The First Ever Official ‘GOING FOR IT’ Thread

[PuB]

You can still be Going For It whilst signing shit players, ask Notts County fans…

 

[Kauto Star]

Sponsorship will be the bulk of it I'd imagine, Merchandise and stuff like that to the Americans as well. They love us over there- at the TST thing we did the other week 50% of the 30k who bought tickets to the event identified as Wrexham fans. They all seemed to have shirts too.

It's bonkers frankly.

Those Americans that love you, do they realise you were playing in the 5th tier recently and not a Premiership soccer team.

 

[Gi Dalor]

Also under SCMP any funds introduced by the owner in the form of equity (not loans) is classed as fortune income and included in turnover.
No cap on losses under SCMP.

So, if WAGMI have put the money they earned from the NFT launch into the club, this would count as fortune income? Given that this £4 million or so would count as an astronomical percentage of the club's income, I would be very interested to see their accounts. (Not because they might have done anything wrong). It would be a one-off payment, with no hope of an ongoing revenue stream. One might hope for their sake that they didn't pour the whole sum into the club in one financial year.
Crawley's online shop doesn't work, their season tickets are low priced and low in number, they have next to no sponsorship, they've received virtually no transfer income in the last year, and even if they were doing well on iFollow numbers compared to other L2 clubs, that wouldn't be much money. Attendances are low. I think they don't own their ground.
Speculating about Crawley's finances makes me spiral.

 

[Essex2Wessex]

Wrexham clearly have more earning potential than the historic lower league vanity projects where the owner has to single-handedly fund it at a loss. I’d actually expect Reynolds and McElhenney to turn a massive profit once it’s all said and done. The question is more about how long you can sustain interest, you’ll of course get a few weirdos in the US who become diehards and expand the fan base but the majority of the revenue will be sponsorships and that relies on things like the Disney documentary persisting and people staying interested in the Wrexham fairytale and it staying in the public consciousness.

I’ve always maintained it’s just been genius from the two of them from a commercial perspective. The question is always around who is running the football side of things - if I had much more money than everyone else, I would simply invest in the best players and talent - not feel like I need a 40+ year old goalkeeper who only trains once a week or spend 6 figure sums on the likes of Ollie Palmer but…ends justify the means and all that, can’t question their results so far.

Yeah, my impression is that Wrexham's owners seem to know what they are doing, really taking advantage of what global internet and broadcast access permits to show that even a relatively small (although certainly far from tiny) club can attain an international fan base, and the income that generates (and in this case, sponsorship that attracts) , hopefully, and so far seemingly, without pissing off the actual matchgoing fans and loyal supporters. I'd have to think there's a more than decent chance of their project succeeding in the medium term, and that it might even become a case study in one means of how to revitalise long-established league clubs that's have fallen on hard times.

Sadly almost exactly the opposite is true of the plans (if they have any) of the fucking morons who own Crawley. (Crawley Town is obviously unlike Wrexham as a club in numerous, mostly fairly obvious, regards, too)

I'm a bit surprised that Salford didn't have half the ambition of Wrexham to gather an international fanbase, given the big name power of the Club of 92 and Man U etc around the world. But maybe had they done so American soccer fans would just have ended up thinking as little of their club as do many English football fans...

We've done a bit of gathering an international fan base, obviously from the environmental angle, and find fans from various European countries tend to visit matches once or twice a year, and those from the USA a bit less. I'd not care to guess how many of these subscribe to our video service, or how much they spend on merchandise, but they must contribute something to the bottom line. Certainly not enough to displace or replace the (not purely financial) contribution of matchday fans, but to a small club like ours it must help.

Purists may reasonably scorn it but I suspect Wrexham's approach is a wave of the future

 

[Indian Dan]

Even the so called ‘big’ names of the Class of 92 soon fade in the public’s mind - even here let alone elsewhere. Wrexham’s Yanks have long term fascination with the public. Whether the football side of that fascination sustains is another matter.

 

[RavenBish]

You can still be Going For It whilst signing shit players, ask Notts County fans…

If you have the best manager in the division, does that automatically put you in the Going For It bracket?

