Lindsey Kaplan

Professor Mullen

November 13, 2017

90 Million for 90 Minutes

Swansea city home of the Swansea city AFC soccer team. The team was found in 1912 in

Wales England. It wasn’t a league until 1921. It wasn’t always named Swansea city in fact from

the year it was found in 1912 to 1969 it was named Swansea Town Janed then it changed its

name to Swansea City to reflect on the new city. The stadium was called Vetch stadium and it

was the first field the club had and the club played on that field for over 93 years. Then in 2005

the club had enough money to build a new stadium that was luxurious and can fit the number of

fans they wanted and didn’t have to be this beat up old stadium. Swansea won their first ever

trophy at the Welsh Cup just a year after the cub was found in 1913.

In 2001 the club was the lowest professional league in Britain and nobody wanted to

manage the club or even play for the club. It was a terrible feeling just because how great the

club was in the past seasons and the could just turn from greatness to defeat in a blink of an eye

was devastating to the fans. The club was in debt of four million quid if you convert it to U.S.

dollars that’s $5,274,880. (Who are the community ) The owner at the time Mike Lewis was

bought the club for just one pound. He didn’t even want the team anymore just after being the

manager for one season because how much debt he was in and how much stress and death threats

he was receiving from fans on the team they love so much. So, after trying to sell the team and

even tried giving it away as a gift to somebody it all failed so he had no choice but to but an ad in

the Local Newspaper saying, “Swansea City AFC four sale serious offer only” (Jack to a king
The Swansea Story full movie) After no one was interested in owning the team Mike had to

manage them for another season. At this point in 2002 season mike had no other options then to

call the head coach Collin in his office the day after the home opener and loosing 1-0 Mike just

wanted one thing he wanted Collin the coach to get his 6 highest paid players and they were

going to riff them meaning sign there realize form and let them play for a higher club that can

afford them. After this news went public the fans wanted Mike out of the managing position and

out of Swansea forever. The fans were making Mikes life miserable at games they would slash

his tires, break his windows, spray paint his car, throw bottles and him on the field. The

messages were being sent and Mike was having enough so in the middle of the season Mike just

left and put Swansea city up for a Public ownership.

Ryan Flin bought the team in the last 6 months of the season and brought them to face

Hull in the final game of the season. If Swansea lost they would be relegated from the pro

league. This was if not the most important game that Swansea City ever had to play since 1912.

Just this one game brought the team up 67% on merchandise, and it was the only game in 76

years that the stadium was sold out. This game meant so much to the fans and so much to the

player. The team has been playing on the same field in the same stadium for 105 years and the

players made it clear that it wasn’t going to be the last game of the Swansea City and they were

not going to down without a fight. Swansea won the game 4-2 and beat a team they hadn’t

beaten in over 30 years (jack to a King the Swansea story full movie). In 2005 Branden Rogers

was promoted new manager of the team and in 2011 he leads Swansea city to the Championship

playoffs. This was a huge deal to Swansea just because if they won match it would promote them

into the Premier league. They won 3-2 by a penalty kick in the 76th minute and ever since this

win in 2011 the team has been in the premier league ever since.
 Swansea city oddly only has one real rivalry they are the Cardiff City they have been

rivalries since September 7, 1912 when they first played each other. The most recent meeting

they teams shared was back in February 8, 2014 and Swansea captured that win 3-0. Just some

statistics between Swansea and Cardiff they had a total of 107 meetings on the pitch, Cardiff

City leads with the most wins between the two having 44, there has been 27 draws between the

two teams, and Swansea has taking home Victoria 35 times. The unique fan cultures is really

drinking outside the North bank. The North bank is in the stadium and it’s the most popular place

to sit for a Swansea city fan. On either side of the star well to get to your seats there is a bar. If

you sit in the North Bank you have early admission and you to the pub to tailgate pretty much

and just get drinks then watch the game and after the game you go back to the pubs and either

celebrate the victory or drink your sorrows away as the fans say. in the documentary, I watched a

fan says” the Vetch field stadium is such an ugly place but such a beautiful place. (Jack to a kink

The Swansea Story full movie) The field is right behind a jail so a lot of times fans who sat in the

North Bank would get arrested for fighting with opposing teams and just throwing bear cans on

the field just being disrespectful and threat full to the opposing fans the security would

legitimately walk them straight to the prison.

The economic Impact on the team in 2016 the clubs last annual accounts they confirmed

on loosing up to 14.6 million quid and if you convert that its $19,254,900. A 14-month period

leading up to July 2015 the club had a profit of 1.1million quid and that converted is $1,450,718.

