Poll - Watch Jeff Shi's interview and vote !

[wwbug]

I have watched the whole thing . I thought it was excellent.
Reading other social media I know many don't agree . But that is just soundbites .
Please watch the whole thing then vote - What do you think ?

 

[sc91]

Excellent on the business head, as a football fan though? Whats the point, you mean nothing to this club.

 

[Hoganstolemywife]

On what axis?

As a legacy fan, sligjtly irked me that I'm irrelevant.

As a Wolves devotee though, clearly we are in good (if faceless and corporate) hands

 

[Chiswick_Wolf]

Glad we have such pragmatic, sensible owners - focused on the longterm health of our club. They’re running it as a business not a toy and they’re not prepared to gamble on short term bets that placate a few thousand big mouths on social media.

 

[Slothmonkey]

As soon as Fosun came in, I have always reminded myself they are forst and foremost and investment company. They were never going to throw wads of cash about continuously. We have had two big windows since they came in, first window after Nuno to bring champ team together and then first in prem to get required players we need to compete. Now it will be about investments and making money on them what ever they will be imo

Still shocked at all the things I have seen about esports. It's a massive platform to build the clubs brand. Reason teams about us Man City, Chelsea etc can spend more money is they are a bigger brand globally

 

[wwbug]

On what axis?

As a legacy fan, sligjtly irked me that I'm irrelevant.

As a Wolves devotee though, clearly we are in good (if faceless and corporate) hands

I see it that we are not irrelevant , just not of the utmost priority.
And I think Shi explains why that is in the clubs best interest.

 

[Sussex Wolf]

On what axis?

As a legacy fan, sligjtly irked me that I'm irrelevant.

As a Wolves devotee though, clearly we are in good (if faceless and corporate) hands

Think that’s fair, at least at this stage in their stewardship of the club.

Upper PL stability is already a fantastic achievement, and doing so without risking the club’s finances, doubly so. Having spent most of my adult life with my club languishing in the leagues below, it’s something I genuinely thank Jeff and Fosun for achieving.

But we’re football fans, and first and foremost, we want to see our club do well, progress, win things and be respected and admired. The fact that Jeff sees this as secondary to the club’s business and financial success is perhaps not surprising, but is not something I’d celebrate.

 

[Wolf in Kenilworth]

If we are going big we’ll hardly boast about it, prices go up etc. so fingers crossed.

If he’s being serious I honestly think we’ll be in a relegation fight, I’m absolutely certain of it.

 

[Jd132]

I admire the honesty from Jeff. Fosun Sport are a corporate entity, likely to be floated on the squad market, in which making money and growing revenues for the diverse range of new shareholders is the primary objective. Wolves is simply one business within Fosun Sport and Jeff is across all of them.

Fosun are not intending for Wolves to be a family club for which Guo is the sugar daddy.

The requirements of FFP are perfectly aligned with the vision for the club- it is not a restriction, it's a blueprint for how to manage the business.

 

[Matt]

I have no issue with us being self sustainable. I have no issue with us not being able to compete financially with the top 6 and I think the work that’s gone into growing “the brand” is actually pretty excellent.

However, I feel he has got somewhat complacent on the most important part of the whole thing - on the pitch.

He talks about being smart with our money, but the last time we had a decent amount of money to spend (by selling Jota) he wasted it on Fabio.

We’re heading into a summer that we really need to get right. We won’t be able to fall back on players we know like Saiss, Ruddy, Marcal, possibly Moutinho and Neves so if we get this wrong we are in serious trouble. I don’t trust him to get it right, to be honest.

 

[BCWolf]

Didnt' hear or see anything that dissuades me from the feeling the club is sleepwalking its way toward relegation. Pretty much resigned to the fact they wont invest on or off the field to the degree that was promised or implied.

 

[wwbug]

Didnt' hear or see anything that dissuades me from the feeling the club is sleepwalking its way toward relegation. Pretty much resigned to the fact they wont invest on or off the field to the degree that was promised or implied.

How does a relegated club act as a beacon to run a worldwide sports brand ?
No body in Beijing or Seoul is interested in badging up with a team that plays Championship football against Hull or Barnsley.
Shi would lose his job for one.

 

[Writer Wolf]

Very good.

Fosun's strategy has the potential to make us a real powerhouse over the coming decade or so.

