LOS ANGELES (April 7, 2022) — WAGMI United, a new brand dedicated to bringing Web3’s most innovative ideas and passionate communities to the world of sports, announced today that it has closed a deal to take ownership of Crawley Town Football Club, which currently plays in English Football League Two.
WAGMI United plans to bring a digital-first, community-powered approach to the club and turn Crawley Town into the soccer team of choice for the global Web3 community.
Spearheaded by former ESPN sports betting analyst and co-creator of the celebrated PUNKS Comic NFT project Preston Johnson and Digital Collectibles Agency co-founder Eben Smith, the group plans to bring an unprecedented level of transparency and accountability to the club, including giving fans the opportunity to fire them as club directors if the team fails to win promotion to League One by the end of their second season in charge.
“Crawley Town Football Club is a club with more than 125 years of rich history that we revere and respect. However, a conventional approach to ownership hasn’t worked, and the club is losing hundreds of thousands of pounds while its fans suffer through year after year of uninspiring results on the pitch,” said Preston Johnson, WAGMI United co-founder. “We think the club can do better and our fans deserve better. Sports are supposed to be fun and bring communities together. At Crawley Town, we’re going to shake up the status quo, try out some new ideas, and build a worldwide community of fans new and old that can be excited to cheer on the Red Devils together — stretching from West Sussex to anywhere in the world with an internet connection.”
WAGMI United hopes to attract an influx of new supporters to Crawley Town Football Club — building a vibrant fan community based not just around a single geographic location, but around a shared passion for the Red Devils that unites people from across the globe. That will begin with the upcoming release of our first NFT collection on May 7, in partnership with burgeoning Web3 brand Pixel Vault. (More details on the mint will be shared in the days ahead.)
WAGMI United believes this community-powered approach will also open doors to exciting new partnership opportunities and unlock valuable new revenue streams that will allow us to expand Crawley Town’s budget far beyond levels typically seen by an EFL club of this size. With more financial resources than our competitors to bring in the best possible players and coaches and ensure they have access to the most advanced analytics available, these investments should translate into what matters most: wins.
Johnson and Smith will serve as the club’s directors. However, they plan to allow Crawley Town fans to decide whether or not they keep those roles if the team does not achieve its goal: earning promotion to League One by the end of their second season in charge.
"If we're trying to build a community-club, and we are, then we have to build in mechanisms to hold ourselves accountable," said Eben Smith, WAGMI United co-founder. "So if Crawley Town Football Club doesn't get promoted to League One by the end of our second season, which we think is about 50/50, then we under-performed. If we underperform, Crawley Town fans should get to vote on who the next directors of the club are. We might run for reelection because it was clearly all Preston's fault, but we don’t just get to hold the fanbase hostage because our dad invented Cablevision."
Alongside Johnson and Smith, WAGMI United has assembled a diverse and expansive ownership group made up of some of the brightest minds across sports, Web3 technology, business and entertainment. Additionally, VaynerX chairman Gary Vaynerchuk and veteran sports business executive Ahron Cohen have also agreed to serve as advisors to WAGMI United — lending their world-class expertise in tech innovation and sports business, respectively, to this exciting new venture.
You can visit WAGMI United online at www.wagmiunited.com and follow us on Twitter at @WAGMIUnited.
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About WAGMI United
WAGMI United — which stands for “We’re All Gonna Make It,” a popular mantra of hope and solidarity in the cryptocurrency and NFT communities — is a new brand dedicated to bringing Web3’s most innovative ideas and passionate communities to the world of sports. Founded by Preston Johnson and Eben Smith, WAGMI United seeks 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. WAGMI United has taken the first step on this journey with its pioneering purchase of Crawley Town Football Club. |
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