 

[Indian Dan]

Which manager is that?

 

[Marbles]

Derek Adams

 

[Optipez]

You can still be Going For It whilst signing shit players, ask Notts County fans…

We tend to sign unfashionable players that other teams haven't thought much of with the exception of Langstaff who a few teams must have wanted last season.
Last pre season our five signings came from National league N and S. Jodi Jones wasn't pulling up any trees at Oxford and John Bostock didn't have a club until we signed him in February. We signed a keeper who's only experience was on loan at Kings Lynn.

I'm hoping Will Randall from Sutton who I'd never heard of will be in the same vein.
Luke Williams won't just put players in the first team if he doesn't think they're ready, only Langstaff went straight in of those eight but they all added to the team when their chance came.

 

[Optipez]

Which manager is that?

The one you sacked off for Tim Sherwood.

 

[Indian Dan]

Sherwood was never manager. Did no favours for old Luke Warm that’s for sure.

 

[PuB]

We tend to sign unfashionable players that other teams haven't thought much of with the exception of Langstaff who a few teams must have wanted last season.
Last pre season our five signings came from National league N and S. Jodi Jones wasn't pulling up any trees at Oxford and John Bostock didn't have a club until we signed him in February. We signed a keeper who's only experience was on loan at Kings Lynn.

I'm hoping Will Randall from Sutton who I'd never heard of will be in the same vein.
Luke Williams won't just put players in the first team if he doesn't think they're ready, only Langstaff went straight in of those eight but they all added to the team when their chance came.

I was more meaning the squad you had last time you were in this league, on paper there’s no way you should have been relegated. In fact I strongly expected you to challenge at the top of the table instead

 

[Optipez]

I was more meaning the squad you had last time you were in this league, on paper there’s no way you should have been relegated. In fact I strongly expected you to challenge at the top of the table instead

That was a really unbalanced team. We needed a mobile no9 to help Kane Hemmings and Krystian Dennis, we had a couple of bad eggs in Richard Duffy and Dan Jones and blew the budget on David Vaughn who's legs had entirely gone with no youthful midfielders around him. Coupled with a manager who rumour had it was drinking too much and eventually going through three managers and a temporary one as well and an owner who spent way more than either we or he could afford and it all added up to a total disaster.

 

[jojo]

How bad is crawley's finances?

 

[chipmunx]

How bad is crawley's finances?

on a par with Morecambe's.....

 

[jojo]

For one we're fine, We arent owned by crypto loons, yes we're up for sale but frankly we could be worse

 

[PuB]

That was a really unbalanced team. We needed a mobile no9 to help Kane Hemmings and Krystian Dennis, we had a couple of bad eggs in Richard Duffy and Dan Jones and blew the budget on David Vaughn who's legs had entirely gone with no youthful midfielders around him. Coupled with a manager who rumour had it was drinking too much and eventually going through three managers and a temporary one as well and an owner who spent way more than either we or he could afford and it all added up to a total disaster.

What’s your ownership model now out of interest?

 

[jojo]

Sherwood was never manager. Did no favours for old Luke Warm that’s for sure.

He was Technical Director or something like that?

 

[Indian Dan]

Who knows. Essentially, he was Lee Power’s flunky in some dodgy transfers from Spurs.

 

[Optipez]

What’s your ownership model now out of interest?

The Reedtz brothers are the owners. They state they want success ( who doesn't ) but want to do it in a way that won't put the club in jeopardy by unearthing talent. They run a sports data company and our recruitment has been consistently good since they took over. We had very good budgets for non league but not the biggest and I suspect that model will continue in L2 where we'll compete but he nowhere near some teams here.
They could have sold some of our best players but have instead let their contracts run down to get us success.
Our books don't look great, we have a substantial debt from when they bought the club and it's got bigger with limited income during Covid not helping and season ticket prices being held for a few years.
Never heard any fan complain about them in four seasons which is unheard of at Notts.

 

[EnglishRed]

The Reedtz brothers are doing a good job but they look like a right pair of oddballs. If you told me they walked around holding each others hands I'd believe you.

