Wycombe Wanderers to purchase Bearwood

[Clyde1998]

The Athletic are reporting Wycombe Wanderers are to purchase Bearwood.

Reading owner Dai Yongge has agreed to sell the club’s Bearwood Park training ground to local rivals Wycombe Wanderers, less than five years after the state-of-the-art facility was opened.

The former Premier League side were in the Championship then and only two years into the Chinese businessman’s tenure as owner. The 2019 move to the £50million site, set in 120 acres of picturesque woodlands only five miles from the club’s stadium, was meant to signal Reading’s ambition to return to the top flight.

That ambition is in tatters now, as relegation to League One last season has been followed by a campaign dominated by protests against Dai’s ownership, missed payments and docked points. They are currently 18th in the third-tier table, five clear of the drop zone.

Having already sold their stadium to a company controlled by Dai in 2019, Reading now face the prospect of renting their own training ground, too, with their landlords being near-neighbours Wycombe.

This will come as a bitter blow to the club’s fans, as the only sale they want is Dai handing over the club, with all its assets, as soon as possible.

However, that prospect looks as remote as Reading’s chances of returning to the Premier League, as a group led by former Charlton Athletic director Leo Rifkind has now walked away from takeover talks in dismay at the decision to sell Bearwood Park.

Based in London and Switzerland, Chiron Sports Group owns a stake in Italian side Venezia and has teamed up with Didier Drogba to launch a team in electric speedboat series E1.

But with Dai seemingly set on selling the club’s last remaining assets, Chiron’s interest in Reading is over.

The group cannot say it was not warned, though, as Dai announced that he was “evaluating every option to secure sufficient funding” for the club on Monday, including being “open” to the sale of Bearwood Park.

The speed of the decision to sell to Wycombe, who are only eight points and four places better off than Reading in League One, will still come as a huge shock to the supporters of both clubs.

Wycombe have been trying to upgrade their training facility for years, as they are currently based at a fairly basic site in Marlow, three miles south of the club’s Adams Park stadium.

Wycombe’s American owner Rob Couhig has invested in improvements at the training ground but space is limited and there are plans to build a huge film studio in the area, which would further constrain the football club.

Until now, the club have not had sufficient room for their academy, which is why Couhig has been considering building a new facility in nearby Little Marlow.

Bearwood Park is a slightly longer commute, as it is a 30-minute drive south of Wycombe, but the opportunity to move into one of the best training grounds and academy bases outside the Premier League was clearly too good to turn down.

There are precedents for clubs buying rivals’ training grounds, too, with Wigan Athletic purchasing Bolton Wanderers’ training complex at Euxton in 2016, only to sell it to Preston North End when they ran into financial difficulty in 2020.

[Crowbar6753]

Wow, utterly shocked to the core!!!! There goes our Cat1 Academy and any chance of attracting decent players for the future......if we have a future that is.

[Delboy]

I do not believe this they get 4000 crowds how could they afford to run it let alone purchase it !

[Sutekh]

I do not believe this they get 4000 crowds how could they afford to run it let alone purchase it !

Perhaps they have a chairman who spots an investment when he sees one and instead of splaffing funds on totally useless managers and over priced ill-fitting players actually spends it on the future of his club. Anyone want to decamp to Wycombe?

Well done Dai, thanks so much for totally wrecking this club from top to bottom and destroying, in a few years, the legacy that SJM took 20 years to build. You naughty man!

Should Reading ever recover they will now most likely have to revert to the Bournemouth, Brentford and Brighton models. Hmmm.....

How long until the Academy have to get out I wonder?

[Clyde1998]

Wow, utterly shocked to the core!!!! There goes our Cat1 Academy and any chance of attracting decent players for the future......if we have a future that is.

I’m not sure we’ll have any academy now, let alone a Category One academy. Can’t see how we could meet any requirements for an academy without a training facility.

[Sutekh]

Wow, utterly shocked to the core!!!! There goes our Cat1 Academy and any chance of attracting decent players for the future......if we have a future that is.

I’m not sure we’ll have any academy now, let alone a Category One academy. Can’t see how we could meet any requirements for an academy without a training facility.

Rent it back as a shared facility

Great way to preserve Eamonn's memory too, thanks again Dai.

[Hound]

Well that’s it then isn’t it?

No academy, nothing to entice any new players. Dai clearly only interested in selling off any assets and killing the club

[Clyde1998]

Apparently we’ll be getting around half it’s construction cost for it - around £25m.

He can somehow sell the training ground for a cut price deal, but not the club. Affirms asset stripping is the objective.

[WestYorksRoyal]

Reports of £25m for it. Given the rumoured asking price for the club was £30m, that's not bad for Dai. Wycombe aren't big enough to manage the costs and get value out of it, so presumably their owner will be eyeing development opportunities.

If the money was used to run the club and the asking price reduced accordingly then it'd make sense. But we all know this ends with Dai pocketing the money and no Reading FC.

