Snoop Dogg's surreal Swansea visit heralds late drama

It was a surreal scene.

Snoop Dogg walking around the Swansea.com Stadium to the soundtrack of his greatest hits blaring from the sound system, waving a Snoop and Swansea City-branded towel above his head while the capacity crowd did the same and chanted "Snoop Dogg's barmy army".

This was not a fever dream, nor was it the effect of "the smell of weed in the tunnel" as visiting manager Paul Heckingbottom put it.

No, this was a midweek Championship fixture between Swansea and Preston North End.

The difference between this and other second-tier matches being that one of the Welsh club's co-owners happens to be a hip-hop legend.

Snoop is used to rolling up at some of the biggest sporting events in the world.

He was an 'honorary coach' for the United States at this month's Winter Olympics in Italy, having fulfilled a similar role at the Paris summer Games of 2024.

Two years before that, he was one of the performers in the Super Bowl half-time show. Global audiences do not get much bigger.

So, a meeting between teams 14th and eighth in the Championship was not the most obvious next destination for Snoop's sporting bucket list.

But these are strange times. Wrexham are owned by Hollywood actors and Swansea count former Ballon d'Or winner Luka Modric and US television personality and billionaire Martha Stewart among their minority investors.

In terms of fame and worldwide reach, however, Snoop is on another level.

Fans had been lining up outside the stadium five hours before kick-off to get a glimpse of Snoop, who signed autographs and posed for photographs in the kind of sunshine that will have made the Californian feel at home.

Inside the ground, he had arranged for every single seat to have a Snoop and Swansea-branded towel inspired by those waved by supporters of his beloved American football team, the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Once darkness had fallen, the show began.

Swansea and Preston's players were still warming up when Snoop emerged to an explosion of noise and colour.

The visitors did not seem fazed, though.

Preston had only brought around 200 fans for what was a sell-out. With tickets in the away end sold to Swansea supporters, this was a record number of home fans at a game in this stadium.

Yet the away fans were loudest during a first half in which their team led to puncture the party atmosphere.

"Snoop Dogg, what's the score?" sang Preston's travelling contingent, before later chanting: "Where's your towel gone?"

Sat in the directors' box in a long Swansea puffer coat, which would not have looked out of place on the slopes of the Winter Olympics in northern Italy, this was Snoop's first experience of football's tribal fan culture.

Fortunately for him, he got to sample the soaring high of an injury-time equaliser as well, as substitute Liam Cullen headed the Swans level in the 95th minute.

"After the game, he [Snoop] came to the dressing room, spoke with the players," said Swansea head coach Vitor Matos.

"He's someone that likes to be involved. He was involved not only with us, but as well with the [US] Olympic team. He really loves sports.

"It's good for him to be involved. I'm happy that we have someone like him who loves the club, loves the city, wants to be here."

When Swansea's American owners Brett Cravatt and Jason Cohen brought Snoop in as a minority investor in July, the idea was not that the rapper would spend large amounts of his own enormous wealth on the club.

Instead, the Swans wanted to increase their global appeal by tapping into Snoop's huge reach which includes more than 100m social media followers.

Some at the club believe that could create business and sponsorship opportunities which could outstrip those they had when they were in the Premier League.

Getting back to the top flight is the aim. After such a spectacular preamble, this first act at least produced a dramatic finish.

Now Swansea and Snoop wait to see what the next episode brings.