@royston-vasey it would be a buy out from an investor/investors
Another chance to bang the drum for a supporters buy out of at least 50% + 1 shares (The German round ball League model).
If we envisage the club ever buying the stadium the last thing we want is a Sugar Daddy buying it with loans that can be withdrawn in a heartbeat, bankrupting the club (sound familiar?).
If the supporters own the majority voting rights we would at least have a say in whether a purchase should go ahead and under what conditions (payback over x years and such).
In the meantime we could make use of the many micro-sugar Daddies in Widnes and, who knows, we might be able to fund a full time team ourselves.
We don't have enough supporters for a credible 50+1% buy out.
That's why we are where we are.
Who says we don't have enough supporters? From what I've read, on here I think, the club was rescued from oblivion by three die hard supporters who do not have the funds to take the club to the next level. If their hearts and heads are behind Widnes progressing they might give a supporters organisation the shares at no cost, to protect the club from the sorts of sharks we've been owned by before. Alternatively, they may allow that body to buy the shares for the price they paid for the whole club, thus getting their money back and leaving them with 50%-1 votes to sell to a sugar daddy, should one ever appear.
Also on here it was suggested that VIQI is sitting on £200,000 to £250,000, and that would be well more than I'd imagine the owners paid for the club. We couldn't use that money, but it shows what us supporters can do when we put our minds to it. I would certainly be willing to transfer my monthly VIQI contribution to a supporters trust.
Would a supporters group ever agree on the direction of the club! There would be some demanding the sacking of the manager every seven games; others wanting to have a say in the coaching of the team; and others demanding that they know best on the running of the club.
So we are asking for the current owners to hand over their interest in the club, to a group of supporters who may or may not be representative of supporters as a whole and who can then sell on their interest to a potential investor?
Perhaps those making this proposal should first of all work out the finances involved in buying the ground and running the club with a full time squad, with marquee players on £400,000 contracts, based on say a 1000 supporter investors! That could be a £10,000 each just to buy the ground, assuming the council are willing to sell.
Or we could just ask the current Board about their plans and ambitions for the future of the Club.
And who could we moan about on this Board if we continue in the Championship!
Another chance to bang the drum for a supporters buy out of at least 50% + 1 shares (The German round ball League model).
If we envisage the club ever buying the stadium the last thing we want is a Sugar Daddy buying it with loans that can be withdrawn in a heartbeat, bankrupting the club (sound familiar?).
If the supporters own the majority voting rights we would at least have a say in whether a purchase should go ahead and under what conditions (payback over x years and such).
In the meantime we could make use of the many micro-sugar Daddies in Widnes and, who knows, we might be able to fund a full time team ourselves.
We don't have enough supporters for a credible 50+1% buy out.
That's why we are where we are.
Yet the club wouldn't exist without the fans contribution / fundraising during administration.
Would a supporters group ever agree on the direction of the club! There would be some demanding the sacking of the manager every seven games; others wanting to have a say in the coaching of the team; and others demanding that they know best on the running of the club.
So we are asking for the current owners to hand over their interest in the club, to a group of supporters who may or may not be representative of supporters as a whole and who can then sell on their interest to a potential investor?
Perhaps those making this proposal should first of all work out the finances involved in buying the ground and running the club with a full time squad, with marquee players on £400,000 contracts, based on say a 1000 supporter investors! That could be a £10,000 each just to buy the ground, assuming the council are willing to sell.
Or we could just ask the current Board about their plans and ambitions for the future of the Club.
And who could we moan about on this Board if we continue in the Championship!
You paint a picture of total chaos, but every single limited company of any size ever created has many shareholders having different opinions and they manage to get along. The creation of a supporters trust is first of all to secure the future against the possible disaster of having a single owner owning the entire club and misusing their power/trust as we've seen before more than once.
I'm sure there are endless different ways that a trust of this kind could be constructed, but, to take the 50%+1 model, we would presumably want the remaining half of the shares to end up with a benevolent oligarch who could take us to Super League glory. That person would no doubt want to have total control of the clubs direction, sacking of the coach etc, which is easily achieved by agreeing up front those areas over which the trust would abstain from any vote, and those over which it would not. In the absence of a Sugar Daddy the current owners could run it much as they do now.
