Wednesdayite

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Wednesdayite is a supporters group for Sheffield Wednesday fans, formerly known as The Owls Trust.

1 Mission Statement
2 Profile
3 History
4 External links
5 References

[edit] Mission Statement

The ultimate and effective fan control of Sheffield Wednesday Football Club and in doing so strengthening the bonds between the Club and the community it serves. [1]

[edit] Profile

Wednesdayite is an independent football supporters organisation which owns nearly 10% of Sheffield Wednesday Football Club, making it one of the largest single shareholders of the club. They aim to give Wednesday fans a say in the running of the club.

Wednesdayite plan to achieve this goal by:

increasing membership to a level which the club cannot ignore
increasing shareholding of the club
fundraising
community involvement

The trust regularly hold collections around Hillsborough (although they are currently not permitted to do so inside the stadium), and also run a car park near the ground.

[edit] History

The organisation was originally set up when Dave Allen, Keith Addy and Geoff Hulley bought stakes in the club. A portion of shares were donated to the fans' trust.

In their previous incarnation as The Owls Trust, the organisation (and in particular chief executive, John Hemmingham and trust chairman, Jim Harrison) angered the chairman of Sheffield Wednesday, Dave Allen, as well as many of the fans with their public shows of disapproval of the current board of directors and by supporting a takeover bid by Ken Bates, who was seen by many Wednesday fans as an enemy of football supporters, likely to put profits ahead of the interests of the club's supporters. This feud resulted in the trust being evicted from their offices in Hillsborough.

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, and many fans believe that Hemmingham's actions vindicated Allen.

The trust was rebranded in August 2005 after the election of a new board. Jim Harrison remains on the Wednesdayite board, but has been replaced by Darryl Keys as chairman.

Since Hemmingham's departure support for the trust has grown rapidly, 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 about 99% in favour of working with the current board) 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.

Allen made a new public offer to Wednesdayite in May 2006, offering to write off a loan of £428,504, made to the club in the summer of 2004, providing that Wednesdayite's shares in the club were returned to him.