(Swansea City confirm biggest annual loss since promotion to the premier League in lates

accounts) To help the Local communities Swansea City came up with Community Trust and that

is the club registered charity since 2008. It gives all the staff and players the opportunity to

working in the South west wales area with the communities to help them develop sports, grow on
their education, get better health research and opportunities with health. It’s mainly designed to

help improve the lifestyle of and individual. (Who are the community trust) The club has help

camps every Sunday they don’t have a match that is home and if they are away then they will

hold two on their bye week they have. They recently opened an Academy for their offseason and

it gives the players and coaches and opportunity to work one on one with their fans. Since the

launch of Community Trust SwansAid has donated over 130,000 quid converted is $171,448.

There has a bunch of problems with the new stadium from the old. 2005 The Liberty

Stadium was built and the capacity for it was 21,0888 people. The fans were flabbergasted with

the new stadium. They didn’t know how to react to it some loved it but others wanted the old

stadium back. The old stadium had history behind it and some fans even say that’s the heart of

Swansea city and if you’re having a bad day just drive by the Vetch field and it would put a

smile on your face. As I said in the beginning of my paper it was such an ugly place but a

beautiful place. Take one step in stadium the atmosphere would just hit you the signing, the

crying, the cheering. It has been said that you will spend the same amount of time watching the

crowed as you are watching the match. Yes, the stadium was falling apart and just looked like a

dump but that’s what the fans really loved about it They didn’t want a new stadium with stores in

it, restaurants, they didn’t want the stadium that cost 27 million quid converted into $35,613,000.

(Swansea City confirm biggest annual loss since promotion to the Premier league in latest

account)

Marketing is the number 1 priority in the business aspect of Swansea offices. During the

BID period, there is the Big Heart of Swansea consumer Brand Loyalty card that has over 70

different offers from either small businesses or large businesses. During the BID period over 3

million people hear and see Swansea campaigns that’s almost the population of Swansea as a
city and there are over 1.5 million social media visits (BID OPERATIONS) An example of the

team’s biggest marketing initiative is the Give a Jack a Jacket. So, give a Jack a Jacket lets fans,

players, and stay donate winter close to keep the homeless people warm in wales. In just 2017

“they raised over 3,000 jackets, 600 jumpers, 300 scarves, and 200 woolen hats” (Swans

campaign nominated for two awards) This campaign has been nominated for two separate

categories the first one is the Best Club Marketing Initiative in premier league, and the second

one is the Best Corporate Social Responsibility Sheme.

To help promote Swansea city the marketing team just opened the new Centre

shop on October 7, 2017 its location is 33,34 Union street. It sells all of Swansea city

merchandise and has over 1,400 square feet of floor space. For kids who shop there they have

interactions screens where they can play soccer games as their favorite plays on the team and

also play quizzes about the team and the history of the team and if you win the soccer games and

the quizzes you get give away packages. They had made whole section which is located

downstairs which is the sales outlet which you can find your ticket sales and hospitality. Then

upstairs there is an interaction room where shoppers can meet the players and there are some

games like how hard you can kick a ball or foul kick and winners get give away packages. The

main purpose of this new shop is to help the club meet the growing demand for official

merchandise, tickets, hospitality, and customer service. (Swans to open new city Centre shop on

Saturday)

With a great soccer team, you have a numerous amount of sponsorships. Swansea city

has ten sponsors. They are Premier League, Swans Direct, Swanslotto.com, Carling, Nuffield

Health, Joma, LG, Bet 365, HotelPlanner.com, and lastly Letou. (Proud sponsors of Swansea city

football club) Out of these ten there are three that are the biggest and most popular of them all.
The first one is Carling beer it’s the largest UK beer brand and is the official beer for the premier

league. The president of Carling said, “Together with our large network of pubs and retailers,

we’ll be finding way to give Carling drinkers more reasons to get together and keep the stories

going long after the final whistle has blown” (Official beer and cider partner) Carling is the

longest standing association with Football that has had the title sponsor for nine seasons. The

second biggest sponsor is Joma its featured on the right side of the jersey next to the collar.

Swansea city did renew their sponsorship for the 2017 season and Joma took over the

sponsorship. The new shirt featured a Barbos V-neck collar that includes a black detailed and

ribbing to ensure a comfortable fit. There is a cool feature in the inside of the jersey in a pocket

that holds a GPS in it. The GPS tracks a number of things like players speed, the heart rate of the

player, the calorie burn, and the number of miles they run. (Joma, As technical sponsor of

Swansea city AFC, presents the official shirt for) The last sponsor is Letou. On June 20,2017

Letou agreed to become the new main shirt sponsor for Swansea city. Swansea City chief

operating officer Chris Pearlman said “Swansea city has ambition to grow our brand in Asia,

where Letou has a strong presence and a lot of experience (Swansea city signs Letou as new shirt

sponsor) Letou is featured across the chest on the jersey and the LE is in blue and the TOU is in

orange. Pearlman also said “we believe Letou can help us tell our story to a global audience. The

story about how we play the game our way with the GRIT AND BEAUTY” (Swansea unveil

new kit and sponsors with Letou on front and Barracuda on sleeve)

