The Storch Family is in the last three in the race to buy Sheffield Wednesday, but this isn’t the first time they’ve indicated interest in investing in a British football club.
The preferred bidder in the race to buy Sheffield Wednesday will soon be disclosed. The decision has already been delayed, and Wednesday fans should take comfort in the fact that the administrators, Begbie’s Traynor, are doing everything possible to ensure that the correct decision is made.
One of the three remaining bidders for the club is said to be a consortium comprised of entrepreneur and investor John McEvoy and the Storch family. The combination of these two bids is seen to be one of the main reasons why the entire process has been slowed.
However, the Storch family has previously expressed interest in investing in a British football team. Indeed, they’ve been working hard for less than a year to uncover the proper investment opportunity.
The Storch Family indicated interest in four other clubs prior to their Sheffield Wednesday bid.
In a report on the current state of the race to buy Sheffield Wednesday published by The Athletic on December 16th, football finance expert Matt Slater went into detail about the three remaining bidders, pointing out that the Storch family’s interest in purchasing an EFL club is reasonably long-standing and well-known.
Slater reported that their interest in purchasing a club in this country dates back more than a year: “During that time, they have almost bought a minority share of Plymouth Argyle, pulled out of a plan to join Rob Couhig’s Reading takeover, seen a Gareth Bale-fronted bid for Cardiff City evaporate, and not progressed with plans to invest in Blackpool.”
He also provides some history on the father-son combination who are exhibiting such an interest: “David Storch retired as CEO of AAR Corp, a NYSE-listed aviation services business headquartered near Chicago, in 2018 after 39 years with the company. Michael is a football aficionado, but former Leeds United chairman Andrew Umbers is advising them on this deal.
The Storch family has been searching to invest in a club for over a year.
The highest-profile of the four clubs in which they’ve expressed an interest was Cardiff City, which rose to prominence due to the involvement of former Wales international Gareth Bale, but their bids were turned down by Cardiff, whose owner, Vincent Tan, is said to have little interest in selling the Bluebirds right now.
Bale was the unifying factor in their interest in Plymouth Argyle, whose chairman, Simon Hallett, had been looking for investment in the Devon club for quite some time. Interest in neither team, however, resulted in any formal agreements.
The summer edition of Sky Sports reported that “in March, Hallett agreed a deal in principle to sell a stake in the club to new investors, but it fell through in May” , and additionally, “it is understood that initial discussions have taken place between the consortium and Argyle hierarchy, but have not gone any further at this stage” .
It’s unclear whether this was related to the club’s relegation from the Championship to League One that month, but the Bale-led proposal, according to the Telegraph, included the Storch family in its consortium. Rob Couhig purchased Reading FC in April, when the club was on the verge of going into administration. This was Couhig’s second bid for the club, after the first failed in September 2024.
There had been no prior reports of the Storch’s interest in Blackpool, but the Tangerines did state at the beginning of the summer that they were “on a wide-ranging programme of infrastructure upgrades and improvements” around Bloomfield Road.
With a decision on who the club’s new owners will be imminent, it is impossible to predict who the favourites to buy Sheffield Wednesday are, but one thing is certain: whether or not the Storch family is successful in purchasing a club, it will not be for a lack of effort.
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