Repaint the Blues, my saving grace

Old quotes re-hashed
One thing sticks in the smbu collective mind, and throat, from the recent takeover of the club, and that’s the now accepted belief that “it's everyone's fault we're in this situation”, how there’s “no good complaining now old son”, and “no-one never said nothing ‘bout them there debts at the time. Everyone loved the spending spree.” Smbu scratched its head - surely someone said something?.


Of course our more naïve readers will be pointing out that the money situation doesn’t matter as we are being bankrolled by Steve Hayes. In the nicest possible way this is utter rubbish. While Hayes is providing the cash up front, he is not gifting the club the money; rather, he is building up a nice stash of loan notes with which in the future it may be possible to hold the club to ransom, i.e. when he wants to remove the 25% ownership restriction and buy a hotel! He may not have specified when he will be repaid his money, but rest assured that time is coming.
Tory Goon, 02.01.2008

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.
Ron Waller, 13.02.2009

With the lack of anything being done about the spiralling debt part of me thinks the club is being intentionally (or not) run into the ground so that we have no option but to sell the ground and become one with Wasps.
Perhaps overall I just don’t share the vision of Steve Hayes’ future of the club. Rattling around in a massive stadium that we don’t own built pretty much for the advantage of a rugby club from London is something that just doesn’t appeal to me.
Mr NG, 16.11.2007

What was the club doing about the debt now? Was anything being done to tackle it other than looking at a new ground? The debt was to Major Major himself, but no, it couldn’t be paid off without this new ground – that was clear.
And that was that. Sure, there was a little banter with the inaudible and taciturn Coach McWhat. And a ringing endorsement from the surprise cheerleaders’ cheerleader, Dr Who, but the message was clear: it was Major Major’s way or no way. The thing that nobody said? “I’ve stuck over three million pounds into your club to make it worth less than no pounds. And now only I can make it worth something again. Follow me.” Go right ahead, Major Major, the silent majority silently responded. Go right ahead.
Joseph Heller, 24.08.2007

Of course, Wycombe fans have a right to ask Hayes some pretty fundamental questions. Among them: Why do we have to move again? How do you know we’re financially unsustainable when you’ve never actually tried to get the club to live within its means? Weren’t you in charge when we amassed those huge debts? If we sell Adams Park doesn’t that mean we’ve lost our ground just so you can reclaim your loan notes that we didn’t actually ask you to put in to the club in the first place? And, of course, isn’t this essentially the same crude threat that was used when we had to get rid of the Constitution in 2004, a move which was supposed to lead to investment into the club rather than to crippling debts?
The simple fact is that the move is not intended to be in Wycombe Wanderers’ best interests. It is all about London Wasps.
Tory Goon, 27.08.2007

The Supporters' Trust should be raising money like mad to take over if any of the Directors die or remove their financial support as I can't see anyone-else doing this. Neither of the Trusts need to be involved in day-to-day decisions to achieve their aims. The Directors can't tell the Trust what they hear in the boardroom so where has it got us?
Ooh look, we played a match on a Friday because the fans wanted it. Whoopee. Oh, we haven't sold Adams Park because the Founders Trust blocked it. Now, that would be a result.
I am on record as saying that I was staggered that members of the board that got the club into a serious financial position were allowed to take over the club for themselves. My view is that they've realised that the only way they will get their money back is to sell Adams Park and move to a free stadium, thereby releasing the cash to wipe out their debts.
I'm not convinced that this is for the benefit of the club.
Tony Crow, smbu interview, 25.01.2008

On average, the club made a loss of £182k per year in the nine seasons it existed as a professional club prior to their rugby tenants. In the five years the club has benefited from the rugby revenue, it has on average made a loss of £892k per year. Taking the above averages into account it would have taken twenty-four seasons to run up the level of debt the club has accrued in that period (ie until the 2026/27 season).

Wycombe Wanderers Football Club spent 10 years in the division above the one they are currently residing in. In that time the club ran up debts of £2.2 million; the league above is not the Promised Land that the managing director is making it out to be. Those debts accrued over a 10-year period are obviously dwarfed by the sums in the last three seasons, which asks the question: why are the club gambling so much money on promotion (increasing staff costs by nearly £1 million from 2005 to 2007)? The level of debt is out of control, to the point that the very future of the club is at stake.
smbu investigation, 05.06.2008

20.07.2009. 10:48

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