Fowler family emerges as voice against London ownership

[Underground]

London, GB -

Since selling the London Underground several years ago, Sir John Fowler Jr. has all but disappeared from PEBA circles. He has not appeared publicly at any Underground games, nor any other PEBA games for that matter, and has not publicly commented on the game nor his former team. Much of this could be simply attributed to the fact that he was a busy man who, in the wake of his sale of the Underground, had successfully used the capital raised from the sale to complete the purchase of a British-based Formula One team as he had hoped to. But those who knew him expected there was more to it than that. He had hand chosen Cyan Winters to succeed him as owner of the team and had sold the team at below market value in order to ensure Winters and his conglomerate were able to complete the deal. He had adored Winters as a General Manager who had revitalized the team and brought exciting baseball back to London. To him it was a slam dunk to sell the team to Winters and then sit back and watch those many planted seeds begin to grow.

Unfortunately it quickly became apparent it wasn't going to go exactly like he thought. It was clear Winters was compromised by his many financiers pretty much from the get go. Fowler was swiftly cut off completely from the team he loved and had owned for so many years. Not that he had wanted to stay directly involved, but he had imagined himself attending a number of games alongside Winters and being viewed as an elder statemen and perhaps mentor to Winters. His pride was wounded but he was professional enough, and busy enough, to move past it. However it now appears that the financial document leaks of a few weeks ago were the final straw in the Fowler families non-engagement strategy. But the voice of the family is no longer Sir John Jr. but rather his granddaughter Eleanor. A new face and voice to the public she is currently an unknown quantity other than her bloodline and, now, her apparent desire to weigh in on matters of her grandpa's former baseball team.

In an op-ed to The Times, Miss Fowler wrote that the team needs to "return to the light of what my grandfather had built" and called on fans to not just protest, but wholesale reject this ownership group even if it means taking a year off from supporting them. She cast Winters as a "charlatan" and a "swindler" who whispered everything Sir John Jr. wanted to hear in his ear and then began to destroy his legacy to enrich his own accounts before the ink was even dry on the contract. It's unclear if this was a coordinated effort by the Fowler's or a rogue action by the young firebrand granddaughter but to this point there was been no statements or rebuttals from the family or Sir John Jr's business office, suggesting they at least aren't unhappy about it.

No one knows if there is more to come from the Fowler family on this topic or if this op-ed was just a one and done piece, but it appears to have had its intended effect with social media abuzz in conversation about it and the prior failed attempts at a fan protest finally congealing into a firm date and time for an event outside of Pearson Metropolitan Ballpark. The event is being billed as both a "funeral for the London Underground" and a "burial of Cyan Winters and Winters Baseball Unlimited". Thus far over 500 fans have RSVP'd on social media.

Calls to the Winters Baseball Unlimited front office went unanswered.