League Two club Crawley Town made waves on Wednesday Morning when fans invaded the pitch to celebrate their 2-0 win over Fulham in the Carabao Cup.
The English Football League’s smallest club managed to outplay a team that is currently undefeated in the Premier League, while they sit near the bottom of the table three divisions below.
Wednesday morning's showing is hopefully just the beginning of what fans can expect from their team after being recently purchased by crypto sports company WAGMI United.
Preston Johnson is one of the faces of the ownership group and Co-Chairman of the Club. He’s looking to bring a level of innovation and interaction with fans that hasn’t been seen anywhere else in professional sports to date.
Speaking to Izzy & Kempy For Breakfast on SENZ the crypto analyst made it clear that the owners expect to be held accountable by the Crawley Town faithful.
“You have owners that come in and say things like, ‘We’re going to do this,' but there’s no downside, there’s no accountability,” Johnson said.
“The other co-chairman and I actually came out when we acquired the club and said if we’re not promoted in the first two seasons the fans could vote us out.”
The American believes the team’s focus on analytics will give them a slight edge over their competition but acknowledged that WAGMI United aren’t the only owners in football who are pushing the ‘Moneyball’ theory to get results on the field.
However, it’s more than just wins that he thinks will keep fans engaged with the club.
“We use NFT’s as kind of like a virtual season ticket for fans no matter where they live internationally, to have Crawley town as a club that they can root for,” Johnson explained.
"That’s kind of partly I think different to some of these other American groups that are just buying clubs and hoping for the best”.
The team certainly has a long way to go to achieve their owner's ultimate goal of reaching the premier league, but in the words of Ted Lasso - “Believe”.