 

[AdamStag]

In short if any of wrexham notts county and gillingham don’t go up it’ll be a miserable failure (well accustomed to that following mansfield)

 

[THE LAST WALTZ]

In short if any of wrexham notts county and gillingham don’t go up it’ll be a miserable failure (well accustomed to that following mansfield)

We have only added two free transfers to the team that finished 17th last season.

 

[EnglishRed]

We've not signed anyone yet and you lot keep telling us that L2 is much harder than the pub league we just came out of.

I'm hoping we go through this league in one season, and think we can, but after 15 years in Non League I could probably accept the miserable failure of failing to go up (as long as we don't go back down which really would be a failure).

 

[Son of Cod]

The Reedtz brothers are doing a good job but they look like a right pair of oddballs. If you told me they walked around holding each others hands I'd believe you.

In all fairness, one of your top guys walks around in a red gimp suit...but then again who am I to judge what Shaun Harvey does in his spare time?!

 

[EnglishRed]

In all fairness, one of your top guys walks around in a red gimp suit...but then again who am I to judge what Shaun Harvey does in his spare time?!

Thats what happens if you spend too much time in Bradford and Leeds.

 

[1862]

Purists may reasonably scorn it but I suspect Wrexham's approach is a wave of the future

I doubt any attempts at "doing a Wrexham" will be anywhere near as successful, for a start the majority of the American fans who might be interested will already be Wrexham fans. I could see it working with another large country potentially if anyone with similar star power and marketing skill, but the idea that other Americans/high profile actors (I think there's been mention of the Rock being involved at Southend?) can just come in and generate this amount of revenue seems unlikely.

It is impressive how much effort they've put in as well, and I don't think that most celebrities of that stature would want to put in the time that (it appears) they do.

 

[Gi Dalor]

How bad is crawley's finances?

Nobody knows.
On the plus side, they raised about 3-4 million from the NFT launch.
On the negative side, I'm not convinced they can use this as income for financial salary purposes, and even if they can, it was all in one lump. There are virtually no NFTs being resold now, which was their plan for ongoing revenue as they take a cut.

But I do believe they have enough money to keep the club going for a few years. There's no danger of bankruptcy. They've had to prove to the EFL they have enough money.

It's just how limited they are on salaries, and they are not financially transparent to anyone except the EFL.

Morecambe on the other hand might be fine financially, but my guess is that they're not. I'm desperate for the bookies to release relegation odds

 

[Birmingham Rover]

Boycotting due to lack of vision is a rather grandiose term for not being arsed to go to a match when you're not playing very well.

Every forum? There isn't a single Town fan on here, the other forum or The Fishy who is obsessed with Donny. Neither have I met one in real life. It's good to have a local match but there's no real rivalry there.

Makes perfect sense you'd have a bigger rivalry with Harrogate too. Two Yorkshire clubs with rich and long histories in the basement/non-league divisions, both had money pumped into them in recentish years to elevate them above their natural levels, neither club can fill their stadium, etc.

Josh Emmanuel did alright for us last year to be fair.

We don’t have a rivalry with them, that’s kind of the point about how we care very little for you but if you check social media, your fans (mostly the younger contingent) have a fascination with us. It’s understandable though, you can speak about clubs playing in the bottoms leagues all you like but the facts are that in the past 20 years we have spent all but 3 seasons in either the championship or league one whilst you lot continued to mix it in this division and the national league. I get it why we are your cup final. Enjoy yourselves again next season.

 

[GTFCfish]

We don’t have a rivalry with them, that’s kind of the point about how we care very little for you but if you check social media, your fans (mostly the younger contingent) have a fascination with us. It’s understandable though, you can speak about clubs playing in the bottoms leagues all you like but the facts are that in the past 20 years we have spent all but 3 seasons in either the championship or league one whilst you lot continued to mix it in this division and the national league. I get it why we are your cup final. Enjoy yourselves again next season.

Seems like you are the one trying to create a rivalry on here with us and failing miserably.
Please show some examples of our younger fans and their fascination with Doncaster as I’m regularly on Twitter and I’ve never seen it.
Let’s be honest it’s all just in your head.
(Along with not a lot else).