The reality of modern football is that if we want to be a consistent Top 8 side we need to have a corporate ethos to our identity. There are no two ways about it. The alternative is West Brom and how we were 5+ years ago.

We may tread water for a while, yo-yo'ing between 7th and 14th for a few seasons but I think in the medium to long term, we are going to be a global superpower in football, and that's very exciting. We need to keep our eyes on the long term goals here. It's not in Fosun's interests for us to be relegated.

Patience.

 

[oldgoldheart]

He seems to think we cant go down. But we can and if he isnt careful we will

 

[Oh When the Wolves]

I have no issue with us being self sustainable. I have no issue with us not being able to compete financially with the top 6 and I think the work that’s gone into growing “the brand” is actually pretty excellent.

However, I feel he has got somewhat complacent on the most important part of the whole thing - on the pitch.

He talks about being smart with our money, but the last time we had a decent amount of money to spend (by selling Jota) he wasted it on Fabio.

We’re heading into a summer that we really need to get right. We won’t be able to fall back on players we know like Saiss, Ruddy, Marcal, possibly Moutinho and Neves so if we get this wrong we are in serious trouble. I don’t trust him to get it right, to be honest.

Sums it up.

 

[Wolf316]

Very good.

Fosun's strategy has the potential to make us a real powerhouse over the coming decade or so.

The reality of modern football is that if we want to be a consistent Top 8 side we need to have a corporate ethos to our identity. There are no two ways about it. The alternative is West Brom and how we were 5+ years ago.

We may tread water for a while, yo-yo'ing between 7th and 14th for a few seasons but I think in the medium to long term, we are going to be a global superpower in football, and that's very exciting. We need to keep our eyes on the long term goals here. It's not in Fosun's interests for us to be relegated.

Patience.

 

[SingYourHeartsOut]

How does a relegated club act as a beacon to run a worldwide sports brand ?
No body in Beijing or Seoul is interested in badging up with a team that plays Championship football against Hull or Barnsley.
Shi would lose his job for one.

Yes, this is the most positive I can be. Fosun can't allow us to fail, they might not spend enough for us to get where we want, but relegation is unthinkable, they'll do enough to avoid this (please God).

 

[WeAreTheWolvesII]

How does a relegated club act as a beacon to run a worldwide sports brand ?
No body in Beijing or Seoul is interested in badging up with a team that plays Championship football against Hull or Barnsley.
Shi would lose his job for one.

Russell Jones said there are people in China who don't know we have a football team because the esports is doing so well.

 

[JOSWolf]

Russell Jones said there are people in China who don't know we have a football team because the esports is doing so well.

Sums it all up really.

 

[sc91]

Russell Jones said there are people in China who don't know we have a football team because the esports is doing so well.

Is it?

Esports is such an issue.

 

[drewsie]

Very good.

Fosun's strategy has the potential to make us a real powerhouse over the coming decade or so.

The reality of modern football is that if we want to be a consistent Top 8 side we need to have a corporate ethos to our identity. There are no two ways about it. The alternative is West Brom and how we were 5+ years ago.

We may tread water for a while, yo-yo'ing between 7th and 14th for a few seasons but I think in the medium to long term, we are going to be a global superpower in football, and that's very exciting. We need to keep our eyes on the long term goals here. It's not in Fosun's interests for us to be relegated.

Patience.

This is how I see it. If they’re going to build this slowly, then so be it.

I’ve followed Wolves for over 40 years and This is better than rotting in the Championship.

Unfortunately though, the ‘I want it now brigade’ will use it as a stick to beat them with because we’re not competing with Man City yet.

Wake up!

 

[wwbug]

Russell Jones said there are people in China who don't know we have a football team because the esports is doing so well.

I am not sure how esports works but Is that because you could be an esports tennis player or rally driver ? But the ones playing esports football will have more interest .

 

[WeAreTheWolvesII]

I am not sure how esports works but Is that because you could be an esports tennis player or rally driver ? But the ones playing esports football will have more interest .

I don't know about esports well enough either.

But the point was you were saying they need us to be playing in the Premier League to get recognition in China.

I'm not sure that's the case if the esports over there is as big as they claim.

 

[BlahBlah]

On what axis?

As a legacy fan, sligjtly irked me that I'm irrelevant.

