Trust AGM
I'm surprised no one has posted about this since the meeting, on the old Gasroom there was usually quite a lively discussion of how proceedings went. My personal opinion is that we got a much better insight into how WWT are running WWFC and FALL than has been afforded in the past, just a shame we had to wait until an AGM for this.
There are still a number of questions remaining, though I hope that the meeting dedicated to poring over the WWFC accounts on 3rd Dec will help those so inclined to see where the club is at.
Hopefully this is a sign of things to come, and not just an attempt to head off a potential stand-off regarding the situation about the training ground before returning to the lack of information and rumours in the background.
Unfortunately I don't have much time to go into too much details about the meeting, though it would be interesting to hear what other people thought about the meeting.
Comments
I would like to acknowledge and thank all those who stood for election to the Trust Board. For those who did not get on please do not give up and hopefully you will get an opportunity at some stage in the future to contribute.
For me the two big issues discussed were as follows:
As a seperate issue I hope the Trust can learn from the above. It was probably too much of an embarrassing question to ask last night but how on earth did our Trust Directors allow this to happen ?
The MK Dons "offer" of a pre season friendly where they'd let WWFC keep all the gate receipts. Thankfully this was voted on by the trust board and turned down.
No way do we ever want Franchise to be able to claim any credit for helping out WWFC.
The finance guy came over well, and I do believe that WWFC now have control and a full understanding of finances.
I always feel a little suspicious of Steve Hayes's reasons for attending. Does he do it to intimidate the board ?.
I also thought it was shame that the young chap didn't get voted onto the trust board, hopefully he won't be put off and will brush up on his presentation skills and try again in the future. I think with all the business, financial and sales and marketing types on the board it is important to have someone representing the rank and file supporter in there, particulary the younger supporters
I couldnt make it yesterday, but did the Trust explain why the rent payments were not or could not be made ?? And was it in the business interests of the Beeks consortium that the payments were not made, hence them having pretty much full control of the Booker site. And what rent agreement do we have to train there at present ?
@Its_Cold_Up_North any vote on 3G pitches is redundant until the Football League agree to their use, which they currently don't, nor do the National League Premier.
Gordon - I think Hayes was probably attending to protect his financial interest. The quicker we pay off this debt and ban Hayes from entering the premises the better.
Its_Cold_Up_North Thank you for the kind words. I will indeed stand again, I certainly won't be giving in! As for the training ground, it is, in my opinion an absolute travesty. I could rant for hours on the subject, but anyone with an ounce of common sense will read through the lines, so I'll hold my breath!
My understanding on the training ground issue was this. The original agreement was with the "owners" and FALL and FALL only made 3 payments under the terms of the lease and as the non payments continued eventually the "owners" enforced the "default" meaning the right to buy back was lost. Quite why we allowed this to happen and whether we were reminded about the default implications is another matter but given we have already demonstrated that funds can be generated from fans, surely if we knew we would lose the right to buy back the training ground I am sure we could have raised some money to ensure we did lot end up in this situation. Furthermore could funds not have been used from the share scheme to make payments on this? Trevor Stroud then suggested it was all ok because a new agreement had been struck between the football club and the "owners" and payments were now being met and furthermore the debt had been written off. We did have a right to potentially buy this back but from what I gathered nothing had been agreed which presumably means its not in any new agreement. Furthermore we would get a percentage of any profit if the land should be sold on but again it appeared nothing was in the agreement to specify this. It all seemed a little bit flakey to say the least.
The conversation was steered by AH to a vision of the training ground hopefully would not be an issue in the future as they would like to see everything down at AP so on that basis it would not be so important. I guess it would only be important if the land was sold in the future for housing development and we then looked on thinking, if only we had kept hold of it.. If buts, maybes etc etc but as things stand we don't appear to have any firm agreement to have the option to buy back at a fixed price....
@HG1 sorry so FALL were defaulting on payments for so long that they lost the buy back clause? And members were informed last night for the first time?
Or did I miss when this was previously communicated because that doesn't seem right?
That pretty much sums it up. My question is "The default happened quite some time ago, so why did it only become public knowledge last night. One would expect as a "supporter owned club" that the supporters would have been consulted at the time, and as you quite rightly state, be given the opportunity to raise the funds.
As for whether or not planning would ever be accepted on the land, my questions are;
1) Why would a property developer purchase land knowing that there is no potential prospect of planning ever being granted, and stand to make NO profit in the event of a buy back? If it was purely for the love of the club why not just lend or donate the money when we were in a desperate time of need?
2) If I understand correctly, there is also a clause that the club have the right to decide NOT to train there at any time, and could therefore leave without obligation? Why would the owner(s) of the land do this? Is it because A) They stand to make a profit if the land is sold,
Because they keep chickens? or C) They wants a large open space to have a supporters picnic in the summer? or D) Am I missing something?
Until last night, no official communication to confirm this, only the rumours we have all heard. So yes FALL had been defaulting for months but nobody informed us until its too late.....other than the "new agreement" which as I said all seemed a bit flakey and very limited on detail. The bad news was delivered very early in Trevors opening speech as they knew this was a hot topic, no explanation was offered as to why the situation had not been addressed and why no appeal for money had been made to avoid the default situation on the lease and I am guessing that this was triggered by missing so many payments which presumably FALL knew would be the situation. Which is why the accusation of not being transparent keeps coming up over and over again.
