'I want to make this a success' - Meet Crawley Town's new head of partnerships

James Ball joined the club three weeks ago and is already making an impact - helping bringing on Affinity Exchange as their foreign exchange partner - and says it feels like home already.

The self-proclaimed Essex boy has previously worked at Southend, Dagenham and Redbridge and Millwall and now he is hoping to bring the experience and success he had at those clubs to the Broadfield Stadium.

“It's been three weeks but it feels like a longer time, which I guess is a good thing,” said James. “The people have been fantastic, both the fans, the sponsors, the people working in the office and working for the club. Everyone's been so welcoming.

“They say in football, when somewhere feels like a home and you can really support the team, this feels like that. It's a good place to be. It's got a fantastic following. Hopefully I can add to that in a real positive way.”

James was initially approached by a recruiter about the job before vice-chairman Ben Levin approached him direct. “Ben just said, come and see who we are,” said James. “He didn't beat around the bush as to what Crawley was. Having seen it, you can fall in love with it. It's got so much potential. As I said, the fans and the sponsors are really great people.

“I think the team mirrors that as well. They're a good bunch of lads. Hopefully, if I can put in a bit more commercial off the pitch and get some new partners in and bring the place a little bit to life on that side, then we can really have a good push to make this a success.”

As previously mentioned, James helped bring on Affinity Exchange and he has a lot more potential partners in the pipeline as well has liaising with current sponsors. He said: “My foreign exchange background came a little bit into the the deal with Affinity. I'd done that when I was a youngster. I think you need someone on board. You never know when those transactions come in handy. Affinity and Sam are a fantastic company. It's really good to speak to them and get them involved.”

James added: “A lot of conversations are being had. Hopefully, some of them will start to get over the line in the next couple of weeks so we can start announcing some new partners to fans and them to see who's involved with the club. Again, a lot of referrals as well, which has been fantastic.

“All the current sponsors have been amazing in terms of reaching out and getting in touch. It's good to get some meetings in with them to find out what they want to do with the club and how we can help them a little bit more now that I'm involved and can be a bit more hands-on.”

Off the pitch, owners WAGMI United have not had the best press, so is selling Crawley Town to prospective partners an easy job? “Every club has got a tale to it. It's got a bad story or a bad reputation in some capacity,” said James.

“I think that our owners are really misunderstood. Having worked closely with Ben [Levin] and Preston [Johnson, CEO and chairman] to get my role over the line, to understand a little bit about them, I know how much they do care about the club.

“I think sometimes the Americanism and what they want to bring into English football, having seen sport in America, is tough and they don't necessarily always hit the mark.

“That doesn't mean they don't care and they're not trying to get it right. Owners of the clubs take their money from what they do. They do it for the love of the game. They are around, they are present, they're happy to speak to people. They've brought me in hopefully because I can be that gap and try and help people to understand a little bit more about what we want to bring in and be a little bit more transparent, I guess, in the right way. Hopefully I can bring in some new partners and a little bit more money. I think if I do, you'll see that they'll invest that into the team and into improving facilities for fans, which I really do want to make happen and I believe that we will within the next year.”

If you are interested in being a partner or want to ask James a question, email [email protected] – and you can watch the full interview with James in the video at the top of this page.