Sheffield Wednesday takeover: Why May 1st could be a huge day for the Owls | OneFootball

There could be quite a party to come at Hillsborough, at the end of a 2025-26 season everyone connected to the club would sooner forget.

Sheffield Wednesday fans have had a season to forget, but there could be good news waiting for them by the end of it all, if plans to complete the takeover of the club go according to plan.

There is no doubt whatsoever that this has been a season that everyone connected with Sheffield Wednesday would sooner forget. With just one league win all season in the Championship, the club are currently on a staggering run of 35 consecutive matches without a league win, with relegation to League One having been confirmed before the end of February, the soonest in the entire 136-year history of the EFL.

But there has been some good news for fans of the club recently. The takeover of the club by David Storch's Arise Capital group is fast approaching completion, and recent reports are now confirming that this could be completed before the end of the season, before their final home match of the season against West Bromwich Albion on the 2nd May.

Sheffield Wednesday are targeting the 1st May as a completion date for the club's takeover

Reporting this morning on the social media platform X, Alex Miller of the Sheffield Star has confirmed that the date of the 1st May has been set for the completion of the takeover of Sheffield Wednesday by David Storch's consortium.

In the accompanying Sheffield Star article, Miller goes into a little more detail over the reasons for all concerned wanting this takeover to be completed by this date. He reports that this isn't yet a done deal, and that "there remains a great deal of work to be done to get to that stage" by the end of April.

But he also confirms that there are solid logistical reasons for this being desirable, noting that it coincides with the transfer of responsibility for matters relating to club takeovers being managed by the Independent Football Regulator rather than the leagues themselves.

But there are other "potential complications" in not getting this resolved by the end of April. "Broadly speaking," he writes, "a takeover at the turn of the month offers a simpler way forward for all parties".

This date is also intended to coincide with the end of the season, and an attempt on the part of the club to say goodbye to the Championship in style, with a match scheduled which has been identified as otherwise being a potential "dead rubber" should their opponents that day, West Bromwich Albion, continue their climb away from the division's relegation places.

Wednesday confirmed on the morning of the 9th April that they are reducing ticket prices for the West Brom match, with these prices being reduced to £20 for adults - £15 for club members - and as low as £5 for children, in an attempt to get Hillsborough as close to capacity as possible for the match while creating a celebratory atmosphere around the stadium.

All connected with Sheffield Wednesday have had a season to forget

There is little doubt whatsoever that this has been the worst season in the 159-year history of Sheffield Wednesday. With reports having already emerged of the extent of the problems behind the scenes at Hillsborough during the summer, fans made their voices heard with protests against soon-to-be former owner Dejphon Chansiri at their first game of the season at Leicester City in August.

There has been little improvement in the club's fortunes since then. A first league win of the season came at Fratton Park on the 20th September, when Wednesday beat Portsmouth 2-0, but this has turned out to be their only league win of the season to date.

The off-the-pitch situation has been little better. The club collapsed into administration on the 24th October, and the 18 points worth of deductions that they picked up as a result of this and previous issues with paying wages on time were the final nail in the coffin of there being any realistic likelihood of them avoiding relegation this season.

The nightmare season didn't end there. A preferred bidder for the club - a group led by the professional gambler James Bord - was announced on Christmas Eve, but with the authorities looking very closely at the origins of the funding of the takeover, given the gambling connections of a couple of those involved, that takeover bid collapsed shortly after relegation was confirmed, meaning that the entire process had to start again.

But there are signs of positivity to be found at Hillsborough. David Storch has been making all the right noises on social media, which has led to increased confidence that he could be the right person to take the move the club forward.

And one such move has been that decision to try and pack Hillsborough out for the final match of the season. At the end of such a terrible season, Sheffield Wednesday have something to celebrate by saying goodbye to it all.

There remain hurdles to overcome - it seems certain that a 15-point deduction will be applied to them for the start of next season over the failure to pay creditors 25p in the pound of what they're owned from administration, as per EFL rules - but for the first time in a very long time, there are good reasons for fans to start looking forward to a better future, and that future may be starting before this season has even ended.