Social media is key in any sports in any marketing aspect. Fans love it and teams need it

and need to keep it current and be posting at least once a day. Fans love to check in on the team

even if it’s in their off season. Swansea website doesn’t have a section for the players/roster or a

link for the shops. They have a section for matches, news, tickets, teams, SwansTV, Fans, and
youths. They have no pictures, videos. The teams snapchat is only run on game days. What they

should do is let different players take over every day and do in the life of that player. That’s what

the MLS does as well as the National Women’s Soccer League. The teams twitter is only

updated once a week if that. Any pro sport team should update and be tweeting at least once a

day keeping the fans updated. The team should throw contest with their followers and retweeting

their fans tweets to make the fans feel a part of something. Finally, the most important social

media of them all Instagram in their bio they should have a link that goes straight to their website

and also there official store so followers can buy merchandise through Instagram. Should post fa

pictures, team pictures, player of the games recognition, pictures form the game. Also post live

states for fans who don’t have access to watch the game.

The immediate plan for Swansea city is to stay in the Premier League and not get

Relegated the past 3 seasons they have come very close to getting relegated. Have ticket sales go

up tremendously, win a championship, make a huge profit, get involved in more charity work.

Ever since my dad has become an own his first priority with the team is not to make money but

to have the team become close to their fans and make the fans more involved with the team.

Make the fans feel like they are part of the team in anyway. Some of the key points in Swansea

City that he mentioned was to of course stay in the Premier league and do anything he can do not

get relegated, win a championship, the last championship was in 2011 and its time for another

one, make money of course being a manager and an owner if you make money that mean you

team is doing good winning and running smoothly if you don’t make money that means your

loosing and something isn’t adding up with the team. My dad brought up a very interesting point

in the US in the soccer league they have no relegation and soccer is growing it’s the fastest

growing sport besides ESPORTS.

Home. (n.d.). Retrieved November 10, 2017, from https://www.swanstrust.co.uk/trust-facts-and-
history/

Jack to a King The Swansea Story full movie. (2017, February 13). Retrieved November 12,
2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=manoJxoVmN0

Images), (. G., & Images), (. A. (2017, March 04). Swansea City confirm biggest annual loss
since promotion to the Premier League. Retrieved November 10, 2017, from
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/swansea-city-confirm-biggest-annual-
12693650

(n.d.). Retrieved November 12, 2017, from

https://www.advfn.com/p.php?pid=fxcalculate&action=convert&amount=4.000%2C000&from=
GBP&to=USD&btn=Convert

The Swans, working in your Community. (n.d.). Retrieved November 9, 2017, from
http://www.swansacademy.co.uk/swans-community-trust

BID OPERATIONS; MARKETING, PROMOTIONS AND EVENTS. (n.d.). Retrieved October

9, 20, from http://www.swanseabid.co.uk/marketing-promotions-events/

Swansea City confirm biggest annual loss since promotion to the Premier League in latest
accounts. (n.d.). Retrieved October 9, 2017, from
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/swansea-city-confirm-biggest-annual-
12693650

WHO ARE THE COMMUNITY TRUST? (n.d.). Retrieved October 9, 2017, from
https://www.swanseacity.com/club/community/community-trust/who-are-community-trust

SWANS CAMPAIGN NOMINATED FOR TWO AWARDS. (n.d.). Retrieved October 09,
2017, from https://www.swanseacity.com/news/swans-campaign-nominated-two-awards

SWANS TO OPEN NEW CITY CENTRE SHOP ON SATURDAY. (n.d.). Retrieved October 9,
2017, from https://www.swanseacity.com/news/swans-open-new-city-centre-shop-saturday

Proud Sponsors of Swansea City Football Club. (n.d.). Retrieved October 10, 2017, from
http://www.swanscommercial.co.uk/sponsorship-current
OFFICIAL BEER AND CIDER PARTNER. (n.d.). Retrieved October 9, 2017, from
https://www.swanseacity.com/official-beer-and-cider-partner

JOMA, AS TECHNICAL SPONSOR OF SWANSEA CITY AFC, PRESENTS THE OFFICIAL

SHIRT FOR THE 2017/2018 SEASON. (n.d.). Retrieved October 10, 2017, from
http://www.joma-sport.com/en/news/joma-as-technical-sponsor-of-swansea-city-afc-presents-
the-official-shirt-for-the-2017-2018-season

Swansea City signs Letou as new shirt sponsor. (2017, June 20). Retrieved November 12, 2017,
from http://www.igamingbusiness.com/news/swansea-city-signs-letou-new-shirt-sponsor

Swansea unveil new kit and sponsors with Letou on front and Barracuda on sleeve. (n.d.).
Retrieved October 11, 2017, from http://www.insideworldfootball.com/2017/06/19/swansea-
unveil-new-kit-letou-front-barracuda-sleeve/