Time to invest in Western Sydney Wanderers FC plc?

By Gavin Devine
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Updated: December 5, 2018

Wanderers have had a horrible start to yet another season and once again the fans are left with a long wait between now and May where our expectations will not be met, expectations of a big club pushing for honours.

Quite simply, it has little to do with the manager, facilities or supporter base, it has to do with a dire lack of investment from the board.

Wanderers almost habitually pick up players who other teams don’t want, we feed off the players who can’t get a run elsewhere, it is a flawed business plan which is unfair on the manager and the fans.

We are one of the richest clubs but refuse to spend on a game-changing marquee, a proven goalscorer, a world renown talent, a go to man.

Instead, we are seeing clubs like Melbourne Victory pump cash into their playing squad, they bought Besart then lost him and replaced him with Honda, it is an admirable approach to running a Football club.

We have sat in neutral watching Sydney FC plunder a swathe of trophies since they themselves brought Del Piero to their club, our record against them is attrocious yet nothing spurs the board into action.

So what are the clubs options?

The easiest one is for the board to announce a war chest for Babbel, let him bring in a marquee of undoubted class, he must have plenty of contacts in Germany and throughout Europe.

With two-thirds of A-League players being off contract next year, a whopping 134 names, surely January is the time for a spending spree for next season on local talent.

If this were anywhere else in the Footballing world, it would mean transfer fees being paid to secure players before they ran their contracts down, being Australia, pre contracts are more likely.

But again, the board is unwilling to spend, so what is the answer?

If we take Wanderers as a club that was bought for $15 million and maintain that value, then the idea would be to double the equity, for the fans to stump up a similar amount and move to a Bundesliga style system of 50% + 1.

Wanderers have 15,000 members so the basic math is $1000 per member, that is a lot of money to ask for a fan to pay on top of what they already spend on the club.

On our Facebook page we held a poll which will be open for the next 5 days asking if you would pay $500, please vote and get as many members views heard.

This would give WSW fans one third of a total value of 22.5 million, there could be a second tranche a year or 2 later to go to 50% if need be.

Of course with a one-third share, the membership would gain a seat on the board and have a say in expenditure.

With 7.5 million open to the club the money would be put into restructuring the teams fortunes over the next few years, bringing in key players for the long term to get Wanderers to a position of dominance one more.

A world renown marquee, the best players we can squeeze into the salary cap domestically and some money for our womens team too.

Wanderers are turning a profit by not spending money, if the club invested it would see already amazing merchandise sales skyrocket and empty seats at our stadium filled.

From this perspective, the investors would have the opportunity to make their $500 back through dividends.

Wanderers are turning a profit in neutral, imagine the club in overdrive?

The sad facts are that the board are refusing to spend what has been given to them, if they will not spend in the future then club may well be eclipsed by the South Western team mooted for Campbelltown with the expansion decision just weeks away.

That too is to be owned by men with hundreds of millions, they might just spend a few and buy an amazing team and we will find Wanderland empty, the club must act.

If it won’t spend, then at least give us the opportunity to spend for it, Rene Silva said it best in the comments: