Takeover Rumours

True but is it not a case of speculating to accumulate. If your house is on the market as a three bed, you take out a loan (analalgous to diluting equity by issuing shares if you like), then put it back up as a four bed, you might make it more attractive to prospective buyers

 

Q&A from Crawleys new owners WAGMI United who wanted to buy us in December - interesting ideas and they cover some of the questions us fans had about the NFT side of things



Don't know how much they paid for Crawley but it's going to be interesting to see their activity over the summer since they target promotion within 2 seasons. Next season is going to be a lot more interesting than this one has been..

 

I watched this the other week and thought the owner came across really well. Certainly doesn't seem a nutjob as some would have you believe. Seems very well educated and clued about what he is trying to achieve.

 

Some think we're much better off with a guy who doesn't give a toss than a guy trying new things.

Who can blame them though when the guy who doesn't give a toss leaves the club to be run by someone with no history of success in any position?

Seems solid to me.

 

Will always be witchcraft to some.

 

I'd heard of his name before on twitter but didn't think much of it when we spurned his bid. But I've listened to him a couple of times in now and although it may well go tits up for Crawley, it's clear it won't be for the want of trying. He is one clued up individual with qualifications in the right areas and it will be interesting to see if what comes of this new innovation in football.

 

I've never seen true cause to doubt any of these WAGMI guys. All I've seen is people recoil in fear. That's fine, I'm not crying that we weren't taken over, and it makes Crawley a fun experiment for us to watch from afar.

But the idea Rupp is definitely a safer pair of hands is absolutely laughable! The guy is a disaster, one of the worst performing owners in the entire EFL, and his cocky CEO is not doing much better.

I have no idea why people are content with where we are as a club.

It is not going well

 

In fact, let me just add, if someone were to ask me how I'd expect it to go if we got taken over by some petrolhead, I'd say we're absolutely bang on course.

If someone asked me how I thought we might do if we were taken over by an ambitious, creative and proven sporting ownership, I'd always say: better than this.

But who knows. Maybe we'll be 1st next season with Crawley as runners up......
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Its like sticking with a wife who's shagging all your mates behind your back for fear you'll end up with something worse.

 

Or thinking this time he'll realize his wrong doings and change for the better...

 

I'm not going to defend Rupp's tenure here but wagmi are not breaking new ground, they are opting for the basically same operating model as used by MyFootballClub and OwnaFC.

There's no real long term up side to the Crawley approach, if it works, there's nothing to stop literally every other football club going down the same path and copying them which will nulify any financial advantage they might gain. If, as happened with MyFootballClub and OwnaFC, it doesn't work, they'll fail on their own.

All the "scary NFT" stuff is just a distraction, that bit might actually work for them (I can certainly see it having a big impact at L2 level) but where they will almost certainly fail is down to the decision making process and the retention and continuing engagement of investors over time, especially if there's a downturn in fortunes at any point. What is noticeable from the fans Q&A that they did is that they have either already drastically changed their plans for the community decision making structure or they have a different story to tell depending on if they're talking to their NFT community or the legacy CTFC community. When they gave details of the takeover on the Joe Pomp podcast which was aimed at the NFT community they were talking about the PL and saying that "high leverage" moments will be voted on by the fans even if it sometimes leaves them at a strategic disadvange, not just what colour kit they will wear but transfer budget and team strategy. However, a couple of weeks later when talking to CTFC fans they're saying that those types of things will be undertaken by football people.

 

Agreed with most of this, particularly about anyone being able to copy their model, BUT, they're light years ahead of most clubs - so they will have an advantage for a period of time, and that could be a year, or a decade.

I don't agree that they're not breaking new ground - I think they are, and there are so few teams currently looking into this (especially outside the massive Premier League clubs who are just naturally investing in everything) that they can't help but be considered ground breaking. Are they the absolute first, maybe not, but I think it's the first, most significant attempt.

It's interesting, like you say, that the CTFC model has already changed slightly from what was originally set out; some call this bad preparation, but it looks a smart move to employ football people to make key decisions. If only we could be dynamic in the slightest, but we're very much against strategic change as a club (I'm not talking about fans, but the club itself), particularly if it seems like it might have a price tag attached to it.

We'll see how it works out for them, but as some of us said the second Rupp rejected WAGMI's approach, I sincerely hope the club have invested SOMETHING in this NFT thing - we've had a first hand 'nod' from a forward thinking entity with REAL clout (sports club owners, not some chancers, as has been made out) that this COULD be the way forward.

If we've just rejected their offer and closed the door on NFT, particularly given we invested in e-sports, that would be a MASSIVE loss for the club.

I do worry we fall behind further with this owner.

 

I genuinely hope it works out for Crawley, I don't think that wagmi are malicious and their aims of a community/fan focussed club are laudable and I'm a firm believer that wholesale fan ownership of clubs would be beneficial to football in the long term. However, I don't have FOMO and I'm far more comfortable watching the experiment take place in Sussex than BD8 because I think that the chances of success are much smaller than the chance of failure.

My prediction is that they'll manage a year or two of having loads of money and quite possibly buy their way out of L2 and maybe an outside chance of sneaking out of L1 but they're not outspending the big clubs in L1 let alone competing with Champ clubs and outspending everyone else at the core of how they plan to succeed so eventually the wheels will come off and it'll be grim. If I were a CTFC fan, my 5 year aspiration right now would be to enjoy the present and then hope that I still have a club and not be in the conference in 2027, anything else would be a bonus.

As for City and NFT's? I'm not sure, for me it's is that sort of moral grey area like crypto, betting, fossil fuels etc but I'm mostly ambivalent, as long as the club had thought properly about the pros and cons I don't think I'd be too bothered if we decided yes or no.

 

But if it leads to investment and promotion the value goes up

 

Zayn Malik I hear

 

I get that but even if we go up he would struggle with £6m value

 

Get him in with Dynamo

 

Yes that what I heard.
He's a Bradford lad (from East Bierley).
And he's rumoured to be worth £65 million.
Nearly as much as Fordy !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Is that based on a photo of him wearing a City shirt he posted last week, or have you heard an actual rumour mate?

 

It all started from this...... those ITK twitter transfer accounts (that are just around the corner, yay) have had more well based rumors than "he had a dinner with Gary Linekar"