' Huw Jenkins remains Chairman as Swansea reveal '

Huw Jenkins will remain Swansea City chairman as club reveal stadium expansion now on hold


Wales Online

Friday 6th July 2018

Huw Jenkins will remain as Swansea City chairman despite calls from the Supporters' Trust for him to quit.

Jenkins had said at Christmas he would consider his future if Swansea were relegated , stating it would make his position “untenable” if the club continued to struggle.

Following Swansea's fall into the Championship, the Supporters' Trust publicly reiterated calls for him to go , while fans also voiced their anger at the final match of the season at the Liberty Stadium.

But now chief operating officer Chris Pearlman has confirmed Jenkins will remain in situ.

Jenkins has overseen the process of hiring manager Graham Potter and his backroom staff, and will remain involved in player recruitment, an area for which he has received particular criticism after a number of costly transfer flops.

However, Pearlman made clear that Potter and head of recruitment Macaulay would have the final say on incoming players, with the club hierarchy then dealing with the financial framework of deals.

“Huw played an important part in bringing Graham, Kyle and the staff in and he has helped put the architecture together for how we move forward,” said Pearlman.

“Majority shareholders Jason (Levien) and Steve (Kaplan) like Huw a lot and I am sure they have said before that the way he ran the club was a big factor in them wanting to be involved in Swansea.

“They still have a lot of faith in him, and him helping shape how the club looks moving forward.


“In terms of recruitment he has helped Jason and Steve put that structure in place that has Graham and Kyle at the forefront and leading it.”

Pearlman also revealed the Swans will continue to work towards expansion of the Liberty Stadium, but such a move will not take place with the club outside the Premier League.

Proposed expansion of the stadium had long been on Swansea’s agenda, and they utilised the services of a consultancy firm to assess their options after completing a lease deal to take over operational control of the 20,000 capacity venue .

However, those plans have been complicated by the club’s relegation from the Premier League, which will see attendances drop.

Pearlman - speaking following a fans’ forum at the Liberty Stadium on Thursday night - outlined that the consultancy company had advised that adding 3,000 seats could be done in a cost-effective manner but that was based on them continuing to be in the Premier League.

And, having previously stated a cautious approach would be taken over expansion were relegation to happen, Pearlman has stated expansion will not happen in the second-tier, although the club will continue to look to lay the groundwork for such a move.

“What we are looking to do is to move forward with as much of the work as we can without putting us behind the eight-ball if and when we are ready to move forward,” he said.

“The good news is we can likely do a reasonable size expansion for not a lot of money, but there is a lot of work that needs to be done before you push play.

“But we will not be doing an expansion while we are in the Championship.”

Pearlman - tasked with overseeing a growth in the club’s commercial operation following his appointment in October 2016 - admits it has been a challenging summer given the considerable financial impact of relegation, with Swansea looking at total revenues from prize money and broadcast rights falling by approximately £40million, even with parachute payments.

And, while not shying away from the impact demotion to the Championship has had, he sees reasons to be positive

“In some ways it has been challenging, in other ways it has been rewarding and fulfilling,” he said.

“I cannot stand here and say we are going to have the revenues this year that we would otherwise have had, but I have been heartened by the support we have had from certain sponsors.

“The front-of-shirt deal is a very healthy deal based on our situation, we have a deal for sponsorship of the South Stand with Energy Check which is not insignificant.

“There have been a few others deals announced, and there are a few more to come in the future.

LCV's Rod Lloyd with Swansea City's Chris Pearlman (Image: Adrian White)
"How we have done so far has exceeded some expectations we had.

“The silver lining is it allows us to do more in some areas. We can reconnect with the community.

"We had a situation where people who wanted to come to games could not.

“The bad news is we are not going to sell out every game, the good news is if people want to come to a game they can and hopefully we can attract new supporters.

“We also have the development of the streaming of the matches which will be big digitally, we are investing in an upgraded production beyond what many Championship clubs will be doing.

“We would not have been able to do that in the Premier League, so there are some additional freedoms.

“I am not going to stand here and tell you I would not prefer to be in the Premier League, but I can feel a more positive outlook at the club, among the fans and in the city and we want to build on that.”

You couldn't make it up if you tried Jenkins (along with the yanks) will bleed the tramps dry in a couple of years and good enough for them. Brilliant comment from the gypos mind......"we wont be selling out every game" they wont sell out for ANY game this season, the club that keeps on giving.

Tramps

hahahahahah

Tramps lol love it

They will go down again before they ever go up

They had 7 years of premiership football but all those in charge just lined their pockets.
Hopefully relegation to league 1 next then back to the vetch field, that will be big enough for them!

Rinsed out by their own, does it get any worse? Heard Jenkins has raked in over 20 million from his very small initial investment, 200k was it? Clever king eh

I'm not one for being smug but on this occasion I feel it's fully justified after several years of them lording it over us.

Remember them shouting to the world about how they were the model club

Remember them shouting about being a global brand.

Remember them shouting that we'd sold our souls.

Remember them mocking our owner.

And to now:

Us: back in blue over 70million of debt wiped, promoted to the premiership, a great manager, a stable well run club.

Them: owners taking what they can, no investment, relegated, top players deserting a sinking ship, no players as yet to come in, the very people ruining the club at the top remain in charge and they sit by and let it happen......now that's selling your soul.

Swansea City. If Heineken made karma.......

Spew just cannot let go of the gravy train he's on!

Swansea City. If Heineken made karma.......

Hahahaha defo this

The only thing missing from this post to make it a classic, would be the freak show roathie posting to defend jenkins and the yanks.

We love Agent Huw and the Yanks we duz. Go White Sox go !!!!!

This day just can't get much better. VT converts debt to equity, several players sign new deals and Huw the Spew gets to stay to continue his good work with the gypos

Swansea City. If Heineken made karma.......

Hahahaha defo this

The gypos think bad karma is a dodgy mild coconut curry.

The only thing missing from this post to make it a classic, would be the freak show roathie posting to defend jenkins and the yanks.

Roathie - The Wolf Of Wind Street.

Pahahahahaha

The revised plans to integrate Swansea's leisure centre and tidal lagoon have just been revealed. I hope it's syringe needle proof:

bestway-play-_-grow-pool-centre.jpg

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Expansion?

Dismantling would be a better word!

They will be lucky to average 13k next season the year after that 10k would be optimistic back to being the small club they are.

Expansion?

Dismantling would be a better word!

They say 3k expansion but struggle to see how it's going to be done without closing a stand for part of a season! And is it viable financially 3k is not a lot of extraincome if spending millions on stand.

They will be lucky to average 13k next season the year after that 10k would be optimistic back to being the small club they are.

whether they will actually have these people attending only time will tell but apparently they have sold 15k STs mostly prior to getting relegated..i think the following season will be the big drop off not the season starting in august.

They will be lucky to average 13k next season the year after that 10k would be optimistic back to being the small club they are.

whether they will actually have these people attending only time will tell but apparently they have sold 15k STs mostly prior to getting relegated..i think the following season will be the big drop off not the season starting in august.

They would be well advised to sell as many as they can before their next relegation.

They will be lucky to average 13k next season the year after that 10k would be optimistic back to being the small club they are.

whether they will actually have these people attending only time will tell but apparently they have sold 15k STs mostly prior to getting relegated..i think the following season will be the big drop off not the season starting in august.

They would be well advised to sell as many as they can before their next relegation.

it only works if demand outstrips availability which it has done with them since promotion.
unlikely that will be the case in the foresseable future though