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New Year's Greeting
Harry SecombeWhat with SMBU being the two-faced Janus of Wycombe Wanderers Independent websites, we thought that a bit of turn-of-year reflection was in order.
The takeover of the Football Club in the summer was a dreadful experience; a distressingly predictable but still terrible turn of events which over-shadowed the promotion only a few weeks before. But it was also a bit bizarre. The gifting of the club to the man who had personally presided over losses of an unprecedented £5 million in his four years as Managing Director represented a defeat of all logic. The case for acceptance of the takeover was made simply in his assertion that he would withdraw his support if he wasn’t allowed to take over and, more straightforwardly, in the use of the A-word by his henchmen.
The case for rejection of the Hayes ultimatum on the other hand was eloquently and painstakingly made by many, in print, on the web and in meetings, but held no weight. The fear of the death of the club (that or an unthinkable ten point deduction) overwhelmed everything. The majority have accepted as the truth the ridiculous way of thinking put forward by the Hayes, Beeks & co. - that we can only survive with an outsized new stadium, with Wasps, by blanding-up and doing the Corporate FC thing.
The only people left, to turn to, no matter how weak and diluted they are, are the remnants of the Trust. But the Trust’s thinly attended members meeting in mid-December showed the depressingly impotent new reality. The Trust Board is keeping an eye on events, waiting for the wheels to come off, looking for the least-worst option. But they lack any sense of a cause to drive interest and membership.
And yet the latter part of the year has seen fans absolutely up in arms. Not at the you-couldn’t-make-it-up events of the summer, of course, which merely saw 122 years of proud history sold for half the club’s debt, but because having been promoted, we are now, outrageously, in the relegation zone. Because we lost some football matches. This is all the more disappointing for many in light of the expectations whipped up by Hayes et al in the summer – “we’re not just here to make up the numbers” and all that.
The convergence of the newly disaffected fans with their Championship ambitions looking like a pipe dream and those embittered by the summer’s events is casting a long shadow over the club just now. It was even suggested at the Trust meeting that the club Board appreciated that it needed to get the long-term supporters back on side after the ill-feeling brought about by the takeover.
Basking in the glow of his victory on 6th July Hayes had a go at the moaners (in between telling the Trust how to restructure its Board, doing-down the Gasroom and exhorting the club’s shareholders to enjoy League One), saying “if you want to be bitter you will get exactly what you did after the plc vote – nothing”. In this at least he was truthful. He holds all the cards. Resistance is futile.
But, as it happens, resistance is still absolutely right. If you don’t want to be rattling around in somebody else’s stadium for your home games; if you don’t want to give up ownership of Adams Park for the sake of a Hilton at the top of the hill; if you want to retain Wycombe Wanderers unique identity before it all disappears … then say so now. Keep moaning.
Because soon it really will be too late.
31.12.2009. 10:48
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Anon on 03.01.2010. 13:09
Good article, good advice to start moaning now, but do it to all your local councillors, making the following points.
SH does not have the support of the supporters, he claims 81% but he lost the vote at the meeting and since three of the direcors have 75% plus their family shareholdings accounts for the 81% he got his way.
Access. This problem is blown up out of proportion. At the majority of games which finish at 4.45 or 4.50 pm I am home by 5.30 to 5.40. (At the end of last season when council representatives were present at a game to monitor the situation the leaving Traffic was artificially held back by the Stewards at the roundabout on the approaches to the ground, on that occasion traffic did not leave the ground until 5.40)
London Wasps need it.? This is arguable. Very rarely does the attendance fill the ground. On occasions eg a Heineken Cup game yes. On the last occasion when Wasps entertained an Irish team the game was moved to Coventry and they attracted 15,000, a figure that was boosted by providing free tickets for their season ticket holders and free transport to the Midlands. To claim that a regular attendance of 15,000 is possible is ludicrous
Does High Wycombe need Wasps. Why? What do they bring to the Town other than traffic chaos at Handy Cross. They spend little if anything in the Town centre, and if a stadium is located out of town will spend less.
New Stadium. Access. I have been told that this is proposed that main access will be by a new road from the Handy Cross roundabout via the Marlow Bottom exit. This road at present has very limited egress onto the roundabout and if this is increased, in consequence will create more traffic on the roundabout or increased delays on leaving the ground and if supporters are frustrated by the time taken to leave the stadium by this route will use other exits for example the one onto the Lane End to Marlow road creating additional traffic in Marlow, Lane End, Cadmore End and Stokenchurch villages.Who will pay for this additional link road it will be long and not cheap.
What are the overall realistic costs of a Stadium such as this and in view of the current economic climate, even the costs of a feasibility study.
Steve Hayes constantly makes statements to the effect that he only has the Football Club at heart. I have to ask myself if this equates to what he did in the Summer of reputably threatening to end funding the Football Club on the first of July if he did not get his way, this in spite of the fact that he had already given an agreement to support the club until the end of September.
As a councilor tax payer, I am extremely uneasy about WDC allocating funding for any new stadium, and I fail to see how any new stadium will be a legacy for the town or for the people of High Wycombe and am highly concerned that it may become more of a very large and very costly white Elephant.
Now that Wycombe Wanderers, along with London Wasps, are wholly owned by one person, why should the council and the town's people be funding any feasibility costs or be making any financial contribution to any new stadium development? That is of course unless the council stands to gain significant financial return on its investments.
Why should the council permit financing of a stadium through enabled development for the primary benefit one man and his two sports teams? I ask why they cannot find money to maintain a local swimming pool and now it appears that the library is under threat but can find £300K to look at this, Priorities?
As both clubs, and particularly the Wanderers, are now owned by one man, as it is that one man that stands to benefit financially from any new stadium in the longer term, shouldn't it be him that bears the whole costs?