They should have just told us straight away instead of hoping it gets ignored. Lesson learnt, pay ya bills on time!

Must admit my recent experience with club 1873 does smack off incompetence. To cut a long story short, I pay by annual standing order and the club received the money at the beginning of July. They called me in sept asking if I wanted to renew so I pointed out I had already paid. Then this week get another call asking if I want to renew! The upshot of all this is I am not sure my numbers have been in the drawers for the last 3 months even though I have paid

The club needs to be far better at the business side of things otherwise I can see us ending back in the same mess as before

This is all highly depressing. The feel good factor around the club has well truly been smashed over night. As already said the damage to our reputation is going to be very costly. Looks the old days of of going from crisis to crisis! It just seems to be the way for clubs like ours that haven't got a sugar daddy. Sometimes I wonder why we bother trying to play catch up with the sugar daddies were never going to be up there unless we get one of our own. This latest episode is just another symptom of keeping up with the cash on hip owners! So if I remember rightly isn't their a transfer ban on clubs that find themselves in this position? I know we couldn't sign anyone last time we was in this situation and Salford couldn't last year?

We certainly need to keep everything crossed that this is just an embarrassing mistake.
As far as I can see, we haven't dealt with this situation very well, but it is a rarity; mostly we do ok I think.
From what I was told of the old ways, people weren't allowed to do things mainly down to money being scarce, perhaps AG is too far removed and has too much trust in others.
I know he had claimed in the past he knows little about RL, but this is simple financial management, so no excuses anywhere or for anyone.
I can only assume with the volume of money coming into the club that if expenditure is kept in control our financial concerns cannot possibly be as bad prior to AGs involvement, but I always feel a cold shiver when HMRC are involved.
In this case we will have to wait and see if it is just simple good old fashioned incompetency or wether we are in for another free ride on the Wakefield Trinity Rollercoaster!!!
If I were AG though, I would be on high alert and making sure that whoever has cocked up knows it CAN'T happen again and putting measures in place to ensure it doesn't!

Just to be clear it's a winding up petition. It's very different from a winding up order. Although we should not be being served with either, a petition is far less damaging than an order and could be issued by anyone via a solicitor over any number of things. However, without getting in a blind panic or doomsday declaring, could this not be something as simple as a disagreement relating to an amount paid to a business? It doesn't necessarily have to be tax related and it doesn't mean there wasn't money available to pay it in the first place does it?

Either way, the club should have preempted this rather than fire fight

If it was nothing, a clear explanation of the facts would have quickly settled any worries.
As it is we have a problem, no clear explanation and therefore space for rumour and conjecture.
So a failing on both accounts.
That's not doom and gloom, it's just if you want to be taken seriously; how you should act.

It does as it's HMRC who made the application


However you are right it could be for a figure as low as a fiver, that's what we don't know, a bit of clarity from the club rather than the smokescreen statement made might no go a miss.
Although I do believe it's nothing and is probably just down to a poor bit of administration

Getting good staff is difficult for any business, we are not cash rich so we need to get the best out of average or all rounders until we get the where with all to attract better people.
I do wonder if we have a clear structure within the club that identifies areas of responsibility and gives us the right environment to deal with both success and failure.
Sometimes it appears a bit shambolic, but we should be getting the basics right.

The clarity fans are seeking is exactly the reason why the Supporters Trust requested representation on the BoD. Had there been an independent representitive of the fans on the BoD I'm sure that the news of this would have been handled differently and the damage caused by speculation avoided.

I have to ask if the the Supporters Trust were made aware of this via the monthly meetings with the club. If they were, was their opinion on how to handle this sought? If they weren't made aware will they be asking why, in this era of more direct communication with the fans, was it was kept from them.

There has been contact between myself and James Elston today on this matter so I guess that whilst we do not have representation on the Board we are still in contact with the Club which I find reassuring and helpful.

The matter is of a sensitive nature and the facts cannot be aired on a public forum and are indeed confidential and not for public consumption. However let me say that the Trust is now aware of the situation and hopefully everyone who knows me knows that I'm truthful and will not lie to you.

So let me assure you all that this situation is the result of a genuine misunderstanding and was not something that the Club could have forseen or pre-empted. The matter has been resolved and there is nothing for anyone, fans or sponsors (and I'm both) to be concerned about. Unfortunately we will have to live with the bad publicity and rebuild our reputation.

