Owls buy-out plan hits new cash barrier
Sheffield Wednesday are drafting a new plan to remove barriers to a club buy-out after being forced to scrap their March 31 target.
Chairman Lee Strafford and chief executive Nick Parker intend to make a fresh approach to the Co-operative bank - owed 21m of a 25m debt - once they have formulated a revised strategy.
Click on the green play button to see Sheffield Wednesday taking part in the Owls Wellie Wanging tournamnet in aid of Comic Relief
No timeframe has been put on the exercise after former chairman Dave Allen announced this week that he would not accept less than a full repayment of his 2m loans.
Although Allen's statement effectively scuppered the initial deal struck with the bank, and made the deadline for calling an egm unworkable, Wednesday sources say the new board accept and understand his position.
There will be no war of words with Allen who, club insiders maintain, is simply exercising his prerogative. Strafford has a different philosophy on running the club but privately concedes that the previous regime made his venture viable by bottoming out the debt and enabling the club to pay its way.
With no blame attached, Wednesday have suspended talks with potential investors knowing the decks have to be cleared before the money men commit themselves.
A complicated transaction now needs reworking to remove all the major shareholders and loan note holders from the equation. But there has been no lessening of support from the bank, who agreed to write off a substantial portion of the debt providing other parties also take a hit.
And Strafford remains committed to lifting the player wage budget for next season on the back of expected increases in season ticket sales after an enterprising start by the new board.
Their argument is that a takeover, in terms of the management of the club, has already happened. Strafford is also standing by his refusal to invest personally in the club. Although a relatively small amount of money is involved in the impasse - modest, certainly, beside the sort of cash Wednesday have aspired to raise - Strafford insists that investors don't make good executives.
He believes it can create a conflict of interest. Instead, he intends to marry his ideas to those of would-be backers.
There is common ground between Strafford and Allen in that both are wanting to move on with individual projects - with the ex-Owls chief having been strongly linked with an involvement in Chesterfield for many months.
On that basis, further negotiation cannot be ruled out entirely, however uncompromising Allen's stand, and more talks are envisaged. But a solution looks difficult at best because there is such a major point of principle on both sides. Wednesday sources say a buy-out has been put on the back burner pending a new plan. The board's priority is to continue to remodel the club and it has been intimated that more interested parties have emerged since Strafford began his mission in January.
Meanwhile, Brian Laws and his team move on to Vicarage Road, Watford tomorrow in their quest to keep the season alive.
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Weather for Sheffield
Wednesday 08 February 2012
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