'In 15 to 20 years and Crawley Town are in the Premier League, that’s a pretty crazy underdog story right?' - Crawley Town's new co-chairman and owner on the opportunity of taking over the Reds

WAGMI United, headed up by Americans Johnson and Eben Smith, took over the Reds on April 7 and since them have experienced a manger change, revolutionised season ticket prices and have changed the view of a lot of very sceptical fans.

The groups slogan on their initial web homepage was ‘from crypto to the Premier League’ and their ‘mission statement’ was they “seek to reimagine how professional sports teams are owned and operated — building communities of passionate fans and empowering them to take a personal stake in telling their team’s story and shaping its future.”

They want to harness the power of Web3 to expand the club’s fanbase globally and open new revenue streams, likely selling NFTs that give “fans” influence over ways the club operates.

In an interview on the Lower League Look podcast – which Johnson later revealed WAGMI United are sponsoring for the rest of the season – Johnson revealed they had spoken to nine clubs before settling on Crawley Town.

But why Crawley Town?

“Part of this thesis is that feeling on an underdog story. If you go into League Two, and there’s a world and everyone would laugh, but in 15 to 20 years and Crawley are in the Premier League, that’s a pretty crazy underdog story right?” Johnson told the podcast.

“That opportunity to take this technology that allows for remote communities and have fan bases attach themselves to Crawley Town and have them tell this story with us over the years, to be along for the ride, that was just a feeling and opportunity we feel we couldn’t pass up on.

“There’s a high correlation between NFT users and Americans, from there there’s a high correlation of Americans speaking English.

“If we go to Portugal to buy a club, there may be a better chance of getting into the Champions League right out of the gate, but most people aren’t going to understand the games if they are streaming online.

“The price point made sense as well, it wasn’t too extraordinary for our group to make an investment here. Everything stacked up to make the perfect set-up.”

WAGMI United is made up of a number of investors including entities, individuals and businesses.

Johnson announced the people who are part of WAGMI United will be revealed on a microsite which will be launched in ‘six or seven’ days – however Johnson did confirm one name – Gary Vaynerchuk, commonly known as Gary Vee, a Belarusian-American entrepreneur, author, speaker, and Internet personality. He is a co-founder of the restaurant reservation software company Resy and Empathy Wines.

Johnson said: “Gary Vee - he is the best. He’s a business genius and also really into sports. He’s big on building communities and finding a way include and grow together.

“For him, he’s gone on record to say he wants to buy the New York Jets one day. The Jets are going to cost him a lot of money, and he will get there one day, this is just a nice entry point for him to see how a club full of crypto and Web3 owners as well as other sports business owners, how would they run it, how will they do things differently.

"We want to be more open and transparent, let our fans make some decisions. And take their decisions and make some changes, like the season ticket prices. They said they were too much and we looked and the highest average season ticket price in League Two was Crawley Town. And they have the fewest fans.

“There are a few people in this group who are intrigued how this plays out because they are already attached to another sports teams in America and potentially other countries. If there is something they can gather or learn in our process, they can use for their own team or club, that’s part of the reason why some of these bigger names are involved.

Johnson was encouraged by Lower League Look presenter Liam saying as soon as he heard Gary Vee was involved, he knew they were serious. Johnson said: “A lot of fans, Crawley, Bradford, EFL in general, they don’t think a few steps down the line. They say ‘Oh my god crypto’ they don’t even want to consider it.”

You can follow The Lower League Look on twitter at @LowerLeagueLook

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