At first glance, Preston Johnson would not appear to be the most obvious critic of Liverpool’s controversial attempt to enter the world of NFTs.
Johnson, a professional sports gambler and former ESPN analyst, is a founder member of WAGMI United – the sprawling consortium of US entrepreneurs who have taken over Crawley Town and intend to utilise “Web3” to unlock the potential of the League Two club.
Their plan includes specially curated NFTs and exploiting the blockchain to attract overseas fans, two things that have set alarms bells ringing with a good chunk of English football fans who have witnessed the market crash just as various high-profile ex-players and clubs attempt to cash in.
When Wagmi first emerged in December, attempting to broker a deal for Bradford City, they bore the brunt of that cynicism as supporters railed against a bunch of “crypto bros” seemingly attempting to use English football for their digital gamble.
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Bitter? Not a bit of it. Far from being burned by the opprobrium, Johnson says he agrees that many of the ideas sold to supporters have been – at best – flawed.
“I totally understand the reaction of people in football to some of the NFTs and ideas that they’ve been sold so far,” he tells i as part of a fascinating hour discussing what he admits will be viewed as a “weird, risky” blueprint for Crawley.
“The exploitative nature of, say Liverpool trying to sell 175,000 NFTs to their fans who don’t want NFTs and don’t really know what they are and are already asked for money from them for other things is not lost on me.
“For us it’s almost the reverse strategy. We’re trying to take a professional club to an audience that already loves NFTs, which is where our backgrounds are. We have quite a big influence on that side of things so if we’re able to bring an international digital audience to Crawley then great.
“Our NFTs are more like virtual season tickets. They’re not items we’re trying to sell to local fans, that would be extremely arrogant. As you saw with Liverpool, it’s not an efficient way to go about it.
“We’re bringing something that our NFT crowd has wanted for a long time – a professional sports club. Who was going to be the first to do it? It was WAGMI United and we want to make it to the Premier League one day.”
There is plenty about their ambitious plan for Crawley that challenges the orthodoxy. The club’s decision to release an NFT-only third shirt is, they say, just the start.
For example, when their NFTs “drop” next month overseas fans will be buying a “virtual season ticket” which will include the ability to influence major decisions like how the transfer budget is spent.
“That scares people,” Johnson admits. “But with things like socios, fans get to vote on whether it’s Pepsi or Coke being served in the stands. Do fans really care about that? They need ‘buy in’.
“We’d never do something that would upset the staff or offer NFT holders a chance to vote on who plays, that’s down to Kevin – that’s why we have appointed him. But other bigger picture stuff is an option.
“An example is in January if we have £200,000 to spend in the transfer window. We’ve seen us playing for a couple of months, we have an idea of where our strengths and weaknesses lie and we have season ticket holders and NFT holders and we give them a vote on how we distribute those funds in the transfer window.”
When the plan first emerged, it was reported that they were attempting to raise the revenue to buy the club through NFT sales. But Johnson is at pains to point out the purchase was made in “fiat” (regular currency) and the group has deep enough pockets to cover two years without making a penny.
The club’s future, he insists, is not “pinned to the volatility” of the crypto markets. He says plunging values are a ‘market correction’ and while all of the WAGMI group are crypto disciples only a fraction made their money through it.
They were attracted to English football because of the “brilliant” promotion and relegation system which means their club can theoretically aspire to play in the Premier League – something not open to them if they bought a minor league baseball franchise.
“We know the online communities we’re trying to appeal to and we think there’s a big chance for people to attach themselves to the Crawley story,” he says.
“We’re going to be bringing in revenue that we think is at a level that is outsized to what Crawley was before. They were losing a million pounds a year before we came here, so it’s going to be better than that.”
Crawley finished mid-table last season under the tutelage of John Yems, who left the club shortly after Wagmi took over after allegations of discriminatory conduct that are in the process of being investigated by the Football Association.
Former Arsenal under-23 coach Kevin Betsy was appointed earlier this month, partly on account of his openness to work with data zealot Johnson and fellow director Eben Smith on recruitment and football decisions.
Investment – in pounds and pence – has been incoming: they have appointed a video analyst, strength and conditioning coach, chef and head of medical team. A five-figure donation to the club’s Foundation and cutting season tickets by 30% are also positive signs.
They have gone on Twitter spaces to explain their head coach and player recruitment calls. “Being open and transparent helps the fans being OK and comfortable with some of the newness and weirdness of what is going on,” Johnson says.
They have pledged to offer fans a chance to vote to remove them if they aren’t promoted within two seasons. “We want to be promoted, that’s the ultimate goal,” he says.
“We’ve said if we’re not promoted in the first two years, the fans can vote us out. It all leads to promotion and winning – we’ll be disappointed if we aren’t promoted this season, to be frank.”
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