The Sheffield Wednesday Supporters Society has been in existence for over a decade - and has certainly had its fair share of headlines, both good and bad!
While we are all as glad as we could be that the political struggles of the past are a distant memory and that we can throw all our time and energy behind providiing the best services to the fans and bringing the most benefit to the club and its community, the story of how we got to where we are now makes for a fascinating story, a roller-coaster ride of emotion that might have seemed bleak at the time, but had a brilliantly happy ending.
If you'd like to know more about the story of Wednesdayite, then please come and chat to any of our Directors on a match day - we'll never forget the ride we were on...
The Sheffield Wednesday Supporters' Society functioning under the name of 'The Owls Trust' is set up. 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. The purchase of more than 29.9% of any company triggers a mandatory bid for the remaining shares in company law, however to avoid making such a bid, a portion of those shares equal to 9.46% of Sheffield Wednesday PLC were donated to the fledgling fans' trust.
The Owls Trust increase their shareholding in the club to 10.07% through purchasing shares from the wider SWFC community. This takes them over the ten per cent threshold by which they would have to be consulted on any full takeover, and would have the ability to call an EGM if they wished.
The organisation angered then chairman of Sheffield Wednesday, Dave Allen, as well as many Wednesday fans, by being perceived to support a takeover bid by Ken Bates. However, the organisation - in particular its 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.
In light of previous perceptions of the organisation, The Owls Trust received a number of candidates for its board elections in May and once elected, the new board rebranded the organisation to a much more fan-friendly name of 'Wednesdayite' in August 2005. Jim Harrison was replaced at this same time as Chairman by Darryl Keys, a former merchant banker with responsibility for Sports Finance.
Despite regular attempts to communicate with the club's directors (as dictated by the members who voted massively in favour of working with the incumbent board) many in that board were still hostile to Wednesdayite.
Whilst Wednesdayite's 10.07% shareholding was regarded as a valuable asset for a supporters' trust by the Government initiative, Supporters Direct and their member trusts, the Society courted a lot of controversy with the Sheffield Wednesday board and sections of fans.
In September, the former Sheffield Wednesday Chairman, Dave Allen, offered to buy Wednesdayite's share of the club for around £330,000 (which would be put back into the playing squad budget). However Allen refused to address a Wednesdayite members' meeting to discuss this purchase and additionally it was not made clear how any ensuing Capital Gains Tax would be paid to the Inland Revenue, which would possibly leave the Supporters' Trust in tens of thousands of pounds' debt. Wednesdayite members democratically voted in favour of rejecting the offer.
In July Wednesdayite were accused by Dave Allen of being responsible for the collapse of a takeover by former Everton director Paul Gregg due to their shareholding, a claim which Wednesdayite denied. In the months and years that followed, Wednesdayite balloted both members and non-members to gauge opinion on their shareholding across the entire fanbase; and held a vote to decide if members would be willing to listen to offers from any new investor.
Members voted in favour of listening to offers and Wednesdayite, on 2 October 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.
On 13 February, Wednesdayite Chairman Darryl Keys revealed that the group had been approached by different parties with regards to the processes involving the sale of their shareholding. One of those parties was later revealed to be Geoff Sheard, who was said to be fronting a 'Swiss-based trust' and was said to be at an "advanced stage" in steps to buy the club. Wednesdayite membership significantly increased during the period with all members promised that they would be able to take part in any future potential vote deciding whether to sell the shares.
Due to the length of time taken to complete a takeover of the club, speculation mounted amongst the Sheffield Wednesday fanbase as to the role of Wednesdayite's shares in a possible takeover, the identity of consortium members and whether the funds of the group could be legally verified under UK money laundering laws. Wednesdayite's openness in addressing the unfolding situation (whilst all other parties, including the club, remained silent on the subject) saw support for the group grow.
On 1 July, Wednesdayite received a formal bid from Geoff Sheard, acting for a 'Swiss-based trust'. Wednesdayite immediately referred the correspondence to legal advisors in preparation of a ballot of members on whether to accept the offer for the shareholding. It was also announced that Dave Allen had agreed to sell his 10% stake in Sheffield Wednesday PLC to Sheard's group.
A Special General Meeting of Wednesdayite took place on 6 August. Members were sent detailed supporting information alongside the ballot forms, and the Wednesdayite board recommended members vote 'Yes' to both resolutions - to amend the Socierty rule preventing the shareholding being sold and to sell the shares to Geoff Sheard.
Both resolutions were passed with over 90% of votes from 78% of all members voting.
On 6 October, Wednesdayite withdrew their previous offer to sell shares to Geoff Sheard and his consortium, citing the length of time taken for the takeover to be completed and the lack of verifiable funds.
Following the final collapse of the Sheard bid, significant changes took place at the club, with Lee Strafford firstly joining the club board and then quickly becoming Chairman. Strafford's plan to revitalise the Owls hinged on engaging with the fanbase, and as such Wednesdayite were welcomed into the club in ways that mere months ago had seemed unthinkable. Going into the 2009/10 season, Strafford stated to a Wednesdayite members' meeting that he would like to see all Wednesday fans be a member of Wednesdayite, and permitted Wednesdayite membership to be included as an option on season ticket forms.
As the political situation continued to unravel at Hillsborough, Strafford eventually resigned as Chairman and with the club facing winding-up petitions from HMRC amid rumours of the club going into administration or worse, Wednesdayite lent their voice to the growing protest movement amongst Wednesday fans, working closely with the Shareholders Association and Time To Go under the Save Our Owls banner.
In December, Milan Mandarić took over as chairman of Sheffield Wednesday with Wednesdayite gifting their 10.07% shareholding to the Mandarić family trust as part of the takeover. When Wednesdayite members were balloted on the issue of gifting the shares, 97.9% voted in favour.
Mr Mandarić attends a Wednesdayite members meeting where he is warmly welcomed to the club and pledges to continue to involve the fans in everything he does to help take the club forward.
With the disbursement of the Society's shareholding came the opportunity to carve a new path for Wednesdayite in a post-political era. Wednesdayite changed their mission statement and shifted the emphasis from seeking positive change within the SWFC boardroom to seeking closer ties with the club in order to deliver a better matchday experience for fans, to mutually benefit both supporters and the club, and to reach out to the wider community with the SWFC brand.
At the 2011 Society AGM, Wednesdayite Vice-Chair Eddie Hoyland presented a vision of a future for Wednesdayite as a supporter's club first and foremost, embracing community, matchday and commercial operations to bring benefit to all the main stakeholders in SWFC in the years to come.
Wednesdayite embrace their role as a key part of how Owls fans follow their club. We continue to grow and expand our successful Away Coach, Car Park and Matchday Lounge services, surf our Big Flag at home and away matches, put on popular events and do everything we can to support both the SWFC Community Programme and the SWFC Academy.
With a popular and constantly-updated website and over 11,000 followers on Twitter (with over 6,000 on Facebook), we are a hub for fans from all over the world to come together and support the greatest team the world has ever seen!