How 'super genuine' David Storch arranged a pre-England pint with Sheffield Wednesday fans
Sheffield Wednesday chairman David Storch will meet with Owls supporters later this month over in the US.
When Paddy Jones’ phone buzzed with a WhatsApp message a couple of weeks ago, he had little idea it would lead to a pint with the chairman of Sheffield Wednesday in a bar full of excitable Owls supporters.
The ex-pat Wednesdayite, who moved Stateside 15 years ago and has led the ‘New York Owls’ supporter group since 2012, had enjoyed the odd conversation with David Storch since his club’s co-owner noticed the existence of the ‘Owls Americas’ group - which Paddy also runs - on social media some months ago. The pair had exchanged details.
After a phone call or two and some furious group chat messaging at Paddy’s end, a date was struck for Storch to meet Wednesday supporters in New York on June 26, the day before England take on Panama in their final World Cup group stage match. Storch, a former New York resident, will attend the match and wished to spend the evening with Owls supporters, both US-based and those travelling for the match.
A few dozen supporters are expected to make it to The Legends Bar, set in the shadow of the Empire State Building, to meet Storch and talk ‘a club reborn’. Part of the longer-term aim of Arise’s Wednesday is to enlarge its US supporter base. But for now, the feeling Paddy has is that Storch’s intention is simply to have a bit of fun and further his understanding of the Wednesday fanbase.
That understanding certainly seems to be growing fast. With England in town, Wednesday superfan Paul ‘Tango’ Gregory is among those expected to make the meet-up and asked whether he knew who ‘Tango’ was, Paddy laughed when explaining Storch replied to ask ‘Is that the guy who always takes his shirt off?’
“He’s super-genuine,” Paddy told The Star. “I've chatted to him over the phone, I've chatted to him over email and text now. He's just a very friendly, down-to-earth guy. He’s super-impressed with what we've been doing in America (with the fan groups). It's not like something we set up in the last six months when we heard there was an American investor. This is something that's been established since we were in League One the first time around.
“He seemed impressed with the social reach we've got and obviously sees that there is a seed for growth here that he could tap into. But I don't think that's his motivation. I think he just genuinely wants to meet fans and he was over in New York for the game. He just seems to want to meet the fans, especially in America because he's American and he used to live in New York. I genuinely get that impression. The number one priority is for him to say hello and meet us.”
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The event will feature a very informal Q&A with Storch and has been organised for a 6pm start so as not to clash with the US Masters darts event taking place at Madison Square Garden later that evening as British culture takes over a corner of New York for the midweek. A Boston meet-up with Storch’s fellow co-owner Tom Costin, who is attending England’s game against Ghana on June 23, is also in the process of being organised.
The Owls Americas supporter group is understandably a little small in comparison to others but is fierce with passion. Their annual meet-ups see fans travel from all over the country to share in their Wednesdayism and take in not only fans who have moved from the UK, but born Americans too. Paddy reckons the split to be about 80 per cent ex-pat, perhaps a little less, with some weird and wonderful reasons given for choosing a historically misfiring Northern club as their ‘soccer’ muse.
Paddy said: “When we first started our podcast five years ago, we had a regular feature on Owls of Americas that said ‘Why the hell are these Americans following Sheffield Wednesday? We interviewed quite a lot of American Wednesday fans. And there was a surprising amount of variation, if I'm honest with you.
“A few people were around in the late 90s and America had a show that had Premier League highlights. A couple of people said that they just liked Owls and they were looking to find a team. A couple of people said it was through playing FIFA. A couple of people had links through family. It was a real mixed bag. Of course a few people said John Harkes, Jeff our podcast host watched the Premier League and loved David Hirst. So it's a real mixed bag. The love of Owls comes up more than you’d think!”