- November 17th - the HMRC winding up hearing - £600k needed
- May 2011 - seeing the Owls through to the end of the season - circa £1.5m needed
- To pay off bank and loan note holders and put the club on a sustainable financial footing and able to push back towards the Premier League - circa £5m needed
These milestones will be met by various strategies working in harmony to deliver a credible plan to the Club and Bank.
The immediate need for £600k to pay our tax bill is most likely to be able to be met by individual concerned SWFC fans with what's called 'High Net Worth' - in Sheffield speak, that's folk what 'as a bit o'brass. We believe that there are enough interested, wealthy Owls fans to provide this kind of money.
However, it's doubtful whether any of them would want to simply chuck money into a black hole. That's why, partnering together with short-term initiatives from within the wider fanbase (small cash donations in return for a 'I Saved The Owls' certificate for example), we would look to raise the £2m total needed to run the club as a going concern between now and the end of the season. We would hope that this would offer Howard Wilkinson a great opportunity to not just ease the Owls' immediate cash needs, but also to provide new, experienced businesspeople to strengthen the Club Board.
The medium-term strategy calls upon the great structure devised by the WTID organisation - to provide some form of investment trust that individual fans could buy shares in, which would then be pooled to make a full offer to the Club and Bank to not only purchase a controlling interest in the club, but to trigger agreed payments of debt owing to loan note holders (amongst whom we have Dave Allen and members of the current club Board) and a write-down of debt accrued with the Co-Op Bank. SWFC would emerge leaner, with a much lighter debt burden and crucially, the ability to operate without needing to sell players just to break even.
Long-term, the plan would be to explore the possibilities of an ownership structure much like that which is legally mandated in the German Bundesliga - that is, a club with ownership shared 50:50 between fans and private investment. We have no problem with investors making a return on their investment in the club if they are willing to partner with the fans and existing owners to drive SWFC forward.
But that's for the future. Right now, we need a concerted and combined effort between high net worth Owls and the mass of Wednesday fans to come up with the funding needed - firstly to have £600,000 by November 17th, but then the balance of the £2m needed to get us through this season - hopefully with success on the pitch and a return to the Championship!
All of this has to be done soon, and has to be done with a mind to helping Howard Wilkinson achieve what he has set out to achieve - the safeguarding of the future of Sheffield Wednesday.
NOTE: UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES would SOO obtain money from the 'everyday fans' in order to pay off HMRC without it being part of a larger offer that would involve boardroom change.
The £600k we need could probably not be raised in the timeframe from the wider Wednesday fanbase in any case. We're looking to high net worth Owls to stump up the initial £2m and be able to take control of the club. The fans' contributions would come in the medium term.
The only initiatives that would NOT follow this path would be something like a Seat For Life idea, which would be a quid pro quo offer to fans - i.e, they help out the short term cash situation, but they receive something in return.
SOO WILL NOT LET WEDNESDAY FANS TO PUT THEIR MONEY IN WITHOUT SAFEGUARDS AS TO ITS USE
NOTE: UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES would SOO obtain money from the 'everyday fans' in order to pay off HMRC without it being part of a larger offer that would involve boardroom change.
The £600k we need could probably not be raised in the timeframe from the wider Wednesday fanbase in any case. We're looking to high net worth Owls to stump up the initial £2m and be able to take control of the club. The fans' contributions would come in the medium term.
The only initiatives that would NOT follow this path would be something like a Seat For Life idea, which would be a quid pro quo offer to fans - i.e, they help out the short term cash situation, but they receive something in return.
SOO WILL NOT LET WEDNESDAY FANS TO PUT THEIR MONEY IN WITHOUT SAFEGUARDS AS TO ITS USE
Bullet-point FUNDING section from the SOO outline plan:
High Net Worth Individuals
• Rescue (£1.5m-£2m in based on gaining control of the club)
• Recover (club as going concern)
• Run (replace incumbent Board and ensure required skills are met)
Fan Based Investment
• WTID structure already in place
• Sponsored by club/bank (overcome startup funding difficulties)
• £5m to be raised in conjunction with HNW for second share placement
• Bank/Loan Note holder write- down as per C9S structure
External Investment
• Further round of funding and investment of £10m+ from external capital
• Final settlement of debt etc
Seat For Life
• Aim to raise £600k-£2m to meet short-term cash needs
• Underwritten by Co-Op (also personal loan providers)
• £5k buy-in from 400 fans
