There will be a meeting and a vote in the new year I've heard its a £500K stake 51% of the club but that doesn't include the ground which will remain the property of the Trust but I've not seen the proposals in writing yet
The planed meeting on 10th April is cancelled as the yanks can't make it and it will be scheduled for a later date
Yanks do not accept failure and as we've not won in 11 games i'm not surprised, plus the fact Ainsworth is on a ridiculously long contract they know it will cost them a lot of money to get rid, Ainsworth knows full well that had he been manager at another club he'd have been sacked by now and rightly so.
Ainsworth probably would have been sacked at a lot of other clubs, but I ask what difference would it make. Last season in league 1 Wimbledon finished 18th, Walsall 19th, Rochdale 20th, this season Wimbledon 21st, Walsall 22nd, Rochdale 23rd. All leagues are the same you have a top half & bottom half with the odd team doing better than expected (Blackpool in League 1). In the end lack of support & money catch up with most clubs.
A change of manager will only make a difference if the manager is the problem. In this case I doubt it is the manager. Anyhow they have just played against Portsmouth (EFL Trophy winners and potential Championship club), had more possession, more shots at goal, as many on target and lost 3-2. Hardly the sign of a manager problem, coming back from 2-0 down and 3-1 down. This could be a ploy by the yanks to keep the club unsettled get relegated and get desperate enough to vote them in on whatever terms they offer. That would prove to me beyond all doubt they are after Adams Park (the jewel in the crown)
[QUOTE="Ron, post: 12710828, member: 1000896" This could be a ploy by the yanks to keep the club unsettled get relegated and get desperate enough to vote them in on whatever terms they offer. That would prove to me beyond all doubt they are after Adams Park (the jewel in the crown)[/QUOTE] I think we are already desperate enough the Trust that I am a member of has the best of intentions but do not have the skills to take the club forward we have sat on our hands for far too long
Are you saying you are not suspicious of these investors Guy? As I understand it the Trust did not approach these guys; they were introduced through an agent a few years back. Has an investigation been carried out to see if there is any connection, however tenuous, between this agent and how we came to be connected with loan shark Hayes. Because I smell a rat; and I am quite a distance from Adams Park Can you, as Trust member, explain to us why 2 American investors (involved in several businesses) would be interested in little Wycombe Wanderers. They are investors full stop. Investors expect a return on their money. Are they going to keep loaning us our annual deficit until there is nothing left but to give them Adams Park? What is there to invest in here - other than Adams Park? We have to wonder why Stroud (if it is him) has involved these investors and why he is so obsessed with accepting the bid. It would be interesting to know who Stroud is and why the ice cream man left I hear the views that if we don't have an investor we cannot survive. If we can't survive without an investor we certainly can't survive with investors who will sooner or later claim Adams Park as repayment of all the loans taken to keep us afloat. If things are so bad, maybe we should just go into administration and still have Adams Park? An ever increasing debt with the eventual loss of Adams Park is not the answer. We simply don't have enough supporters to achieve the revenue we need. There are too many Premier clubs near to us to attract many more supporters. Yes Man C did it but Manchester is slightly bigger than Wycombe. We need to see their plan as to how they expect to increase revenue sufficiently to: (a) pay off debts and keep us out of debt (b) pay higher wages to attract better players (c) continually fund the purchase of higher quality players to move us through the Leagues (upwards) This will, of course require attracting much larger attendances at matches and increasing revenue from other sources, both of which could have been achieved with better marketing, if they are indeed achievable. So what exactly is their plan? I think some very believable figures, projecting future income and expenditure will need to be produced If they can put up a convincing plan, without jeopardising Adams Park, I'll be pleasantly surprised. And not an infeasible plan like the Hayes pipe dream
If you go back to the days of oneill when he was manager we had bigger crowds then and haven't got more through the turnstiles since those days apart from when the big clubs visit so there's no chance of our crowds going up to the levels we require to succeed as a club financially , that's what makes me suspicious of the yanks getting involved with investing in wwfc, they are not gonna put money in just to never get anything back so the main asset ie the stadium and its land is eventually gonna be used to get what they want.
The Yanks are heavily into sport and owning a English league club is a status symbol and the fact that we are available and close to Heathrow is a major factor as for the crowds they are up this season with around 4.5K home support so only a few short of our best at AP The ground will still be owned by the Trust
So they are gonna invest to lose money I don't buy that for one second. Unless the huge tv money in the premiership filters down proportionately clubs are gonna go to the wall.I think the whole structure of football needs to change before its too late maybe a north and south leagues below the championship is the way to go I know it's not ideal but having clubs from the south travelling up north midweek and visa versa doesn't help the fans to attend away games and so there are smaller crowds and lower gate receipts.
Are you serious Guy? Adams Park has already been used to secure one loan from these investors (and that was done behind the scenes without the fans' knowledge). That loan doesn't fully pay off the existing debt and at the rate we are losing money, there will have to be another loan, and another until there is no security left with which to borrow any more. So the club would go further and further in debt. With Adams Park fully locked up in loans there will be only one answer and WWFC is ****ed over a barrel. Never has "wool over eyes" been so appropriate. Lets see a detailed believable plan that is realistic in how it aims to increase income and afford the costs associated with improving our League status. Improving league status is not the important thing; it is being a prosperous club. But that will involve increasing attendances significantly, which will only happen if we are successful and that by definition will improve our League status. Then we need to be able to progress, or at least afford to remain in a higher League and not slide back down. Otherwise we are simply delaying the inevitable
Going back to the attendances there is not one club who has gone from non-league to football league that attract attendances any where near the old football leagues clubs attract even when they are in the ****
The loan raised against AP will be written off if the takeover goes ahead but if it doesn't we need to pay it back I repeat AP remains in the Trusts hands
So what are the yanks plans steve hayes type 5 years and we reach the premiership or have they got other ideas. Where are the differences to the set up now and when they take over ,I remember when the trust took over they said a takeover wouldn't happen again ? The youth setup would restart again to help in developing local young talent like we used to well that seems highly unlikely with the debt we are in so I'm intrigued to know how the yanks are gonna make us better and running the club with a profit perhaps you can enlighten me with some facts being a trust member guy
I've not attended a meeting yet I rely on Trust member Pete Brown who I usually stand with, old timer left side you may remember him Rocky he has met them and I believe they are looking at optimising the off field resources and not interfering with on field matters
Yeh I remember him well .I thought we tried that a few years back with banqueting at Adams Park etc , I guess in these hard times with so many pubs and clubs shutting down maybe another avenue will be looked at.do they still have boot sales in the grounds car park to raise money because I haven't seen any adverts in Stokenchurch about it or anything else to do with the club come to that .
