General Wolves News

[WolfMan]

Another eSports acquisition by Fosun. They're really pushing the wolves name, which suggests Fosun aren't going anywhere soon

Wolves Esports enter King Pro League following takeover

Wolves have become the first football club to enter the King Pro League esports tournament in Asia, after Fosun Sports announced the acquisition of cham...

www.wolves.co.uk

If this whole E sports thing ever ends up making significant money, will it actually be able to be spent by the football club? It's not money generated by Wolves the football club is it? The same way Fosun can't spend all the money they make in all their other businesses like insurance etc due to FFP.

 

[Tony Towner]

If this whole E sports thing ever ends up making significant money, will it actually be able to be spent by the football club? It's not money generated by Wolves the football club is it? The same way Fosun can't spend all the money they make in all their other businesses like insurance etc due to FFP.

Not directly as it's not Wolverhampton Wanderers who are buying them. The associated benefit would be what they believe can be monetised. Essentially the brand awareness leads to more fans and more commercial and advertising revenue because the people that are into Esports - and it is massive and continuing to grow would become fans of the Wolves Brand and by association the football club

I don't buy it personally, but would imagine it's what they'd say

 

[Johnny75]

If this whole E sports thing ever ends up making significant money, will it actually be able to be spent by the football club? It's not money generated by Wolves the football club is it? The same way Fosun can't spend all the money they make in all their other businesses like insurance etc due to FFP.

They’re using the Wolves brand for their Esports teams.

Something I’m uncomfortable with as it’s no benefit to the club only Fosun. They must like the brand and realise Fosun as a brand has no standing in the entertainment industry.

It would dilute Fosun’s reputation in their other markets by being involved in a childlike industry (even though it is big).

 

[WolfMan]

So basically long term we could end up with a situation whereby the Wolves brand is recognised globally for stuff that doesn't have anything to do with football, these things could far surpass the actual football club, and there is no direct financial benefit to the football club. Great

 

[Johnny75]

So basically long term we could end up with a situation whereby the Wolves brand is recognised globally for stuff that doesn't have anything to do with football, these things could far surpass the actual football club, and there is no direct financial benefit to the football club. Great

That’s exactly what is happening.

 

[WolfMan]

That’s exactly what is happening.

One thing that is interesting with that being the case is that the longer it goes on and the more they grow the Wolves "brand", how would they ever sell the football club? I don't know how these things work, does Wolves the football club own the brand, or is it Fosun now?

I can't imagine a scenario where they'd sell the football club Wolves including the brand to someone else who can then do what they want with it. Would they be allowed to change Wolves the football clubs name before selling it and then just keep the Wolves brand themselves?

Sure I've seen some proposals whereby legislation will be introduced requiring any Football club wanting to change their name would have to put it to a fan vote. I can't see them ever selling us if they start making serious money out of the brand to be honest.

 

[Tony Towner]

One thing that is interesting with that being the case is that the longer it goes on and the more they grow the Wolves "brand", how would they ever sell the football club? I don't know how these things work, does Wolves the football club own the brand, or is it Fosun now?

I can't imagine a scenario where they'd sell the football club Wolves including the brand to someone else who can then do what they want with it. Would they be allowed to change Wolves the football clubs name before selling it and then just keep the Wolves brand themselves?

Sure I've seen some proposals whereby legislation will be introduced requiring any Football club wanting to change their name would have to put it to a fan vote. I can't see them ever selling us if they start making serious money out of the brand to be honest.

I don't think the Wolves name exists in an ip sense, we don't own the rights to the word, although the logo is protected I think. We tried to sue Warrington RL team over that once and lost (might have just been a solicitor letter). The speedway team are Wolverhampton Wolves still

 

[AndyWolves]

One thing that is interesting with that being the case is that the longer it goes on and the more they grow the Wolves "brand", how would they ever sell the football club? I don't know how these things work, does Wolves the football club own the brand, or is it Fosun now?

I can't imagine a scenario where they'd sell the football club Wolves including the brand to someone else who can then do what they want with it. Would they be allowed to change Wolves the football clubs name before selling it and then just keep the Wolves brand themselves?

Sure I've seen some proposals whereby legislation will be introduced requiring any Football club wanting to change their name would have to put it to a fan vote. I can't see them ever selling us if they start making serious money out of the brand to be honest.

I've wondered similar things, do these eSports teams pay Wolverhampton Wanderers a licensing fee to use the brand or is the brand now Fosuns do with as they please?

I'd love to understand more about how this all works.

 

[jlo]

The brand is useless if the club is unsuccessful so of course increasing the brand profile is a good thing. Higher commercial sales as well (shirts rather than match tickets) and longer term an increased brand reputation makes the club more attractive as well. I don't understand why others have an issue with our brand growing. It's a win win for both Fosun and the club.

 

[WolfMan]

The brand is useless if the club is unsuccessful so of course increasing the brand profile is a good thing. Higher commercial sales as well (shirts rather than match tickets) and longer term an increased brand reputation makes the club more attractive as well. I don't understand why others have an issue with our brand growing. It's a win win for both Fosun and the club.

I've got no problem with that per se, I'm just imaging a long term future where Fosun have used the Wolves Brand for all sorts of shit that's got nothing to do with football.

