Snoop Dogg’s surreal Swansea visit heralds late drama in the Preston draw

Preston only had about 200 fans in attendance for a sell-out. With tickets sold out at the end of the match to Swansea fans, this was a record number of home fans for a match at this stadium.

However, the away fans were even louder during the first half as their team punctured the festive atmosphere.

“Snoop Dogg, what’s the score?” Preston’s traveling band sang, before later chanting: “Where did your towel go?”

Sitting in the directors’ box wearing a long Swansea puffer coat, which wouldn’t have looked out of place on the slopes of a Winter Olympics in northern Italy, this was Snoop’s first taste of tribal football fan culture.

Fortunately for him, he scored an injury-time equalizer too, with substitute Liam Cullen scoring the equalizer for Saints in the 95th minute.

“After the game, he [Snoop] “I came to the dressing room and spoke to the players,” Swansea coach Vitor Matos said.

“He’s someone who likes to share. He wasn’t just involved with us, but with everyone [US] Olympic team. He really loves sports.

“It’s good for him to be involved. I’m happy we have someone like him who loves the club, loves the city, and wants to be here.”

When Brett Cravat and Jason Cohen, the American owners of Swansea FC, appointed Snoop as a minority investor in July, the idea was not that the rapper would spend significant sums of his vast fortune on the club.

Instead, the Swans wanted to increase their global appeal by leveraging Snoop’s massive reach of more than 100 million social media followers.

Some at the club believe it could create commercial and sponsorship opportunities that could surpass those they had when they were in the Premier League.

Getting back to the top flight is the goal. After this startling preamble, this first act at least produces a dramatic ending.

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