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Wycombe set to end supporter ownership
Tonight’s vote is expected to deliver 100% control of former fan-owned club to businessman Steve Hayes
Tonight Wycombe Wanderers supporters are being asked to vote away the last remnant of the supporter-ownership which served the club so well on its remarkable rise from the Isthmian League to League One, originally under a young manager cutting his teeth, by the name of Martin O’Neill.
Wycombe rose from part-time status to the Football League, and built the new Adams Park stadium, while owned by a structure in which ordinary fans who had held season tickets for three years could pay just one pound to become members. That gave them a stake in the club’s ownership and they could vote to elect the directors.
The first change came in 2004 when Wycombe’s then directors argued the member system was holding the club back from securing new investment and called for it to become 75% owned by individuals, with fan-members holding just 25%. Some fans at the time criticised the directors for presiding over £2.2m of debts being accumulated, and argued there was no guarantee that any new investment would be well spent. The change, though, was approved.
Since then a multi-millionaire businessman, Steve Hayes, who also owns Wasps rugby union club, has arrived to fund Wycombe, lending the club £6.893m to run at a considerable loss every year. Now Hayes has offered to reduce that debt by £3m - if he is given 100% control of the club. Were the vote to go against him, Hayes has said he will withdraw his financial support. The directors have warned that without Hayes’ backing, the club would fall into insolvency, and urged members to vote in favour. Hayes has said he has plans to put further investment into the club and will work with the supporters trust in future, even though he will wholly own the club.
This is an important story because it reflects on the viability of football at League One level - it seems staggering for a club like Wycombe to have managed to soak up almost £7m in loans from one backer. It is also of wider significance because if the vote goes in favour of Hayes tonight, it will mark the end of the democratic, supporter-owned structure which many people - from ordinary fans to Uefa, via Supporters Direct - believe to be the right one, in principle, for football clubs.
Barcelona, it seems, can win the European Champions League while still proudly owned by its members, but the finances of the Football League are such that supporter-owned clubs come under tremendous financial pressure. Clubs, competing tooth and claw against each other, increasingly rely on businessmen to put millions in, largely to pay players wages which the clubs would otherwise not be able to afford. And for that, the businessmen-backers generally want to own the clubs, 100%.
The excellent Chairboys, an independent Wycombe supporters website, has covered the debate in full.
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