ASHLEY COLE is to team up with Jay-Z to open an upmarket sports bar in Pall Mall staffed by unemployed people and set up to attract wannabe WAGS.
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“It is really exciting to be working with a star like Jay-Z,” said Cole.
“And the fact we can help unemployed people by training them up and putting them to work at a top place makes it a great project.”
Like Jay-Z’s four establishments in the US, the club will be called 40/40, a baseball term that refers to the rare achievement of hitting 40 home runs and stealing 40 bases in a season.
That’s something like being the best left-back in the world while winning back your celebrity ex-X Factor wife.
According to Juan Perez, co-owner with Jay-Z of the American clubs, the marketing angle behind the 40/40 idea is “to create a place favourable to both men and women, with the combination of sports and an upscale hip lounge.”
In other words: we want your WAGS.
Membership of the flagship New York club (pictured) costs $1,500 a year, or about £1,000. But that only gets you access to a “second level VIP private room”. For the first-level, you need to get the Purple Membership, which costs $2,500 a year, or about £1,700.
As well as comfy armchairs from which to watch live sport, members and guests will hope to catch a glimpse of celebrities drawn to the club by the Jay-Z cachet.
“On any given day, the chances of bumping into a super star are very high,” reads a line from the 40/40 website.
