20 years at the helm for Roland Wycherley
Congratulations today to Roland Wycherley who celebrates 20 years as Chairman of Shrewsbury Town FCAt the recent EFL Summer Conference in Portugal Chairman Roland Wycherley was presented with a special award in recognition of 20 years service to his hometown Club
Roland Wycherley became Chairman at Shrewsbury Town FC on 8th July 1996 having previously served as Vice Chairman and Associate Director for the previous four years.
When he took over the Club it had over £750k in debt and was playing at Gay Meadow, which at the time was a 97 year old stadium with a restrictive covenant that flooded twice per year, Roland has since turned around the Club’s fortunes moving to a purpose built all-seater new stadium at Greenhous Meadow with a capacity of 10,000 in 2007 and the Club also became debt free.
In the last season at Gay Meadow the average attendance was circa 2,500 and now is now around 5,500 per match.
The Club continues to grow with the recent investments in both the training ground and the Community Hub. Due to the large expansion in the Club’s Community engagement programme the new hub was purchased to house not only the 16 full time staff but as a base for some of the various education, health and inclusion courses run by the Community Trust staff.
Roland continues to work at the club on a daily basis and even plastered some of the walls in the Community Hub during the installation stage. He has given incredible service not just to Shrewsbury Town FC but also to football. Under his stewardship the Club started its own Youth Academy with graduates including the likes of England Goalkeeper Joe Hart and Wales International Dave Edwards to name but two of the club's graduates.
Investments such as these will ensure the Club continues its steady growth in the years to come.
Roland was born in the Castlefields area of Shrewsbury and started his working life as a plasterers apprentice but in 1972 founded ‘Shropshire Vending which started out with one machine and he grew the company into a multi million pound business which became Shires Vending and was eventually merged with Midland Vending to become The Midshires Group where Roland remained as Chairman and MD before selling the company in 2006 to concentrate his efforts on delivering the new stadium.
He is very well know in his home town having also owned and run the Lord Hill Hotel after plastering it when he was 21 and also various land and property within Shropshire.
Roland celebrates 20 years as Chairman of Shrewsbury Town FC today.
Everyone who knows him will know his passion for his football club having supported The Town from aged 7, his love for his hometown of Shrewsbury and of course a quality bottle of red wine.