Wycombe Wanderers can afford to survive in League One if promotion is achieved this season, according to the group who own the club despite stating that Blues are in a “difficult” financial position.

Since Wycombe Wanderers Trust took control of the club from Steve Hayes in 2012 – a time when the club had announced a loss for the previous financial year in excess of £1million – they have sought to cut costs and make the club profitable.

For the current year the Trust are forecasting a loss of £137,000, leading some fans to worry whether the club have the financial resources to survive in a higher division if Gareth Ainsworth leads Wanderers to promotion when May rolls around.

David Cook, who is on the Wanderers board, said: “We’re aiming to be successful. In previous years when we’ve gone up to League One we’ve realised and recognised that it’s going to cost us more but we’ve not been in a position to invest in that promotion.

“Now, we’re taking a more realistic view. It will cost us more and we’ll budget accordingly and we’ll behave accordingly, but we’re not going to step aside from the possibility of promotion just because it’s going to cost us. We want promotion and we’ll manage it.”

Chairman of the Trust, Trevor Stroud, added: “There will be some upfront costs to promotion. I have to wear two hats because as a fan you want promotion, you want to see better quality football and you want to be playing Millwall – if they come down.

“We remember the days of playing Manchester City here and it was good. From a business point of view there are upfront costs associated with it but as a football club that will be managed and budgeted through.

“I think to say we can’t afford to go up is wrong, but there are costs associated with promotion.”

The reality for Wanderers is that playing in a higher division will cost them more money, but the Trust are well aware of that fact and are hoping to increase the club’s income in a number of ways to compensate for higher outgoings.

The club hope attendances will increase by 21 per cent season on season, they aim to improve facilities at Adams Park which will potentially attract more corporate functions to be held at the ground and they are targeting more income from sponsorship via match and ball sponsors for example – an area which they say the secured “virtually no” income in 2013/14.

Players sales, an area which accounted for £300,000 of the club’s income this year after the sales of Paris Cowan-Hall and Josh Scowen, is an area which the Trust hopes to see a continued stream of revenue come from as sell on clauses and performance or transfer related extras, for “a mix of players”, are paid to the club.

Wasps’ departure from their tenancy at Adams Park will leave a shortfall of £140,000 a year – taking ground rental only into account – and Stroud denied that the money raised from the Trust’s share scheme, which was officially launched last night (Thursday), will go directly on plugging that gap.

He said: “Wasps departing hasn’t helped, but we’ve put a budget together that excludes Wasps. Is the money going to fund that gap? In one way you could argue ‘yes’ and in other ways ‘no’.

“There is a shortfall but we believe by improving our commercial activity, increasing turnover and continuing to be very sharp on costs that we would look to replace that with non-matchday turnover to replace the money that’s gone from Wasps.

“Is it directly going towards that? No. Do we have to cover that gap? Yes.”

Wanderers chairman Andrew Howard states in the Community Share Offer document available to Trust members that the departure of Wasps will “slow down the road to recovery, but it will only slow it down and not stop it”. Howard’s statement is reflected in the Trust’s projection that the club will lose £229,000 in 2015/16 – the first season without the rugby club – before it hopes to make a small profit of £10,000 in 2016/17.

Wanderers’ main problem as a Trust owned football club since they took over has been securing enough working capital to ensure they can run effectively as a business.

Stroud hopes the share scheme, which aims to raise £2million over five years, is the answer to those problems after a series of other avenues were explored.

“We’ve tried various things to provide that working capital while we reduce the costs and try to increase the turnover,” he said.

“For instance we sold and leased back the training ground, we got 30 loyal supporters who formed a company called Chairboys Funders and they put £450,000 into the club, albeit for a very healthy interest rate which suited both sides.

“We’ve also had to sell players. Some of those were good business and some of those were distress sales and I’m not going to shrink away from that. The last two I believe were very good business.

“Prior to that Kortney Hause was probably sold below his market value, but we do have additional clauses which will hopefully reward us in the future rather than immediately.

“What we need is an injection of working capital which hopefully the share scheme will provide.”

The Trust has already begun taking investment via the share scheme with Howard one of those people who has pledged money into the initiative over the five-year period.

In excess of £550,000 has been pledged according to Stroud – a figure that they hope will turn into payments which come in the form of monthly, annual or one off sums.

A minimum pledge of £100 can be made by anyone who signs up to be a Trust member, while the maximum amount payable over the five years is £100,000 and funds must come from a UK bank account although the Trust hope to attract investors from beyond these shores.

Stroud said: “We will be marketing it on a national basis. Stage one is to Trust members and fans, stage two is to the wider High Wycombe community and thirdly will be the wider football community and worldwide.

“There is interest in these things worldwide. People like the idea of supporter owned clubs and if people want to invest from Australia, America or wherever we would be very happy.”

The Trust says the money raised by the share scheme will be used to improve areas of the club which can help generate extra revenue and may also be used on projects such as upgrading the floodlights.

“It will be general funding within the club and there are specific areas that have been targeted,” said Stroud.

“We don’t want fans to think there is just a big black hole that the money is disappearing into.

“We have said that the money will not be used to bump up the playing budget, which probably isn’t good news to Gareth but it’s not a position where we’re asking fans to buy a player or build a squad.”