Throughout the week, Ask Wolves has posed supporter questions to the club’s senior management team, and as executive chairman Jeff Shi will handle episode four alone, Sunday’s show is the final opportunity to hear Matt Wild, Scott Sellars, Russell Jones and Vinny Clark cover a fresh set of relevant topics.
Once again, the show can be accessed across the across the club’s social media channels, Wolves TV and wolves.co.uk, as Sky Sports reporter and Wolves fan Johnny Phillips heads the table and provides a series of insightful questions.
The topic of expanding the club’s brand and interest beyond football was hotly discussed, particularly by Jones, who spoke of the benefit of more strings to the Wolves bow, such as esports, fashion and motor racing, when it comes to commercial deals.
He said: “We know we are in a competitive peer group, so when we go to market for partnerships, we’re going to be talking to the same types of companies as Everton and West Ham for example. So, what we don’t want to have is the same proposition as them, which is the amazing Premier League, the world’s most-watched league, a product on the pitch which is pushing for European football.
“It’s similar in a lot of ways to that peer group. So, from our perspective, to be able to tell different stories, that when you partner with Wolves, you can actually now partner with a motor racing team, you can partner with esports for example, it’s a really exciting proposition and it’s very different to every other football club.”
By exploring fresh avenues, Shi believes Wolves are appealing to a wider fanbase, particularly overseas, which he expects will help finances in the future and allow the club to grow further.
He said: “You have to get attention from the world. Revenue and profit will come after that, but to do something important you have to make the people around the world know you. Premier League football is not enough; you have to promote Wolves as a brand, so people have many other chances to hear about you. If they start to know you, then you have a chance to get more revenue and a bigger fanbase.
“Now we’re at the first stage: we’re trying to get awareness from around the world. I think it’s night and day compared with five years ago. Five years ago, in China, there were maybe 100 fans. In my view, it’s very important to find a way to let the people around the world know you – not only football fans. That is our job.”
Another well-discussed topic was the partnership of Castore and the new kits ahead of the 2021/21 season, which gave Clark an opportunity to highlight a major positive Wolves supporters can enjoy when the new strips are released.
Clark said: “When we talk about fairness and being reasonable to supporters, kit is something we can be under where our peers are because of this new deal that we’ve done. Next year you’ll see kits in the Premier League around £70, but we are still going to be £55 for our replica jerseys, so it’s a great deal.
“I know fans get frustrated that we have the same gear as many other teams do. Everything that we’re going to wear next year is completely exclusive to Wolves and there’s nobody in the world that’s going to be wearing the same stuff, so it’s a massive deal for us for many reasons – the commercial benefits and the fan benefits are going to be there for all to see.”
Supporters can find the 34-minute video on Wolves TV and YouTube at now, while an audio version will be released in the form of a podcast.
Wolves’ official Twitter and Facebook pages are providing shorter highlights, while full transcripts of every single question posed to Shi and the general managers from supporters can be found at wolves.co.uk.