[MouldyRoyal]

How utterly bleak this is

[Sutekh]

Reports of £25m for it. Given the rumoured asking price for the club was £30m, that's not bad for Dai. Wycombe aren't big enough to manage the costs and get value out of it, so presumably their owner will be eyeing development opportunities.

If the money was used to run the club and the asking price reduced accordingly then it'd make sense. But we all know this ends with Dai pocketing the money and no Reading FC.

This. Unless he is minted and very philanthropic there's no way Wycombe could afford to operate it as a Cat 1 Academy so there'll likely be a mass exodus of kids in the summer to other clubs for next to nothing. Can't see him having bought to just rent it back to Reading who were getting to the point of not being able to afford it either.

So must have an eye on selling some of it off for housing or something while maintaining a smaller training/academy facility which possibly maybe rented and shared with Reading?

[WestYorksRoyal]

Reports of £25m for it. Given the rumoured asking price for the club was £30m, that's not bad for Dai. Wycombe aren't big enough to manage the costs and get value out of it, so presumably their owner will be eyeing development opportunities.

If the money was used to run the club and the asking price reduced accordingly then it'd make sense. But we all know this ends with Dai pocketing the money and no Reading FC.

This. Unless he is minted and very philanthropic there's no way Wycombe could afford to operate it as a Cat 1 Academy so there'll likely be a mass exodus of kids in the summer to other clubs for next to nothing. Can't see him having bought to just rent it back to Reading who were getting to the point of not being able to afford it either.

So must have an eye on selling some of it off for housing or something while maintaining a smaller training/academy facility which possibly maybe rented and shared with Reading?

I hope for Wycombe's sake he isn't relying on rent from Reading to cover its obscene running costs.

Though it would be objectively funny if this deal goes on to put Wycombe in financial strife.

[Armadillo Roadkill]

Dai's actions go from incompetence and neglect to malfeasence.

By selling the assets he makes the club worthless, and once worthless, set for liquidation.

The prospect of losing an institution that has survived since 1871 looks more and more inevitable.

[The Real Sandhurst Royal]

https://www.readingfc.co.uk/news/2024/march/14/Club-Statement-Proposed-Sale-of-Bearwood-Park/?fbclid=IwAR3yLNd75Qrfd6rzoeF3GTOGYFxnBfeEXiXkvz2PhDhxAvT3gBvn-rcqrMM

Mr Dai can confirm he is in talks with Wycombe Wanderers Football Club Limited regarding the sale of Bearwood Park.

Chief Executive Dayong Pang said, "Whilst an agreement is not yet finalised, both parties will move forward with the process exclusively. The proposed transaction will directly support the short-term funding of the club until a full sale can be concluded. Further updates, including possible options for an alternative training facility, will be communicated when appropriate.”

[The Royal Forester]

https://www.readingfc.co.uk/news/2024/march/14/Club-Statement-Proposed-Sale-of-Bearwood-Park/?fbclid=IwAR3yLNd75Qrfd6rzoeF3GTOGYFxnBfeEXiXkvz2PhDhxAvT3gBvn-rcqrMM

Mr Dai can confirm he is in talks with Wycombe Wanderers Football Club Limited regarding the sale of Bearwood Park.

Chief Executive Dayong Pang said, "Whilst an agreement is not yet finalised, both parties will move forward with the process exclusively. The proposed transaction will directly support the short-term funding of the club until a full sale can be concluded. Further updates, including possible options for an alternative training facility, will be communicated when appropriate.”

Wow! Exclusive talks agreed in what three days, when asset stripping, but cannot be agreed in six months when selling the club. I have never seen Wycombe Wanderers as a rival, but if this deal goes through I will be putting them on a par with Poxford and the Swinedon. Just hadn't thought the Chairboys would kick us when we are down. I said to some friends at the start of the season RFC will not exist by the end of it. Now with yet another buyer(s) walking away I still cannot see us starting next season.

[The Royal Forester]

Can someone from SBWD or STAR let us know what is going to happen to funds raised "to save the club" this month or to "pay for a staff party" before Christmas? It is not needed by the club now, so will the donors be reimbursed?

[themwasthedays]

Me miserum, me miserum.
Or, to put it another way, ,that's a fine mess you've got me into Ollie'.
59 years following Reading, and could be the last!

[themwasthedays]

Good article by The Mirror, incidentally

[SouthDownsRoyal]

Can someone from SBWD or STAR let us know what is going to happen to funds raised "to save the club" this month or to "pay for a staff party" before Christmas? It is not needed by the club now, so will the donors be reimbursed?

Chargeback from your credit card company?

[The Royal Forester]

Can someone from SBWD or STAR let us know what is going to happen to funds raised "to save the club" this month or to "pay for a staff party" before Christmas? It is not needed by the club now, so will the donors be reimbursed?

Chargeback from your credit card company?

My credit card won't pay out. I didn't "donate".