New stadium will benefit community (From Bucks Free Press)
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New stadium will benefit community
9:07am Friday 12th March 2010 in
RE: Opposition to plans for a new stadium for Wycombe Wanderers and Wasps.
HAVING just returned from holiday, I am trying to get to grips with the views expressed in your pages by ex-councillor Peter Morris, pensioner Rex Pawley and your correspondent BP Wilson over Wycombe District Council’s financial involvement in a new stadium for Wycombe Wanderers and London Wasps.
The common factor in all these comments is a complete lack of commercial awareness. Wasps have been seeking an enlarged stadium at Adams Park to accommodate the increasing number of supporters.
If anyone doubts this perhaps they should take a look at the attendance this weekend for the match with Gloucester or the proposals for the St George’s Day clash with Bath in aid of Help the Heroes.
They have also been seeking improved access to this ground which the council have refused.
Without Wasps it is possible Wanderers would not be able to survive and then what would happen to the £7million debt – would this not have reperc-ussions on the local community?
Wasps have looked at alternatives to staying in High Wycombe, and owner Steve Hayes is quite right is seeking additional funding to his own resources and that of the club to ensure the council have a commitment to the project, as the local community will benefit substantially from some 10,000 additional supporters coming into the town every other week during the winter months.
I would have thought that the residents of Booker affected by this proposed stadium would willingly exchange the inconveniences on a dozen or so Fridays or Saturdays for the constant drone of aircraft taking off and landing and the pilots trying to emulate the Red Baron by doing aerobatics as they do over Marlow early on a Sunday morning. Mr Wilson [who said Wasps should go back to where they belong] – where do Wasps belong?
Are we not lucky that accountants do not run commercial organisations?
Mervyn Buston, Herons Place, Marlow.
Comments(9)
Eachban
says...
12:10am Sun 14 Mar 10
.
No football, no rugby. QED.
.
Wycombe would be the poorer for it.
hondo
says...
10:43am Sun 14 Mar 10
Long live WWFC.
If Adams Park had not been removed from Green Belt it would be worth nothing as an asset, then there would be no pressure to move by the current owner, who can now see a return on the property sale for other development.
The alternative; more Green Belt destroyed by selling it to "the highest bidder" S---- H---- (fill in the blanks yourself)?
You can only sell your lungs once.
wayneo
says...
11:55am Sun 14 Mar 10
Hayes' mismangement has put WWFC into its current financial plight, look at the accounts for the last 5 years. How having this man at the helm of a Rugby club that is losing money and a Football club that is losing money, is going to improve the Club's fortunes is beyond me.
Piling OUR money into such a venture in order to acheive the commercial ambitions of Mr hayes is a huge gamble that will chain the public with a massive liability; WSDL has limited or no trading history and that has a liability is of 100 quid.
Not withstadning that, the community have not even been asked.
J B Blackett
says...
2:11pm Sun 14 Mar 10
.
Here's a group of people , all talking of a speculative project using public money and 'investing in the community' put together by and with -
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1. An entrepreneur (please - not to be called 'a chancer' ) who 'owns' some of the business below.
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2. A failing head-over-heels in debt (£7+million and rising) private company that overpays its workers but is not even trying to pay its creditors.
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3. A reportedly 'fast expanding' (No Limits) private rootless itinerant ('New Age travellers' ?) private company with currently well paid members ('stars' ?) and board members.
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4. A 'democratically elected' gang of politicians who wish to 'invest' public money and public property into the above enterprise - without any kind of mandate. This gang also (allegedly) invests in several speculative overseas (failing) businesses using publicly entrusted funds.
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Would you invest your own private resources in such a colourful group if offered the chance ? Don't forget the 'community' angle BTW as well.
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So far a few clients of 2 above have been asked and have rejected the project (close call !)
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Am I misunderstanding , naive or even (God forbid) cynical ?
.
Regards
wayneo
says...
3:13pm Sun 14 Mar 10
Ne, I would say that you are SPOT ON.
hondo
says...
3:54pm Sun 14 Mar 10
However, recommended reading for said councillors.
Matthew 6:24
Eachban
says...
12:04am Fri 19 Mar 10
.
That is where the no football, Wycombe will be the poorer for it comes from.
.
Be careful what you wish for.
wayneo
says...
12:38pm Fri 19 Mar 10
Eachban wrote:You haven't a clue what you are on about; You are missing the vital link and contractual agreement between WWFC and the trust.
Steve Hayes owns WWFC and Wasps, and hence owns AP. AP is no longer in Green Belt, irrespective of ifs and maybes. So, the final solution available to Hayes , should all else fail, is to cash in his chips. Now, what chance WWFC comes out of that exercise intact, and recovering ownership of AP? . That is where the no football, Wycombe will be the poorer for it comes from. . Be careful what you wish for.
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hondo says...
3:26pm Fri 12 Mar 10
As he admits, he has obviously not "got to grips" with the concept of local ratepayers not wanting to invest in a sports stadium.
An injudicious choice of attack on Booker residents, probably 99% of whom knew when they moved to Booker or were born there, of the existence of an airfield and have learned to live with it. Some indeed find it entertaining and many use its facilities.
As for where Wasps belong - from where did they move? And why to High Wycombe?
They are still known as "London Wasps", are they not?
What was commercially convenient, seems now not so commercially viable, therefore the ratepayers of High Wycombe, who had no say in the move, have now to put their hands in their pockets to bail them out.
Does he find that reasonable?
Suppose someone squatted in his back garden and then asked for a contribution to re-house?
As for the £7 million, that's Steve Hayes' problem. He chose to lend it.
Football teams are failing all over the country. Their supporters are learning to live with it.