As a Wolves devotee though, clearly we are in good (if faceless and corporate) hands

We're all more irrelevant the bigger the club gets...but the fact that we can describe ourselves as "legacy fans" shows we're able to move with the times and are not ready for the knackers yard yet
I don't think the faceless and corporate bit is completely true.....it is just a much wider view of trying to create loyalty from people who know nothing about us and owe us no emotional connection. The difference is that in Wolverhampton the club already has a massive headstart because most fans are already pledged, it's not the same elsewhere in the world where they have a different history and Fosun need to invest heavily to divert some of that attention our way.

JS: It’s about brand. Wolves can be a clan, a clan means only for local fanbase, but we will always be smaller compared with some big global clubs, but if we think of us as a brand, you have to draw the brand with a good picture. First of all, you have to inject some elements into the brand. What is the brand? So Wolves, what does Wolves mean? It means the city, it means the local 200,000 people or it means something all the people from different countries can like, they can love, they can like to have. But the cultural difference from different countries, some new fans they like something and some old fans they like something else, so you have to find some mutual points to meet their expectations, so it means you have to embrace something new like esports, to embrace the younger fans, and from esports you can have more engagement online with the fanbase, much, much more than what we can engage with the fans in football, so then with engagement, you can talk with the fans, you can communicate with the fans, you can have the fans feel more belonged to us. Then, even for football itself and the older fans here or the new fans from China, from America, from Africa, their appetites are not the same, so you have to find a way, so some players from South Korea, some players from America, and I think they have their local heroes. I think it’s very hard to convince a Chinese fan to support Wolves without any element from Asia, from China, so you need to have some emotional attachment included in the club. So if you consider all of this, you have to have some piece here, some piece there, to build brand awareness, then it’s also very recognisable to everything. It’s not only about the history of Wolves, we were built in 1877, it’s not enough, it’s good to have, but it’s not enough. So what we’re doing is trying to put more elements into the brand, then make it a more universal, global brand with more general brand attraction for everyone around the world, that’s what we’re doing.

 

[Deleted member drgr12429]

It sounds good to me. He and Fosun have a long term strategy for the club.
He says that we can't stay only as a club to move forward. Think club as in Walsall. We have to be corporate to be able to move forward.
This means more people interested in the brand (Wolves) which then brings investment (sponsors or investors) in as there are millions of "fans" who will be looking, and buying, their product (whatever that would be). FFP is based on the revenue you are able to generate. More people to buy your product, the more you can spend on the team.
It's a business 101, and Fosun are very smart business people.
Like he said, there might be some times they don't get it perfect, but in general they will.
People saying Fosun out really don't understand how we have to operate. You are not getting a small city club to be able to compete heads up with any of the top 6 with how the FFP rules are structured. You have to grow the club "fan" base outside of Wolverhampton to compete with the top 6.. Again, it's business 101. Everything he said on that video makes sense financially, including the part about protecting the all the Wolves staff.

 

[Stoichkov]

Good

Club aiming to be sustainable but innovative to challenge the clubs who seem to have no limits

Well done wolves

PS Jeff get some PR advice

 

[Deleted member drgr12429]

We're all more irrelevant the bigger the club gets...but the fact that we can describe ourselves as "legacy fans" shows we're able to move with the times and are not ready for the knackers yard yet
I don't think the faceless and corporate bit is completely true.....it is just a much wider view of trying to create loyalty from people who know nothing about us and owe us no emotional connection. The difference is that in Wolverhampton the club already has a massive headstart because most fans are already pledged, it's not the same elsewhere in the world where they have a different history and Fosun need to invest heavily to divert some of that attention our way.

JS: It’s about brand. Wolves can be a clan, a clan means only for local fanbase, but we will always be smaller compared with some big global clubs, but if we think of us as a brand, you have to draw the brand with a good picture. First of all, you have to inject some elements into the brand. What is the brand? So Wolves, what does Wolves mean? It means the city, it means the local 200,000 people or it means something all the people from different countries can like, they can love, they can like to have. But the cultural difference from different countries, some new fans they like something and some old fans they like something else, so you have to find some mutual points to meet their expectations, so it means you have to embrace something new like esports, to embrace the younger fans, and from esports you can have more engagement online with the fanbase, much, much more than what we can engage with the fans in football, so then with engagement, you can talk with the fans, you can communicate with the fans, you can have the fans feel more belonged to us. Then, even for football itself and the older fans here or the new fans from China, from America, from Africa, their appetites are not the same, so you have to find a way, so some players from South Korea, some players from America, and I think they have their local heroes. I think it’s very hard to convince a Chinese fan to support Wolves without any element from Asia, from China, so you need to have some emotional attachment included in the club. So if you consider all of this, you have to have some piece here, some piece there, to build brand awareness, then it’s also very recognisable to everything. It’s not only about the history of Wolves, we were built in 1877, it’s not enough, it’s good to have, but it’s not enough. So what we’re doing is trying to put more elements into the brand, then make it a more universal, global brand with more general brand attraction for everyone around the world, that’s what we’re doing.