Beyond securing the future of the club against the hazards of having total ownership in one persons hands, this set up allows the supporters to have direct access to the owners and vice versa. And that gives us the opportunity to work with them to improve the club. No-one is talking about £400,000 marquee players, but if the coach/scouts/owners found a player that would make a splash in our league but needed, say £50,000 to get them, there might be enough well off fans to cover that in a whip round. As it is, we never hear of that sort of opportunity.
As for buying the ground, if we managed to land a rich enough sugar daddy maybe they might want to buy the ground. The role of the Trust would be to ensure that this is done in a way that doesn't harm the long term future of the club.
As I've said before German Football have the same model at their top clubs and they seem to do alright.
@jdgsport I don’t understand the point you are trying to make. No club professional or amateur would exist without supporters.
There is a world of difference between 1500 people making a once off contribution and a small annual subscription and stumping up literally millions to buy a ground and then contribute year on year with the tens of thousands to maintain the ground and the hundreds of thousands to run the club as a medium sized business.
The only reason an investor would buy the ground is for redevelopment purposes. It is the only viable way to make money and that would be a one-off money maker. Ironically any sign that there would be money to be made would probably see us evicted and the council selling of to the highest bidder,, which certainly wouldn’t be Widnes Vikings RLFC.
Definitely a contender for thread of the year this one.
Definitely a contender for thread of the year this one.
🤣 CCL = cloud cuckoo land or PMF = pigs might fly thread
For those who are unaware who actually saved the club it was a young lady by the name of Bethany Pennington for whom VIQ stole the glory by acting as if it was themselves that did it.
For those who are unaware who actually saved the club it was a young lady by the name of Bethany Pennington for whom VIQ stole the glory by acting as if it was themselves that did it.
Ahhhh yes Mick, the incredibly transparent VIQI
Bethany Pennington rightly deserved all the recognition she received for her fantastic money raising efforts to help the club out of administration. I can recall her being brought on to the pitch prior to a game to receive applause from the fans.
If you actually checked, you will see that Bethany set up the GoFundMe page on behalf of Jason Shaw, so VIQI did play a part in the fund raising activity, whether or not they then claimed all the credit is a matter of opinion. That does not detract from Bethany’s important part in saving the club, which should always be recognised and remembered.
Whether VIQI can be more open or has a view on the suggestion for a fan buy-out of the club, is probably a subject for another thread.
Bethany Pennington rightly deserved all the recognition she received for her fantastic money raising efforts to help the club out of administration. I can recall her being brought on to the pitch prior to a game to receive applause from the fans.
If you actually checked, you will see that Bethany set up the GoFundMe page on behalf of Jason Shaw, so VIQI did play a part in the fund raising activity, whether or not they then claimed all the credit is a matter of opinion. That does not detract from Bethany’s important part in saving the club, which should always be recognised and remembered.
Whether VIQI can be more open or has a view on the suggestion for a fan buy-out of the club, is probably a subject for another thread.
Frank do you know what happened to all these funds raised by go funding the fund raiser at the ground and the Doc's large contribution ? I for one have no clue and would love to know. I was at the fundraiser and Bethany got a tiny miserly mention as she was pulling pints behind the bar.
@jdgsport I don’t understand the point you are trying to make. No club professional or amateur would exist without supporters.
There is a world of difference between 1500 people making a once off contribution and a small annual subscription and stumping up literally millions to buy a ground and then contribute year on year with the tens of thousands to maintain the ground and the hundreds of thousands to run the club as a medium sized business.
The only reason an investor would buy the ground is for redevelopment purposes. It is the only viable way to make money and that would be a one-off money maker. Ironically any sign that there would be money to be made would probably see us evicted and the council selling of to the highest bidder,, which certainly wouldn’t be Widnes Vikings RLFC.
Sorry, we've probably got crossed wires here.
I'm not saying the fans should get together to buy the stadium, clearly that's never going to happen.
But I don't see any reason why the fans couldn't have a 50+1 in the context of the current situation.