it. That doesn't exactly put fire in the belly does it, eh? Roll over yeah, there's a good boy.
The price paid for allowing one individual such a financial stake is now coming home to roost in ways that nobody can support if they ever had the best interest of Wycombe Wanderers (the football club, not the PLC) at heart.
We are all mugs though, I for one will be at my next game with beer infused dribble running down my chin as I spout forth a pearl of wisdom or two, inescapably and emotionally entangled with what is happening on the pitch. I question how much longer that will be the case unless Hayes/Ashton/Wasps drive their plans forward to "save" us from the mess we are in. We will have no option, much like the rhetoric of 2004. In this case though, that may well be true as they will happily take their oval ball and play on their own - leaving whoever is left to piece together a very sorry mess.
An open top bus ride through Downley would not take the problem away, it may focus more minds on what we stand to lose though.
"Come on Wycombe"