Yep. Bottom line is revenue generation. The more people you can get buying a Wolves product the more you can spend under FFP rules.

The loyal Wolves fans in Wolverhampton and the surrounding area can only spend so much on products. That would be the ceiling of our revenue generation if you stay just a club. What Jeff Shi is talking about is growing the Wolves club into a brand, which then makes it corporate. Then as you grow the "fan" base, you grow the potential to take 200k people who spend on Wolves products to millions who do. It doesn't mean millions will go to the matches, but millions will buy E sports virtual kits, Wolves fashion items etc..
At that point investors and sponsors look at the brand and see it as a useful investment, which all ultimately brings funds into the primary part of Fosun Sports. WWFC.

What is clear he isn't saying is that the loyal Wolves fans are not wanted or thought of as any less. It's that JUST Wolves fans from the surrounding area only will not generate enough revenue to grow beyond being just a club. And as far as i can see from here, and SM, is that Wolves fans want to get into the top 6. So Fosun's long term strategy to get that is very smart indeed.

 

[BlahBlah]

What is clear he isn't saying is the the loyal Wolves fans are not wanted or thought of as any less. It's that JUST Wolves fans from the surrounding area only will not generate enough revenue to grow beyond being just a club. And as far as i can see from here, and SM, is that Wolves fans want to get into the top 6. So Fosun's long term strategy to get that is very smart indeed.

Yeah, that's another point. The quality of team we want cannot be provided by the revenue collected from existing supporters. So the existing supporters should see the expansion of the club as subsidising them to watch a better team than they could fund themselves....and they can watch it in real life virtually outside their front doors when everybody else has to watch on TV !

 

[Deleted member drgr12429]

Yeah, that's another point. The quality of team we want cannot be provided by the revenue collected from existing supporters. So the existing supporters should see the expansion of the club as subsidising them to watch a better team than they could fund themselves....and they can watch it in real life virtually outside their front doors when everybody else has to watch on TV !

Someone gets it! 10 out of 10 to this man.

 

[Deleted member drgr12429]

Good

Club aiming to be sustainable but innovative to challenge the clubs who seem to have no limits

Well done wolves

PS Jeff get some PR advice

I think although he speaks English fine, he can't quite speak it perfectly, so sometimes what he says doesn't translate as concisely as someone who is English.

 

[Blackpool Wolf]

I simply don’t get that he offended the local support - he simply said that we need to grow all over the place in order to be in a position to change status quo of top 6 - us locals will ultimately be the beneficiaries .

 

[Mile End Wanderer]

He wants us to be corporate super power rather than being a top football club truly embarrassing to supporters and season ticket holders of Wolverhampton Wanderers. We will spend pittance once more

 

[JayStringer]

I think people are putting a lot into the term 'corporate' and nothing into the context in which he said it. He's clearly saying that Wolves needs to be run as a business, not as a football club. And we already knew that. No drama here.

Did he offend local fans? I honestly don't see how, unless someone is looking for things to be offended at. He said Wolves can't rely on only having a local fanbase. We need to brow a global audience. Again, nothing we didn't already know and common sense if we want our club to compete with the big clubs.

 

[Wolf316]

I think people are putting a lot into the term 'corporate' and nothing into the context in which he said it. He's clearly saying that Wolves needs to be run as a business, not as a football club. And we already knew that. No drama here.

Did he offend local fans? I honestly don't see how, unless someone is looking for things to be offended at. He said Wolves can't rely on only having a local fanbase. We need to brow a global audience. Again, nothing we didn't already know and common sense if we want our club to compete with the big clubs.

We aren’t going to get a global audience sitting mid table in the premier league play dull turgid football.

 

[Oh When the Wolves]

What is an e sports fan anyway?

