Where would Sheffield Wednesday go in case of emergency?
Alan Biggs on one of the scenarios that could play out as Sheffield Wednesday crisis rumbles on
The same question everywhere: “What do you think’s going to happen?”
“No idea” is not what Sheffield Wednesday fans want to hear, even if it’s close to the truth.
But when it comes to what I THINK as opposed to know, this column can all too easily envisage things those anxious supporters don’t want to hear.
Which is why I’ve held back on this scenario until now - an emergency ground share existence amid a stand-off that still has a way to go.
And this runs separately to the overriding existential issue. About which I’m still convinced there will always be a Sheffield Wednesday, notwithstanding a prospective winding up petition & whether or not a reviled owner somehow tries to grind on through it (as I think he will).
But the thought of Wednesday playing anywhere but Hillsborough, barring a move to a new stadium, has been unimaginable for the 126 years the club has been based there.
Then again, the unthinkable has already happened in terms of the crisis inflicted by Dejphon Chansiri’s regime and a nomadic existence is an easily foreseeable extension of that.
While ever Chansiri owns the stadium he has the club in his clutches and he has so far succeeded in not having the loan called in. Maybe that is his strategic priority.
There is little doubt that the Independent Football Regulator will have the power to remove him from club ownership - eventually. Assuming the Wednesday Supporters Trust’s “starvation” campaign doesn’t prevail in the meantime.
But the IFR would have no power to release his grip on the stadium because it is separately owned.
Now you tell me whether you think Chansiri, bruised and potentially vengeful in such circumstances, would play ball over a reasonable rental agreement? Whether it be with an administrator or new owners.
That also presumes a stadium deal can’t be wrapped up inside a sale of the club, but right now there is zero chance of any attempted negotiation succeeding. It would have been sold by now otherwise.
Where would Wednesday go if the rent was too high? Sharing Bramall Lane with Sheffield United would be out for obvious reasons.
Leeds United up the road? Why would they compromise their Elland Road pitch for a few bob while tapping into Premier League riches?
That for me leaves Barnsley and Rotherham as the only feasible relatively nearby options, even if ground size could be an issue.
Less so at Oakwell, which holds 23,000. More so at the New York Stadium with a capacity of 12,000.
This also pre-supposes that either club would be willing to host a neighbourhood rival.
If all the above sounds bleak, I can’t think of another word to describe the immediate outlook.
Wednesday will continue to exist as a football club long after Chansiri has been consigned to infamy.
It may still be a glorious future. But for now the worst case scenarios are all too real.