At the meeting held on 12th September, the Trust members agreed in principle that the Club should seek external investment, with investors taking either a majority or a minority interest in the club in exchange for the provision of a permanent capital solution.
After significant debate and further investigations, your Trust Board has decided that the best route for securing the financial future of the Club is to move to a position where external investors own a majority of the shares, with the Trust owning a significant minority shareholding, being involved in the day-to-day running of the Club and having control over items such as team colours, crest and where the team plays. We have therefore continued our discussions with one of the investor groups and feel it is time to introduce them to you.
The investors concerned are Bill Luby and Jim Collis. Bill and Jim are American financial professionals with tremendous experience in sports especially football. We have known them for some time and are impressed not only with their acute understanding of the business of football, but also with their sensitivity to fan ownership and of the Trust’s continued participation in running the Club going forward. In addition, they appear to us have the financial wherewithal to continue to carry forward the Club with the aspirations of becoming a stable, secure and competitive League 1 club and even, in time, competing at a higher level. We will continue to carry out due diligence on them, but our current view is that they will be valuable partners and proper stewards for the Club.
If this plan is to be implemented, the approval of 75% of Legacy Members will be required, and a formal meeting and ballot will be held in due course. However, to start the process, we have invited Bill and Jim to join us for our home game against Oxford on Tuesday 6th November. We will then hold an informal evening at Adams Park on Wednesday 7th November to introduce them to Trust members and to give everyone an opportunity to say hello in person and to ask questions in an informal setting.
It must be stressed – this evening is designed to help us get to know them and to have them begin to
get to know the important stakeholders at the Club. There will be no formal presentations or votes
that evening, as these will take place at a future date once the formal process has been agreed.
The evening will be held in the Caledonian Suite, starting at 7.30pm, and doors will open at 6.00pm with food being available before the meeting starts.
This is the start of a hugely important part of Wycombe Wanderers’ history. The Trust board is very excited about the potential relationship with Bill and Jim and I would encourage all members, whether or not they are Legacy Members, to attend if they can. We plan to live stream the meeting again as we did for the last Members meeting for anyone unable to attend in person. More information on the streaming details will be forthcoming.
Trevor Stroud
Chairman
