Wednesdayite
Wednesdayite Supporters Group is a supporters group for Sheffield Wednesday fans.
(The term "Wednesdayite" is also commonly and traditionally used to describe all Sheffield Wednesday fans)
Profile
"Wednesdayite" is the trading name of Sheffield Wednesday Supporters' Society Limited, an independent football supporters trust which owns 10.07% of Sheffield Wednesday Football Club, making it one of the largest single shareholders of Sheffield Wednesday PLC.
As a democratic members' organisation, Wednesdayite's mission statement is:
"To act as responsible custodians over a meaningful shareholding in Sheffield Wednesday in order to develop and maintain a democratic, effective and influential role for Wednesday fans in the running of the Club and to strengthen the bonds between the Club and its community."
Wednesdayite have a number of schemes with the aim of benefiting Sheffield Wednesday and it's community, including Coaching Schemes for local schools, Match day members bar, Away match coach transport, Match day car park, Smile tickets scheme - enabling people to attend football matches at Hillsborough that would not normally be able to attend, Schedule of events and more.[1]
Wednesdayite as an organisation are members of Supporters Direct[2], a government-led trust initiative, and the Football Supporters Federation.
History
The organisation was originally set up in 2001. At the time, Sheffield Wednesday club directors Dave Allen, Keith Addy and Geoff Hulley bought an amount of shares in the club equal to 36.7% of the total share capital of Sheffield Wednesday PLC, from investment company Charterhouse[3].
The purchase of more than 29.9% of any company triggers a mandatory bid for the remaining shares in company law[4], however to avoid making such a bid, a portion of those shares equal to 9.46% of Sheffield Wednesday PLC were donated to the fledgeling fans' trust[3].
In their previous incarnation as The Owls Trust the organisation angered the chairman of Sheffield Wednesday, Dave Allen, as well as many of the fans, with a perception of supporting a takeover bid by Ken Bates[3]. However, the organisation - in particular it's Chief Executive John Hemmingham and Chairman Jim Harrison - maintained that it was not supporting a takeover, but was supporting the principle of allowing potential investors, including Ken Bates, access to relevant documents in order to formulate an educated bid for the company. This feud resulted in the trust being evicted from their offices in Hillsborough[5].
Hemmingham eventually quit in March 2005 when Bates took control of Yorkshire rivals Leeds and offered him a job as "Head of Membership Development". The move reportedly saw Hemmingham receive death threats[6], and many fans believe that Hemmingham's actions vindicated Allen.
In light of previous perceptions of the organisation, The Owls Trust received a number of candidates for it's board elections in May 2005 and once elected the new board rebranded the organisation to a much more fan-friendly name of 'Wednesdayite' in August 2005[7]. Jim Harrison was replaced at this same time as Chairman by Darryl Keys, a former merchant banker with responsibility for Sports Finance.
Since the rebranding the trust has massively grown in size, although they still attract a lot of controversy. Despite regular attempts to communicate with the club's directors (as dictated by the members who voted massively in favour of working with the current board[8]) many in that board are still hostile to Wednesdayite. In September 2005 Allen verbally offered to buy back Wednesdayite's share of the club for around £330,000, an offer which was turned down.
In July 2007 Wednesdayite were accused of being responsible by Dave Allen for the collapse of a takeover by former Everton director Paul Gregg due to their 10.07% shareholding[9], a claim which Wednesdayite deny. Since then, Wednesdayite have balloted both members and non-members to gauge opinion on their shareholding and held a vote to decide if members would be willing to listen to offers from any new investor.
Members have now voted in favour of listening to any offers and Wednesdayite have on 2nd October 2007 also pledged their shares to a scheme backed by the Sheffield Wednesday Shareholders Association to listen to any offers from new investors willing to achieve a 51% shareholding in the business.
References
- ^ a b "Wednesdayite aims and objectives". Retrieved 2007-03-10. Cite error: The named reference "Wednesdayite official site" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- ^ "Supporters Direct Members". Retrieved 2007-03-10.
- ^ a b c "BBC News - Fans get stake in Owls". Retrieved 2007-03-10. Cite error: The named reference "BBC News" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- ^ "The Takeover Panel Rules". Retrieved 2007-03-10.
- ^ "The Guardian - Down among the debt men". Retrieved 2007-03-10.
- ^ "Yorkshire Post - Owls fan's switch sparks death threats". Retrieved 2007-03-10.
- ^ "Indy Media". Retrieved 2007-03-10.
- ^ "Wednesdayite Survey Results" (PDF). Retrieved 2007-03-10.
- ^ "BBC News". Retrieved 2007-03-10.
Further reading
- Sheffield Star (November 20, 2006) Wednesdayites sing their tribute to two fans who died in car crash.
- Warnock, Neil. (March 3, 2007) Michael Vaughan's the toast of our family - even if he is a Wednesdayite. Section: Football; Page 80.
- Yorkshire Post (September 28, 2007) Wednesdayite invited to Hillsborough for Owls talks.