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  • Shady looking lot.

  • The no-tie look definitely says fun!

  • Need to listen to their plans about how they can turn us round to making a profit when so many have failed. And virtually no football league club makes money. I'm sure a Private Equity Company won't be happy funding 500k losses for long. Like all private equity cos they will want a return on their buck. Apparently they owned Derby for a while and were generally well viewed. But there's precious little scope for cost cutting at Wycombe.

  • For me the key to it all is when they lose interest and cannot absorb further losses, they can sell it to who they like. For the life of me I just can’t understand why anyone with any financial sense would invest in WWFC. ‘ They just want to come along for the ride, for the fun of it. ‘ Yeah course they do......

  • Private Equity Cos are not generally interested in fun...

  • Forced smiles

  • The only way they can possibly make money is when they sell it on.

    So they'll be looking to minimise the operational day to day losses (even though they'll never be able to get rid of them completely), by running the business as efficiently as possible, investing in the stadium , and improving the product, i.e food and beverage, and players. They'll hope to put more bums on seats, then in a few years ( sell it on for a big profit (after buying the club on the cheap from the Trust because they're desperate to sell).

    Whether it's possible to sell later and make money that way, I don't know but it would seem to me to be the only logical reason.

  • If they can guarantee a full stock of crisps at every match, I'm in!

  • @Gerry47 said:
    The only way they can possibly make money is when they sell it on.

    So they'll be looking to minimise the operational day to day losses (even though they'll never be able to get rid of them completely), by running the business as efficiently as possible, investing in the stadium , and improving the product, i.e food and beverage, and players.

    They'll hope to put more bums on seats, then in a few years ( sell it on for a big profit (after buying the club on the cheap from the Trust because they're desperate to sell).

    I agree, but isn't that just the Steve Hayes model all over again, he thought he could run it like a business, bump up the staff numbers and invest in the infrastructure - then when he didn't get his way over Booker, he pulled the plug and we were left with the debt - although he could have acted a lot worse in terms of recouping the investment, the buck ultimately stopped with the club.

    But it just doesn't work with football - pumping in the cash will have some effect, sure, but if the goal was to make the club a saleable asset you're probably talking about getting to the Premiership or something - and what are the chances of that.

    Or you get a PNL-type situation where the owner puts in cash short-term only to run the club into the ground later and wangle some deal where we're left paying extortionate rent for AP.

  • If we can learn anything from our PNL neighbours up the M40 it's to treat any potential new owner with the utmost scepticism.

  • To be fair to these guys, they did pretty well at Derby, stabilising and improving them before selling them on.

    Derby fans are complimentary about their tenure:

    https://dcfcfans.uk/topic/30900-wycombe-fan-in-peace-seaport-capital-bill-luby-and-jim-collis/?tab=comments#comment-1565081

  • And of course, if/when they do decide to sell on, we would have absolutely no say whatsoever on who it is sold to

  • Is that Bill Luby before he shaved off the beard?

  • The problem we have is however we have reached this position (see various @marlowchair @NiceCarrots ) it's hard to see how we successfully fix it at speed so we've now got to decide the best way forward. In the same way that it's too late to just blame poor quality HR Manager from hell and political weakling Dave Cameron for calling the referendum and Bozzer and Beery Nigel for lying us into Brexit...we've now got to get ourselves out of or make the best of the situation. It is obvious these people will look at a couple of years (or three??) of positive growth before selling it on (which may be a good thing) and then we will have to sit and worry about who they sell it to. Other than that we have to kick it into touch and sit and worry about how that will impact on the Trust and our future. Either way there's a lot of sitting and worrying ahead. But while there's moonlight and music and love and romance....

  • I don't really want to comment any more on the merits or otherwise of football club ownership. Presumably later in the week a little more information will be known.

    So as a complete aside, @Wendoverman if you do believe that brexit is an absolute f*cking disaster, then I would suggest get in touch with your local Britain for Europe/Open Britain group and go out and do something about it. I can't guarantee that it will make a blind bit of difference, I can guarantee that after manning a street stall, you will be cold, probably wet and with a grazed chin as your jaw drops at just how fecking ill-informed and frankly stupid the average british member of the public is, but at least you will be able to say you did your best. Actually surprisingly enjoyable too.

