An ownership update from Brett Cravatt and Jason Cohen
Dear Swans Supporters,
On behalf of the Board of Swansea City AFC, we wanted to write to you following what has been and continues to be a period of change and transition for the club.
Following the acquisition of shares in November, our group attained a controlling stake in the club. Over the last 100 days, we have been reviewing the club’s operations and working on our plans to put the building blocks in place for future success. We love football and want to build something here that we can all be proud of.
During our time in control, we have also made the difficult decision to part ways with Luke Williams and his team. Despite heading into Christmas in a strong position in the league, the results, performances and communication during January and February fell short of our expectations, and it became clear this was the right decision for the football club.
Following Luke’s departure, we were delighted that Alan Sheehan accepted the opportunity to lead the team again. Alan has done a great job in the fixtures that he has taken so far and that has allowed us the space to thoroughly review the market for all candidates for the role. We have enjoyed a great working relationship with Alan, and he has demonstrated his dedication to the club during his time with us, turning down a number of high profile opportunities to stay at Swansea City. While the process to ensure that we identify the right candidate for the role continues, we are happy with the progress that has been made on the pitch. Four board members were joined by Tom Gorringe and Richard Montague for the Leeds game last weekend, and we can assure you that the celebrations that you enjoyed in the stands were matched by us in the Directors' Box. It was a thoroughly enjoyable and memorable afternoon.
As you also know, Andy Coleman announced his decision to step down from his role as Chairman at the end of the season. Andy has worked very hard for the club, and he leaves with all our best wishes. With Andy’s departure, Tom Gorringe has been appointed to CEO. Tom joined us with significant experience in football and was brought in with the succession plan that he would progress to the CEO role at some stage in the near future. Although this transition happened faster than any of us anticipated, we have been impressed with Tom’s work since joining the club and the positive impact that he has already made on the club. Tom has been tasked with restructuring the club to ensure that we operate efficiently and maintain optimal standards.
On the football side, we were delighted to welcome Richard Montague to the club from Notts County. Rich impressed us during the interview process and joins us with a track record of over performance in average points gained relative to total budget spent, which is a requirement to be successful in the Championship for any team without the luxury of parachute payments. His approach is aligned with our strategy as a board. Rich has been joined by James Morgan-Snowley who joins us from Rangers as the club’s new Head of Scouting. The team is completed by Adam Worth who has been promoted to our Global Head of Analytics and Recruitment. Adam brings a wealth of experience in harnessing sports data across the globe to give us an edge, and we have already seen this come to fruition with the exciting signing of Melker Widell. Adam is a lifelong Swansea City supporter and comes to the club via BetMGM, where he was Senior Sports Trader managing the live odds division. We believe that we are building a great team that can help us achieve the success on the pitch that we all crave.
Player trading has not only provided the club with a steady income stream over recent seasons, but it has also helped us to stay within the EFLs Profit and Sustainability Regulations. These rules, in their most basic form, allow the club to accumulate losses of £39m over a rolling three-year period. These constraints alongside the parachute payments paid to those clubs coming down from the Premier League mean that we must look for new ways to drive income and reduce costs to increase our opportunities to invest on the pitch and give us the best possible chance of success. However, over recent seasons we have seen our cost base increase and income decrease, ultimately making us less competitive. We will be looking to address this over the coming months by identifying and realising efficiencies within the operation to allow us as much flexibility within the market as possible.
Since taking control, we are delighted to have built up a strong relationship with the Supporters' Trust holding direct meetings with them to gauge their feedback and let them know our plans. We see this structured dialogue as an important part of our on-going strategy, and we look forward to further developing our partnership with them. As part of this on-going commitment to give supporters a voice, Diane Hughes will be joining Paul Meller as board members on behalf of the supporters and the Supporters' Trust.
To give further clarity to our plans moving forward, we are introducing the following strategic pillars that will run through everything that we do as a club.
Authenticity – From the board to all of our staff, we want everyone at the club to communicate authentically. We will be honest and transparent and keep you up to speed on our progress and areas where we can improve or where mistakes have been made. We will also work with you to gain feedback, review our operations and make positive changes to better match your needs while also making improvements to the club.
Data - Data continues to be extremely important to us. From a football and business perspective we will be looking to enhance our data-led approach to operations. The club survey has allowed you to have your voice heard, and we will take an analytical view on your feedback to make positive changes. We will also continue to utilise our in house data streams when looking at the recruitment of players and on-pitch performance.
Kaizen - We want to continuously improve in small increments each day through superior innovation, creativity and execution. Throughout the club we will look for new ways that we can make positive changes that give us an edge on other clubs around the leagues. We also want to generate more unique and inspiring content through our channels for the season ahead, so that we can connect with and expand our fanbase in new and meaningful ways.
Efficiency – As stated above, the PSR rules alongside the parachute payments received by a proportion of clubs in our league mean that we need to operate as efficiently as possible to be able to compete on the pitch. Our staff across all parts of the business will be tasked with increasing revenues and reducing costs because that has a real and direct impact on our ability to be successful. We know that talking about these things isn’t exciting for supporters, however it is important that we all have this context to give us the best chance of being successful.
Cymdeithas - The only way in which we can move forward is doing it together. Cymdeithas encapsulates this philosophy. A fellowship amongst us all. We are all accountable to ourselves and each other to help drive the club forward. Supporting each other and our community is an important part of the club, and we hope to do more of that moving forward inclusive of being proud of where the club comes from and its Welsh heritage.
Although our preference is to lead with action and not words, we understand and appreciate that continued dialogue is important. We commit to continuing with these updates on a regular basis so that there is clarity on our plans and how we are performing in relation to our goals.
As a board, we are focused on driving the club forward. We are building a team off the pitch that can deliver our ambitions on it. Your support is vital in that endeavor. We commit to doing all we can to invest in the club, to make sensible and informed decisions to move things forward, and all we ask is that you stay behind the team and the staff and keep the noise coming at the stadium.
With that in mind, we will personally be purchasing 500 tickets for all remaining home games which will be accessible for our local community and grassroots clubs. These tickets will be a gift from us to you. In addition, we know that many supporters will already have tickets for the remaining home games, so we will also be personally covering the cost of free coach travel to our upcoming away game on Easter Monday against QPR. We know that the cost of living crisis has had a significant impact on so many people, and we hope that these actions will have some positive impact to help thank you all for the support that you have shown us.
We are excited about the future of the club, and we thank you for all of your support.
Brett and Jason