You could have condoms, diarrhea medicine, beer, anything you can imagine with the Wolves logo on it, and it doesn't benefit the football club directly. I don't feel comfortable with that to be honest.

 

[Tony Towner]

The brand is useless if the club is unsuccessful so of course increasing the brand profile is a good thing. Higher commercial sales as well (shirts rather than match tickets) and longer term an increased brand reputation makes the club more attractive as well. I don't understand why others have an issue with our brand growing. It's a win win for both Fosun and the club.

For 2 reasons. Firstly the brand now appears more important than the team, that's the way it came across in the Johnny Phillips interview and secondly because others me included aren't convinced the associated benefits exist in any significant sense

 

[AndyWolves]

I've got no problem with that per se, I'm just imaging a long term future where Fosun have used the Wolves Brand for all sorts of shit that's got nothing to do with football.

You could have condoms, diarrhea medicine, beer, anything you can imagine with the Wolves logo on it, and it doesn't benefit the football club directly. I don't feel comfortable with that to be honest.

They could do all that without the wolves brand though? If that's the end game why even buy wolves in the first place? It seems very unnecessary

 

[Johnny75]

The brand is useless if the club is unsuccessful so of course increasing the brand profile is a good thing. Higher commercial sales as well (shirts rather than match tickets) and longer term an increased brand reputation makes the club more attractive as well. I don't understand why others have an issue with our brand growing. It's a win win for both Fosun and the club.

The brand and the success of the club have no correlation in Fosun eyes.

The brand in China is clearly far more important than a relatively unknown foreign football team.

I'm sure the Wolf head logo has a worldwide trademark but Wolves the name can't for obvious reasons.

i wouldn't be surprised if we have the colours tied to the trademark as well.

 

[Johnny75]

I've got no problem with that per se, I'm just imaging a long term future where Fosun have used the Wolves Brand for all sorts of shit that's got nothing to do with football.

You could have condoms, diarrhea medicine, beer, anything you can imagine with the Wolves logo on it, and it doesn't benefit the football club directly. I don't feel comfortable with that to be honest.

Fosun have different brands to do the things you've suggested already.

I'm not sure why they didn't buy an athletic clothing brand as well as Wolves as that would kill two birds.

 

[Johnny75]

For 2 reasons. Firstly the brand now appears more important than the team, that's the way it came across in the Johnny Phillips interview and secondly because others me included aren't convinced the associated benefits exist in any significant sense

And the latest announcement lays that bare by unashamedly using the Wolves brand but Fosun Sports owning this new eSports team.

 

[AndyWolves]

The brand is useless if the club is unsuccessful so of course increasing the brand profile is a good thing. Higher commercial sales as well (shirts rather than match tickets) and longer term an increased brand reputation makes the club more attractive as well. I don't understand why others have an issue with our brand growing. It's a win win for both Fosun and the club.

I think it's more than shirt sales, it's about sponsorship and exposure to markets. When brands are looking to increase presence then wolves can offer, hopefully, more than our competitors. We're an average PL club, but also have presence in eSports which gives us a presence in North America, China etc. Raul gives is presence in Mexico and so on.

I think the idea is that all of this will, in turn, increase the revenue we get from brands advertising with us.

This approach I would imagine has a much greater ROI than say rebuilding the stadium.

I also think that all the initiatives linked together with player trading, higher ticket prices etc increases our income which should, theoretically, enable us to become more competitive without Fosun chucking cash at us.

 

[WolfMan]

They could do all that without the wolves brand though? If that's the end game why even buy wolves in the first place? It seems very unnecessary

 

[Deano]

I think it's more than shirt sales, it's about sponsorship and exposure to markets. When brands are looking to increase presence then wolves can offer, hopefully, more than our competitors. We're an average PL club, but also have presence in eSports which gives us a presence in North America, China etc. Raul gives is presence in Mexico and so on.

I think the idea is that all of this will, in turn, increase the revenue we get from brands advertising with us.

This approach I would imagine has a much greater ROI than say rebuilding the stadium.

I also think that all the initiatives linked together with player trading, higher ticket prices etc increases our income which should, theoretically, enable us to become more competitive without Fosun chucking cash at us.

All nice in theory..never been done in practice to the extent of challenging for the top 6. Challenging for the top 6 takes big year on year investment, if Fosun don't want to do that then we will never challenge it is that simple.

As I've said many times brand value of a football club has a direct correlation to on pitch success. Without it the the rest is all bollocks.

 

[Johnny75]

All nice in theory..never been done in practice.

As I've said many times brand value of a football club has a direct correlation to on pitch success. Without it the the rest is all bollocks.

If Fosun use the wolves branding for a successful eSports team in their homeland then it won't matter how the football club do.

I think Fosun are trying to repurpose our brand and I don't like it.

 

[AndyWolves]

All nice in theory..never been done in practice to the extent of challenging for the top 6. Challenging for the top 6 takes big year on year investment, if Fosun don't want to do that then we will never challenge it is that simple.

As I've said many times brand value of a football club has a direct correlation to on pitch success. Without it the the rest is all bollocks.

That's the rub isn't it, the wolves brand looks like it's going to be bigger / broader than the football club.

If this model means we become established as a PL team I'll take that for now.