  • Surely the gasroom is not the place for anything to do with the B word. Please keep it on topic!!!

  • edited November 2018

    I don't usually use the B word...I will blame the stress of posting on the Gasroom. Was an example in an attempt to illuminate the situation as I see it...certainly not meant to be the point of the post...or the start of a Gasroom Crisp tangent!

  • @Tom , that is the ever so slight massive problem here.
    And surely it'll take one heck of a sweet talk / people forgetting history, to sell to a gang you know are looking to spruce us up then sell on.

  • @Tom said:
    And of course, if/when they do decide to sell on, we would have absolutely no say whatsoever on who it is sold to

    Is this a matter the trust could have an active role in I wonder? if it was written into the sale agreement that the Trust (and therefore the supporters) can have an input into the next sell on?

  • @Malone said:
    @Tom , that is the ever so slight massive problem here.
    And surely it'll take one heck of a sweet talk / people forgetting history, to sell to a gang you know are looking to spruce us up then sell on.

    But ultimately isn't that what any club owner does? they are merely temporary custodians until they pass the club onto someone else. What you have to look out for are the owners who are going to dissolve the club, either through bad financial management or who see an opportunity to asset strip i.e property developers who just want the land to build a 1000 homes on.

  • @Gerry47 as @DevC will tell you at great length with spreadsheets and planning regulation guidelines that would NEVER happen to Adams Park. Other than that you are right. Knowing they are in it for the buck, basically we've got to decide whether or not to give them a couple of years to make us look pretty for someone else.

  • Selling the Club is one thing, Selling the Stadium is not an issue as Alan Cecil has already pointed out, all prospective funders have been advised that FALL will retain the ownership of the Stadium. I assume that they will pay a rent and/or will be responsible for maintaining the Stadium as WWFC are at present..

  • @wformation the question I'd like answered is "Who is responsible for the upkeep of the stadium?". My belief is that the responsibility falls upon either the Trust or FALL, not WWFC.
    My concern would be that any new owner witholds payment of rent from the Trust because let's say "The stadium roof is not repaired".
    With no rental income the Trust would be unable to meet its financial obligations - interest/loan repayments on the two charges that exist upon Adams Park- and then the new owner forces a distressed sale of the ground by the Trust to them.

  • @Twizz looking at the potential investors track record I would assume they are more interested in getting in...sprucing up and getting shot at a profit than getting involved in complex property development in the UK or ripping anyone off. But that may not be said of the next person who they flog it to...

  • I guess it used to be that one might expect to get an owner willing to invest money out of the goodness of their heart to keep the club going but that those days are more or less at an end. Handing over to a responsible, competent business interest with an eye to financial gain seems to me to fair aspiration in the modern context.

  • edited November 2018

    I think a lot of owners in the olden days got involved as they were paying players ten bob a week to play in packed delapidated stadiums...having to pay proper wages and provide toilet facilities began to take its toll...as well as telly money going mental. I'm still not sure what the best thing is for the Wanderers...it's a troubling time.

  • @HCblue said:
    I guess it used to be that one might expect to get an owner willing to invest money out of the goodness of their heart to keep the club going but that those days are more or less at an end. Handing over to a responsible, competent business interest with an eye to financial gain seems to me to fair aspiration in the modern context.

    The trouble is how can financial gains realistically be made from lower league football?

  • @Chris said:

    @HCblue said:
    I guess it used to be that one might expect to get an owner willing to invest money out of the goodness of their heart to keep the club going but that those days are more or less at an end. Handing over to a responsible, competent business interest with an eye to financial gain seems to me to fair aspiration in the modern context.

    The trouble is how can financial gains realistically be made from lower league football?

    Get promoted and pocket the increased revenue?

  • @Gerry47 said:

    @Malone said:
    @Tom , that is the ever so slight massive problem here.
    And surely it'll take one heck of a sweet talk / people forgetting history, to sell to a gang you know are looking to spruce us up then sell on.

    But ultimately isn't that what any club owner does? they are merely temporary custodians until they pass the club onto someone else. What you have to look out for are the owners who are going to dissolve the club, either through bad financial management or who see an opportunity to asset strip i.e property developers who just want the land to build a 1000 homes on.

    And we would have no say whatsoever on who to 'look out for'..... It would/could just be sold to the highest bidder

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