Equal opportunities, club backing and Tom Costin’s £1867 – Sheffield Wednesday fans do their thing again

Sheffield Wednesday fans have shown their class once more as they look to do their bit in forging the Wednesdayites of the future.

This week the club’s Supporters’ Trust, who have been pivotal in the rebirth of the club after a disastrous couple of years, launched a Season Ticket & Community Fund aimed at ensuring ‘as many people as possible can experience the joy of supporting our football club, regardless of their circumstances’.

It started out as a request over donating single season tickets, and has now turned into a full fund that has seen a remarkable figure of over £16,000 donated at the time of writing – and the figure keeps on climbing. The contribution of Arise’s Tom Costin raised eyebrows in particular as he donated £1867 to the cause.

The Wednesday Word spoke to interim vice chair of the Trust, Jake Lee, on Friday, and the lifelong Owl admitted to being blown away by the response that he’s seen from fans since the fund launched. It’s made his holiday away with his family slight more interesting…

Some big donations

“We’ve been really encouraged by the response,” he said. “We’ve passed 10,000 now, which is amazing considering the scheme has only just started. I think what’s stood out the most is how generous people have been. We’ve already had two incredibly generous donations of £1,867, one from Tom Costin and another from a supporter called Stephen Charles. They’ve given a massive boost from the off.

“The idea itself is straightforward… We want to make it easier for people to support Sheffield Wednesday, by removing some of the financial barriers. This fund will help provide season tickets for those who otherwise couldn’t afford them, and create opportunities for match tickets throughout the season. Where possible, we’re also going to use some of the money for mascot experiences as well. Possibly shirts for some supporters that might not be able to afford them, too.

“I think essentially the key thing behind the scheme is to give opportunities to young fans, and make sure that we can get that next generation into Hillsborough - regardless of what their financial background is. We want all kids to have an Equal l opportunity.

Sheffield Wednesday fans on the final day. Image: Alex Young

“The club has been really good throughout, they’ve worked closely with us - which is obviously night and day from anything we had in the past. When we floated the idea of it we knew that there would be some barriers in terms of transferring names etc, and that would have been a problem in the past, but now it was facilitated instantly.

“We’ve got a meeting with the club coming up to figure out the finer details. I’ve actually helped to launch this thing while I’m on my holiday, and I didn’t expect to see it take off like it has! Seeing the donations come in has been crazy! At the end of the day it’s just Wednesdayites helping Wednesdayites, and the response has been genuinely humbling.”

For those who want to contribute to the fund themselves, you can head over to the GoFundMe page here. Sheffield Wednesday fans continue to be a credit to the club and themselves – and long may that continue.

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