There seems to be some decisive action taken by new Swans CEO, Tom Gorringe. News which we now think puts the academy review in danger of becoming a reality with Landore potentially being sold off.
As we heard at the fans forum, which for us was not as successful as some would have you believe, there has to be even more cuts to financial outgoings. Staff within the club shop, one who has been there for twenty years have been released or made redundant in certain cases. (sources) There has been a trickle of people losing their jobs over the last few weeks but this latest news will come as a shock. Ticket office staff are leaving we are told, plus some club shop staff - and don’t let the cleaning staff get in the way, because some of them are no longer at the club.
Interestingly, whilst at Bristol Rovers, Tom decided to do a similar thing and refocused the merchandise - outsourcing it to a company called, The Terrace. Since Tom left we are told Rovers have reverted back to their original suppliers before Gorringe made the change. This now seems to be the preferred way forward. The Terrace have an online store where they offer ‘order by demand’ services. They also seem to have numerous links to Morecambe, Scunthorpe United then previously Cardiff City and Brighton. There is more. We have spoken about Bristol Rovers when Tom was there, Cardiff and Brighton were also clubs he worked for. We haven’t looked too deep yet, but we will. However this news could either be another early concern or a productive way of ‘streamlining’ the Swans business.
As any club figurehead does, Tom has had a marmite effect on some of the clubs he has been at, Bristol Rovers a prime example. Our research has taken us to ‘numerous sources’ to review the facts behind this new outsource supplier. With the ticket office change, that’s moving into the club shop, the redundancies now known, we did dig slightly deeper. This new supplier ‘The Terrace’ was our focus. The founder of The Terrace is a chap called Carl Sewell (pictured above in the headline), he is the overall owner and Director of the company. They started off as a social media platform account, but Carl has developed that into a business which now seems to have at least four shirt supply contracts. They are what Carl calls a ‘disrupter of regular clothing brands’ Sounds a good idea ? With a fairly long relationship with Tom Gorringe it now seems the Swans CEO has offered the Swansea City marketing brand to The Terrace.
Their footprint is on social media still, so the main question is ‘Will they be staffing the club shop’ ? Have the redundancies made just making way for Terrace staff ? If not what are the plans now with the ticket office being in the same domain ? The club shop is a go to for all fans at every club. When it’s open of course ! Now, we are not saying things will all be made to order, but it seems from our research that a lot will. Ordering online etc. You would expect a number of items to be made for sale of course.
That will prevent stock being stored possibly saving more money there.
That led us into branding, as we see previously The Terrace have their name or logo on the kits they have supplied over the last few years. The financial numbers for this deal will be interesting, and we will get them. They will be supplying kits in the main from the start of the 2025/26 season. At Rovers though they made the shorts with a Terrace logo on them towards the end of the season when things changed at the Memorial ground. It all sounds a bit hit and miss without other information from the club. They will be surprised to some extent that we have this news, it hasn’t been mentioned elsewhere or by the club. But that’s what we generally do, put context and good research on the information we gain.
There will be other information fans will now want. Especially as these are directly fan focussed changes that they will want to know more about. Our concern is that the Landore training facility may now also go as well. That will leave the academy to function at Fairwood as a multi use area for all age grades and the U21 squad alongside the first team. We have a report on that which will ask some hard questions later today.
This isn’t in any way having a go at anyone connected to these latest changes. But previous experience, especially since the club was sold before falling into the Championship tells us a lot of these ideas fall by the wayside. Or indeed cost excess money. Andrew Coleman, the clubs outgoing Chairman made many decisions which overall cost a fair amount to subsidise and then be corrected thereafter.
The infrastructure does need amending for sure, and maybe in time people will be buying terrace goods and cups of coffee (oops) and be very smiley people. However the fans need informing, and the trust need to be as well. They may well be informed. It may not be the right time, but there’s nothing in this report that undermines the club or you wouldn’t be reading it. Are we witnessing some more dark arts or is this an intelligent and progressive change that will have a positive effect on Swansea City ? Of course until the club actually spill the beans, we really won’t know.
Check out The Terrace —> https://theterracestore.com/