Gillingham chairman Brad Galinson revealed that they were approached about being the focus of a TV series
Published: 05:00, 05 June 2023
Updated: 09:24, 05 June 2023
Gillingham declined an offer of taking part in a fly-on-the-wall documentary after TV producers took an interest in the Galinson takeover.
The Gills were cut adrift at the bottom of League 2 when Brad and Shannon Galinson invested in the club - and the new owners admitted they had no time for cameras.
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Mr Galinson said: “When we first got here we did get some calls and enquiries about that.
“We thought that we really wanted to focus on the football club, not on making movies, documentaries. And so we actually sort of politely said, ‘you know, the focus has to be on the team, it's not a production.’
“Those things are kind of fun when you watch them, but they take a lot of resources. They want you to re-say something, you will need a script, so we just thought there's too much to do.
“We were too busy, and at a time we were just trying to stay in the Football League and the last thing we needed was a camera crew saying, ‘don’t say it like that, we need an angle here’. We were too busy.”
Gillingham’s new League 2 rivals Wrexham have enjoyed plenty of attention since their own takeover by Hollywood pair Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenny. That led to the ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ documentary.
Mr Galinson didn’t need TV cameras at Priestfield. He felt he had already walked into Hollywood when he took an early trip to the Chatham Dockyard shortly after his arrival.
He said: “The first day I was here we were on a tour of the rope factory and there's all these cranes and cameras. Tom Cruise was literally right there filming Mission: Impossible! That was actually pretty cool to see.”
Without their own distractions, the Gills enjoyed a rapid turnaround in the 2022/23 season to comfortably finish above the League 2 drop zone.
Mr Galinson said: “When we first got here the staff was, and still is, spectacular. It was really easy. It just needed a little bit of TLC, a little bit of capital. Not much, though, to let everyone do their thing, and they were experts at it.
“It wasn't as hard as it seems with who we had and then we got Andy (Hessenthaler) and Kenny (Jackett) who helped in January. So it was really nice to see everything. It was almost an engine that just needed a little bit of oil. You turned it on and then all of a sudden it goes.”
On the TV theme, Mr Galinson admitted a lot of people have asked him about Ted Lasso - an American TV comedy where a US football coach takes on a British football team.
Mr Galinson joked: “I did have a lot of people saying, ‘Did you just watch Ted Lasso and buy a football club?! It's funny because a lot of people here hadn't watched Ted Lasso and now they have and they love it. I love it.”
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Luke Cawdell