Hopefully this should be the end of the matter so lets move on, support the Club and the Trust and look forward to next season.

Nothing more to see here.

My question is why did the club not make it known to the ST before it was splashed all over the social media, news sites and RL forums. The details needn't have been shared just the fact that a winding up petition had been lodged and it was a bad news story that needed managing.

Had that been done then I'm sure the advice from the ST would have been to preempt the imminent bad news with a defusing statement of explanation from the club thus settling the nerves of the supporters and avoiding speculation.

It's all well and good being in touch after the fact but it's all damage limitation now!

I really can't see the need for all the drama queen crying on here.
In reality we haven't really changed any perceptions of the club in such a short time. People are happy to back slap but they are not changing their minds yet.
So in reality the only people who are up in arms are the Wakefield fa
The club have explained the situation. Whether you believe them or not, moaning won't help.

There has been a tonne of good work up till now. This should make no difference. Mistake done but corrected.
Why anyone who would have bough a season ticket before this would choose not to now beats me.

If we are WTID as so many like to say we need to support the club. Of course ask questions and say if you don't like someone but we are creating an issue that no one else cares about.

Roll on the 4,000 and the next signing. And let's move on.

Good post

thank you sandal cat so are you now confirming that this has been paid?

I think this threads raised a few important issues and a reminder that we should question everything, the club are happy to take the back slaps they should be willing to take constructive criticism.

Of course fans suggesting they will not buy season tickets is just plain daft.

Well, I’ll still be getting mine on Wednesday.

It’ll take more than this to sway my full support for my club.

Agree with all of this . I was quite happy to think that this was a load of fuss about nothing , but I actually think that all of this has now made me (and probably quite a few others ) realize that we should still be a bit more cynical in our views .
Got to be honest , I know someone who's had dealings with the club ( only over small matters ) & he's told me that "they don't seem to know what they're doing down there ".
Mmmmnn

Richard,

As I have said the matter is sensitive but I believe the reason that the Club not not make it known to us at the ST earlier is that they believed the matter had/was being resolved and they were as surprised as anyone when the issue become in the public domain.

Renewed by season ticket in August and have had 2 phone calls from same person at the club (2 weeks apart) asking if I was going to renew my ticket. This kind of thing makes the club look very amateurish. With things being computerised now this should not happen. Was also asked about 1873, which I have been in since the beginning.

You & me both.

I think any issue now is in the public domain whether it be a private one or not. The internet generally means that if more than one person knows something then everybody/anybody can also know it.

When I read the headline, I thought storm in a tea cup, but it would have done no harm to have a prepared statement in the eventuality it became public.

Agree with that and I do trust the club they've been a breath of fresh air but I was gutted to see our Clubs name being dragged through the mud again and the ammo it gives skid marks from other clubs is a sickner.

Although it has been sorted out, it annoys me that we'll be still grouped with other struggling clubs, when really that shouldn't be the case at all. Not after all the extra season tickets and extra fans through the gates this past year, as well as new sponsors and stuff sold in the grounds, add to that contract extensions and the signing of Poore, we are obviously in a decent place financially.

I really do think the club missed a trick by not been more proactive with this and warning the fans about what was going to happen, obviously if they genuinely didn't know it was going to go this far and become public domain, fair enough but still.

I happened to go for a drink this afternoon with a few mates and bumped into a few faces from the ground, where we got talking about what's happened and the almost glee and satisfaction that a couple of them had was sickening, they appeared to be glad that the new regime had eventually slipped up, honestly I can't get my head around people like that, serious idiots to say the least.

Yes, I'm informed that it was paid as soon as the club were made aware of the situation.

aware of the situation .. monthly visit from hmrc..notification of late payment ...regional office contacting to say its overdue...phone calls from worthing...letter from hmrc giving 21 days notice before it goes into london gazett....

Paid as soon as they were aware of the situation pffffft.

As a Cas Fan with Wakefield my second club to support I sometimes worry what goes on behind the scenes. We ask for 100% from the players and this season (cas) have not had it (wakefield) satisfactory end to the season. Can we ask for 100% in the office! certainly something or someone has slipped up at wakefield. Kick ass Andrew Glover as performances off field like this don't do the club justice. I agree with other posters that a proper explanation would do some good.