David Storch is everything Sheffield Wednesday fans wanted in an owner
Arise Capital Partners are less than three months into their Sheffield Wednesday tenure, but they have already made a plethora of positive and exciting decisions.
The success of Arise Capital Partners’ Sheffield Wednesday premiership will, ultimately, be dictated by results.
Football is a cut-throat business, and almost all key figures within it live and die by results on the pitch. It is what happens at 3pm on Saturday afternoon that matters most.
With that said, it would have been easy for Wednesday chairman David Storch, making his first public address after completing his consortium’s takeover of the club back in May, to have promised an immediate return to the Championship next season or teased a timescale to return to the Premier League to get supporters immediately on side.
Instead, Storch vowed to deliver hot water and world-class Wi-Fi as two of his first promises. Supporters of other clubs, unfamiliar with the extent of Wednesday’s decline under former owner Dejphon Chansiri, probably heard that and laughed, questioning just how ambitious Storch and his Arise colleagues actually were.
In reality, it was music to the ears of Wednesdayites, who had lived and breathed the decline of this proud club under Chansiri’s management. They know how despertate the club is for infrastructural improvements.
Less than three months on from Storch’s on-pitch address ahead of the final home game of last season, Wednesday’s progress, particularly off the pitch, has been unlike anything Wednesdayites witnessed in ten-and-a-half years under Chansiri’s stewardship.
The Thai businessman, who bought the club back in January 2015, had just one goal: promotion to the Premier League. Despite twice coming close to achieving that dream, Wednesday failed under his stewardship, and Arise have been left to pick up the pieces.
However, a fresh start from top to bottom is what Wednesday needed. Most new owners, when they inherit a club, are tasked with investing in the team and elevating the club’s profile on the pitch. Arise are tasked with elevating Wednesday’s profile across the board, meaning investment is needed across every department.
The latest sign of progress emerged on Friday when the Owls released images of some cosmetic upgrades that have been implemented at the club’s Middlewood Road training base. From a fresh-looking ‘welcome’ sign being erected at the entrance to the car park to club-branded banners being put up on the walls that surround the training pitches, they are long-overdue changes.
Yes, they are simple upgrades that will have no bearing on Wednesday’s performances on the pitch, but they elevate the club’s standards, offering a clean, slick and modern-day look.
It is no secret that Wednesday, long term, need to find a new training ground, and searches for new land have long since started. However, for as long as Middlewood Road remains the Owls’ base, Arise are committed to sprucing the place up and making it as good as it possibly can be.
In the grand scheme of running a football club, these are small, low-cost improvements. But the impact they will have on the players, staff and supporters cannot be understated. Most importantly, they provide proof that Arise have vision.
Chansiri invested very little into the club’s infrastructure over the years, and that is where Arise are already showing a contrasting approach. They have already demonstrated their commitment to improving standards across the board by investing in Middlewood Road and Hillsborough.
An example of Chansiri not helping himself improve standards at the training ground was when a local, unnamed company offered to pay to have huge netting put up behind the goals at Middlewood Road on the condition that they could have their branding on it. Chansiri is understood to have rejected their offer after wanting his name plastered all over them instead.
In addition to the facelift Middlewood Road has been given and the improvements being made at Hillsborough, such as the introduction of ‘Hirsty’s Social’ and the Megastore being the subject of a major and long-overdue refurbishment, Storch and his team have also highlighted how they want to engage with supporters and keep them up to date on developments as much as possible.
Storch has fast become a familiar face on the Wednesday X (formerly Twitter) hashtag, taking to the social media platform now and then to update supporters on progress being made behind the scenes. It is that level of interaction Owls supporters wanted after Chansiri, despite holding fan forums at different junctures, regularly dismissed them and misunderstood their importance.
Storch, who has also made a handful of excellent off-field appointments, such as David Bruce as chief executive and Simon Wilson as sporting director, and his team have the fans at the heart of every decision they make. One source told The Star earlier this year that Storch had told staff they must think about how every decision they make, however big or small, impacts supporters. It is an approach Wednesdayites have not seen in years.
With infrastructure improvements being made, the squad taking shape and an ownership group at the helm that is invested in learning about the club’s history, listening to people who can educate them, committed to engaging with the fans and former players, and striving for excellence on and off the pitch, Wednesday’s garden is as rosy as it has been in years.
Results on the pitch will dictate the success of Arise’s tenure, but their hunger to improve standards and invest in the club’s infrastructure is a massive tick in the box.
This is exactly what Wednesdayites have been waiting for.