New Crawley FC Directors Commit To Web 3.0 Technology
Crawley Town has been taken over by a group of US investors who are promising to use Web 3.0 technologies that will enable its fanbase to make critical club decisions.
Wagmi United, co-founded by Preston Johnson and Eben Smith, has acquired a controlling stake in Crawley Town from Turkish businessman Ziya Eren.
The pair have pledged a new era of unprecedented transparency and accountability to Crawley Town Football Club supporters. With Johnson and Smith assuming roles as club directors, they plan to allow the fans to decide whether they keep those roles for the following season if the team does not achieve its goal: earning promotion to League One by the end of their second season in charge.
WAGMI United is 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 tight-knit communities of passionate fans and empowering them to take a personal stake in telling their team’s story and shaping its future. They are eager to bring this exciting new approach to the club.
Web 3.0 is the latest internet technology that leverages machine learning, artificial intelligence, and blockchain to achieve real-world human communication. Web 3.0 not only allows individuals to own their data but they will be compensated for their time spent on the web.
The sports industry has seen blockchain-based technology used to give supporters a say on club matters previously, with fan-orientated non-fungible tokens (NFT) from brands such as Socios offering buyers votes on cosmetic matters such as kit designs.
Johnson said, “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.
“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.”
Crawley Town’s departing Chief Executive Officer, Erdem Konyar, said, “A new exciting chapter awaits Crawley Town Football Club. Eben and Preston represent a united, passionate, energetic and intelligent group committed to the progress of the club. It’s been an honour to serve this special club with Mr Eren, to whom I thank for all of the support and commitment over the last six years.”
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