Would the owner of JWR be interested in giving or selling the site to Simon or someone like him? If Simon got it, he could handle the transfer in whatever way seemed best. If he had to pay for it, I would bet lots of people here would contribute towards that unexpected expense. But if JWR's owner simply wanted to walk away, it would be a very generous gesture indeed to simply pass to baton to Simon and give his community some sense of continuity.
I really can't see why this wouldn't make sense. The owner could still walk away completely unfettered. I wonder if something else is at play here. Hmmm...