How does it generate cash for the club if someone chooses a character online wearing a wolves top?

And how much cash does it generate?

 

[Big Saft Kid]

We're all more irrelevant the bigger the club gets...but the fact that we can describe ourselves as "legacy fans" shows we're able to move with the times and are not ready for the knackers yard yet
I don't think the faceless and corporate bit is completely true.....it is just a much wider view of trying to create loyalty from people who know nothing about us and owe us no emotional connection. The difference is that in Wolverhampton the club already has a massive headstart because most fans are already pledged, it's not the same elsewhere in the world where they have a different history and Fosun need to invest heavily to divert some of that attention our way.

JS: It’s about brand. Wolves can be a clan, a clan means only for local fanbase, but we will always be smaller compared with some big global clubs, but if we think of us as a brand, you have to draw the brand with a good picture. First of all, you have to inject some elements into the brand. What is the brand? So Wolves, what does Wolves mean? It means the city, it means the local 200,000 people or it means something all the people from different countries can like, they can love, they can like to have. But the cultural difference from different countries, some new fans they like something and some old fans they like something else, so you have to find some mutual points to meet their expectations, so it means you have to embrace something new like esports, to embrace the younger fans, and from esports you can have more engagement online with the fanbase, much, much more than what we can engage with the fans in football, so then with engagement, you can talk with the fans, you can communicate with the fans, you can have the fans feel more belonged to us. Then, even for football itself and the older fans here or the new fans from China, from America, from Africa, their appetites are not the same, so you have to find a way, so some players from South Korea, some players from America, and I think they have their local heroes. I think it’s very hard to convince a Chinese fan to support Wolves without any element from Asia, from China, so you need to have some emotional attachment included in the club. So if you consider all of this, you have to have some piece here, some piece there, to build brand awareness, then it’s also very recognisable to everything. It’s not only about the history of Wolves, we were built in 1877, it’s not enough, it’s good to have, but it’s not enough. So what we’re doing is trying to put more elements into the brand, then make it a more universal, global brand with more general brand attraction for everyone around the world, that’s what we’re doing.

He has said it clearly there -- that players from different regions = brand recognition, which is what FOSUN want. And he specifically mentions South Korea, among other places. That is why as I have said on here all along, we signed Hwang and are seeing so much of him on the pitch. The usual know-alls told me I was an idiot and did I not realise that S Korea was a separate country from China?! FFS. It's not me who is an idiot. Smell the coffee. Expect a lot more left field decisions on recruitment. Do we have a potential fan base in, say, Samoa?

 

[Mugwump]

On what axis?

As a legacy fan, sligjtly irked me that I'm irrelevant.

As a Wolves devotee though, clearly we are in good (if faceless and corporate) hands

He makes some excellent points about how we need to expand and improve our revenue, but at the same time, he's showing very little interest in Wolverhampton Wanderers. All his positive points are about the Wolves " Brand ". He's clearly not bothered about our fans who follow the football team, we are small time to him. He thinks esports and social media followers are the future of this club. I've got a real worry there will be a backlash against this kind of approach in the future.

 

[Flea]

What is an e sports fan anyway?

How does it generate cash for the club if someone chooses a character online wearing a wolves top?

And how much cash does it generate?

I like to know the answers to these questions as well.
I simply do not believe this thingy called "E sports" will generate any significant income to speak of.
How could it?
Kids playing kinda SuperMario?

How the fudge is this supposed to generate significant income to the club?

The whole idea feels taken right out of bizarro world if you ask me.

 

[DanishWolf]

How does a relegated club act as a beacon to run a worldwide sports brand ?
No body in Beijing or Seoul is interested in badging up with a team that plays Championship football against Hull or Barnsley.
Shi would lose his job for one.

Not so sure...
If the club targets fans, primarily into e-sport and other ventures then it doesnt matter a lot.
Also, I doubt our fairly mediocre past 2 seasons have gained us an awful lot of new fans globally, apart from those who follow us for a while, due to us signing players from their country.

 

[Hoganstolemywife]

He makes some excellent points about how we need to expend and improve our revenue, but at the same time, he's showing very little interest in Wolverhampton Wanderers. All his positive points are about the Wolves " Brand ". He's clearly not bothered about our fans who follow the football team, we are small time to him. He thinks esports and social media followers are the future of this club. I've got a real worry there will be a backlash against this kind of approach in the future.

Well said