SHEFFIELD - UK. Having been in UK ice hockey for almost 15 years when the opportunity to become the owner of the Sheffield Steelers presented itself, it was a no brainer. I honestly believe every owner in the UK would want to own this club and work with the fans of the Steelers and be a part of their history. The challenge was buying a business where the owner would not allow full due diligence on his company, where the risks were massive but the upside of working with the fans at the club - who are undoubtedly seen as the most passionate and supportive on and off the ice - was worth the challenge.

The recent trials and trepidations of Yorkshire Sport (YS) are nothing compared to what we first encountered with the previous ownership; putting right the wrongs of that previous ownership was an onerous task. The biggest cost was around £150,000 in honouring season ticket payments that had not been held in trust and were not transferred with the sale. There were many other debts and some, shall we say, “unconventional” business practices – I won’t go into detail – but again I took personal responsibility for clearing those that the club was liable for. As some of the business dealings of the previous ownership proved very difficult to unravel and following legal advice I took the decision to close down the old company and set up a new operating company to get us through those first 2 years. With so many contingent liabilities it was tough, but within 2 years we turned the business around and made it viable once more.

Luck was not on our side however, and 3 years ago I could see the writing on the wall with the UK economy going nowhere; I engaged with business partners overseas to help ensure future earnings. It was unfortunate that in the formative years of my ownership I was out of the country for the most part, and failed to see that I needed a larger workforce and better systems in place than we had, which would have given early warnings on the problems we had with YS. Going forward, I have put into place a very strong systems and financial control, which combined with our enhanced management team, will ensure that we don’t go through these times again.

To be fair to the club (Sheffield Steelers), your crown jewels have never been at risk since the day I took over the club as these were all put in to a non trading company and we have always used an operating company to run the business. Whether these succeed or fail, they would have no impact on your club or your hard earned and invested season ticket money.

As the global recession took hold, the timing proved unfortunate for us. We had some poor experiences with builders in Sheffield when we deposited tens of thousands of pounds with one builder who later denied we had given it to him and we had to take him to court to prove our case; we then engaged with a second building company, our thinking was to build our own accommodation for our players rather than continually pay out £50K to £60K every year in rents. The idea was right but the partners we engaged were simply disastrous. The properties were delivered more than a year behind schedule and were in a state of non-completion due to the builder’s bankruptcy. We had to pay hundreds of thousands of pounds to complete them.

The recent Star newspaper’s reporting has been very disappointing to say the least. We have worked to build a good relationship with The Star and hoped that at least we would get factual reporting, even on negative subjects. All we can do is draw a line under those events and let us hope that we can work towards rebuilding a relationship of trust with our local newspaper.

Going forward, next season will be tough, no question about it but if we work together, the club can come through this and build again for our future. We are holding a fans forum this week with our four supporters groups coming together with the club for an open question time. The club is working more closely with these supporters group - SSSC, Bassetlaw Bandits, Dronfield and the Fans Advisory Board – and this can only be a good thing in helping the club to engage better with our fans.

Contact: neil.edwards@prohockeynews.com