'We're not shooting for the moon, but we're looking for small wins' - Crawley Town launch new fans advisory network

Fan Advisory Network focused on providing input, action, and positive, measurable outcomes to help the Club achieve specific goals. And Levin outlined why they are doing it and what they hope to achieve in an interview with the CTSA’s Simply Redz podcast.

This is what he said in full.

“A couple of years ago, Preston started a fans council and I think originally, it was pretty well received and there was a lot of good activity and excitement around it. But as we started to lose it, it became more of a detrimental, toxic environment and it had to be shuttered largely. And coming back into the situation over the summer, having seen that and talked to Preston about the experience, it felt like we could try to recapture some of the strengths of that. Fan engagement is huge to me.

“I'm a fan of many clubs, I'm a fan of Crawley Town and to be able to engage our fanbase is really important and to be able to have the right venue to do that is really important.

“But this time it was important to have some clear aims about who we wanted to be on it and why and what we're going to get out of it.

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“One of the main goals that we have as a club have is to expand the fanbase, but also to diversify because our fanbase does not looked like Crawly broadly. Crawley is a very diverse area, and our football fandom is not necessarily and wanting to get diverse perspectives from the thanks is important to understand how we can continue to grow that while also continuing to support our core supporter base, so we want to have a mixture of folks serving as Devils Advocates to come from different backgrounds in Crawley, who may be transplants from outside a Crawley, who maybe season ticket holders, maybe never come who can bring a diverse perspective, rather than just asking the five hardcore fans who come every week, what do you think? Because odds are they think similar or their perspectives have melded together because they have a pint with Rhona, every Saturday before the match, right? So I think we can only be as good as the strength of all of our opinions brought together, so that's that's the goal.

“And the goal is to channel that group of people who have also diverse professional experiences, whether that's in marketing or as lawyers or in real estate, or in any other skill that might be applicable, engineering, maintenance and anything that goes on at the club pub and harness a skill set that can help us to move the ball forward in several ways and what that looks like, I'm not sure. I don't have specific projects in mind. I have ideas that I hope come up naturally from conversations with the group, but you know, the goals are to grow the club’s marketing reach so to figure out what messaging works.

“How do we grow ticket sales? How do we and use our own networks in our own fanbase to bring friends? What type of programs are attractive? How do we build an inclusive environment? How do we know what offerings do we need? Whether that's a food, perspective or communication, how are we talking? How do we improve match day experiences? We need to hear those things but we also want different ideas.

We want those thoughts and those perspectives to be channelled into the club in a constructive way so that hopefully, we can drive things forward together.

“You might not know how much you can help until you actually start putting it down on paper and actually think about it, so I'd start the application.I'd see how excited or passionate you are. I think one thing I've learned in football and working at the club and being involved in over the years is that passion and interest and the willing to put in time can go a long way and I think impact can really be made in all sorts of ways.

“We're not going to come in and say, ‘hey eight of us sitting around the table, let's let's get on our hands and knees and build a new East stand together’.

“We're not shooting for the moon, but we're looking for small wins together that we as a community can claim and say, ‘Hey, look, we're doing this as a group’.

Chairman Preston Johnson and Levin will lead the group.

Fans, sponsors, partners, and Crawley community members are encouraged to apply. Applications will be accepted until Friday, November 15 and there is a video submission component of the application.

You can listen to the full interview on the Simply Redz podcast here.