I'm sorry but this is absolutely outrageous. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but from my reading of this people placed themselves up for re-election to the board while suppressing the information that they were partly responsible for the board defaulting on repayments, which has caused the loss of a buy-back clause? If that's the case it absolutely stinks. Frankly, it should be a resignation issue for at least the chair. This rank amateurishness has the potential to do as much long-term damage to the club as Steve Hayes ever could.
Here here.
I assume FALL missed the payments on purpose and consequently for some ulterior motive?
Full details should be disclosed to the members, but no doubt the Chairman will issue the usual response that it is "confidential information"!
Why has this been kept from us for so long ?!? rank amateurishness would be bad enough, but the cynic in me asks if this could have possibly been deliberate? On one side we have a bunch of well intentioned amateurs, versus professional businessmen well versed in sharp practices? maybe the longer is was kept hidden (from the supporters) suited certain people, just a thought...
I'm surprised that there is so little discussion on such an enormous revelation.
Although with so few facts, it is perhaps understandable.
Let's just say that I'd put good money on there being some form of 'gentleman's agreement' at play here. If I were to offer a wad of cash to the new owners of the training ground tomorrow, I'm willing to bet they would turn it down.
It may not be close enough to be the site of the new Heathrow runway but SOMETHING is planned for that piece of land.
What I want to know is what the directors of FALL i.e. Garry Heath, Alan Cecil, John Derben did to address the situation or did they simply say, we have no money so lets just leave it and suffer the consequences. What communications were made by the owners of the training ground to FALL on this matter and were these shared with the trust board and if so what did they do about it as it appears the answer is nothing.
Indeed mr HG1, incompetence at the very least.
I know what I think, and I was scorned by many at last night for claiming that the supporters have little and no transparency. I stand by what I said.
Couldn't get to the meeting last night but it appears the rumours reached a point where they couldn't be covered up any more. Not the best way to operate but then again neither is giving the news last night with so many holes that the gaps are being filled with pointless assumption and speculation.
Nothing can really be fairly analysed without know the timescales and the money involved. I've said before I've been unsure about the PR push about using share money on fixing the scoreboard but for me using money for that and not paying known debt is a poor decision. Problem is I don't know if the club had that money at the time the debt was due.
It will be interesting to see what comes out from official sources in the coming weeks but it is vital people keeping pushing the FALL board for answers. I'm also now getting really nervous about how badly the current owner wants a 4G pitch at Wycombe. I fear for the future of football if this happens but I am fairly certain I will have stopped watching before the conclusion.
What has Garry Heath got to say about this and does he have any connections with Beeks et al outside of the Football Club - because this stinks to High Heavens!? This is TOTALLY against the remit that FALL were given by the Trust when setup and in their AoA. How can losing the rights over a valuable asset not constitute a dereliction of duty??
I hope he has the good grace to apologise and resign quickly - or, make a very detailed public statement.
I don't think this is good enough at all.
All of this was given a very positive spin last night, the words "payment holiday" were even uttered at one point and having a "sell on clause" if/when the training ground is sold, with the club getting a cut of any profit.
Then the chairman talked about not needing the training ground at all in the future.
Garry Heath said nothing.
A shameful mess. It seems we have thrown away a very valuable asset. How on earth wouldn't we need the training ground in the future? Sounds like we are being softened up for a sell off. We seem to have now got so many different committees running different elements of the club and still not sure there is real transparency.
@ IF a 4G pitch were installed at Adams Park it could withstand both matches and training, so the need for a training ground dissapears
That is certainly true @carrickblue - doesn't mean the best option for the training ground is to effectively give it away as a gift without exploiting any potential investment opportunities ourselves.
I mean, there would have been nothing stopping us going 4G while still buying back the training ground, developing and profiting from it one day.
I wasnt able to attend last night, but can someone who was there tell me was there no outcry at this news? The land is in the hands of a property deveoper, there are no plans for 4G pitchs to be allowed in league games, so this is a massive risk, and as WJ said, this is a massive failing of the FALL directors. Shouldnt someone do something - they are supposed to be empowered to run things the benefit of the long term future of the club - how is this allowed to happen. BTW thank god DR didnt get elected
Couldn't make agm but sounds like an absolute disgrace.
And more to the point how have members voted back on three board members who have suppressed this info (including at least one who appears to have played a significant role). I despair at times.
Always get stupid negative comments from people who could not bother to attend!
I made my feelings very clear in my speech (which I had to change last minute). An absolute disgrace that all this happened in 2013, and there they were telling the supporters in December 2015, and dressing it up as if Beeks & Co were doing us a favour! An absolute and utter disgrace IMO.
There are plenty of questions that need to be answered about the deal that has been concluded as well as why it was kept from members that FALL was not meeting the c. £2,500 monthly rent payments. The latter is the most serious (and I suspect relating to WWFC not paying the rent due to FALL for an 18 month period) - if this was the case, why didn't they come to supporters to ask for their help to safeguard a valuable club asset?!