An explosive leak of financial documents from the London Underground front office this weekend have embarrassed the team and angered fans. The documents detail the last several years worth of financial bookkeeping by the team including detailed accounts of revenues and expenses dating back to the end of 2036. Though obviously not something any organization would like to have happen, the good news is that the team carried a balance of $21,719,574 into 2037 and made an impressive profit of $19,350,747 last year. Had that been all there was to report, these leaks likely would have amounted to nothing more than a back page article and a general shrugging of shoulders. Unfortunately for the team, that was where the good news began and ended.
The documents unveiled that Winters Baseball Unlimited, the ownership collective formed by now-owner Cyan Winters in order to buy the team from Sir John Fowler Jr, took nearly $18 million from the team's coffers in 2037 and in 2038 stepped that number up significantly to over $32 million. In just over two years Winters Baseball Unlimited has taken just a hair under $50 million from the team, leaving just a scant $4 million left in the coffers heading into the 2038 offseason and leaving the team with a projected budget shortfall of over $8 million. To make matters even more frustrating for fans, the documents showed that the Underground budget remained flat throughout the same timeframe despite the team having just completed their best regular season ever with 100 wins and experiencing one of their best attended and highest revenue seasons at the same time.
The outcry was immediate and loud. Fans took to social media proclaiming Underground owner Cyan Winters a "crook", a "robber barron", and a "total rich douchebag" among other colorful insults, most of which can't be reprinted. Momentum appears to be growing for an organized protest in the coming days, with several hundred people responding to an event online promising to (loudly) voice the concerns of the fans and call for change in how the team is handled, with many going so far as to demand a quick sale of the team to "anyone who cares even a little bit, unlike Winters".
After several attempts the London front office finally provided a statement, which read:
We also reached out to the Winters Baseball Unlimited media relations team for comment:We are aware the recent leak of private and confidential financial documents related to the operations of the London Underground. We find this breach of our security and confidential information to be extremely abohorrant and disappointing and have retained the services of an outside investigative firm to lead an investigation into these leaks. We will not be commenting on or in any way further validating the information contained within the documents. We are focusing all of our efforts on the offseason and on improving our baseball team for next year.
While we will likely never know the source of the leaks or their motivation, there is speculation that there are many inside the London front offices who are frustrated with the actions of Winters Baseball Unlimited and are seeking to effect change however possible. It's perhaps not accidental that the leaks only cover the period since Winters took ownership of the team and not prior. Underground General Manager Evan Seary has often been outspoken on league issues and it is rumored that he is personally furious with the ownership under Winters and has even contemplated stepping down just to get away from the ownership group. Calls directly to the General Manager's office looking for comment were not answered. This is a developing story that will certainly have more to come.We intend to fully support and assist in the investigation into the leaks regarding the London Underground. We are and always have been committed to creating the finest baseball team in the PEBA and look forward to working towards the ultimate goal of a PEBA Championship in the coming years.
