Serious question - ideas wanted

[bigfatron]

I'm leading an appeal to raise £200,000+ ($300,000+) to keep a local sports club alive. The club is the only professional outfit in a city of around 100,000, catchment area about 250,000, average crowd about 4,000; the club also supports local community work and provides the chance for 100-odd local youngsters to train to be professional football (soccer!) players.

Due to the collapse of a central TV deal the club is left with unplanned debts that must be paid or the club will shut - pretty much all possible expenses have been cut and the club reckons it will just about break-even next year, but the bank wants a portion at least of the debt paid off or will foreclose.

I'm not asking for money! However, we have a bundle of bright people on here; what I am asking for is a little creative thinking, let me know your fund-raising ideas, anything you have used yourself, seen work in your community, etc.

Any and all ideas/thoughts very gratefully received....
Thanks
BFR

 

[col]

Average crowd 4000 ?

Thats pretty good and better than many league teams. Certainly 4 times the crowd my local team gets.

Another local club has had a lot of success selling shares in the club to local supporters who elect a representative to get a seat on the board. Others have sold squares on the pitch. Many people are however suffering from appeal overload and expect lottery funding to take care of problems these days.

Any celeb supporters to front a campaign?

 

[squidd]

what sports can be accomodated by this stadium?

the celebrity twist is a nice seed of an idea?

 

[Stapel]

Hmmm,

Let the club shut. A curator will sell anything.

Found a new club and buy all needed land / satdium / clubhouse from the curator. This is kind of risky, but it did work wround for some clubs and even companies here.

 

[bigfatron]

Originally posted by squidd
what sports can be accomodated by this stadium?

the celebrity twist is a nice seed of an idea?

Sports - only soccer; we are looking at the possibility of staging a rock concert...

Celebrity fans - sadly, none :-(

Thanks for the ideas/thoughts though - keep 'em coming!

 

[bigfatron]

Originally posted by Stapel
Hmmm,

Let the club shut. A curator will sell anything.

Found a new club and buy all needed land / satdium / clubhouse from the curator. This is kind of risky, but it did work wround for some clubs and even companies here.

Can't be done - this is the fastest growing city in England and land is unbelievably expensive and hard to find - this was the club management's preferred solution but after over ten years of looking for available land they have given up on it.

Nope, sadly if the club shuts, it shuts for good...

 

[bigfatron]

Originally posted by col
Others have sold squares on the pitch.

Nice idea - hadn't thought of this one and it sounds feasible - many thanks!

 

[animepornstar]

something i've seen two times in sweden is clubs selling shares in their players to the fans. i'm not sure exactly how it works, but if the club sell a player to anouther club then will the owners of him get the transfer money.

 

[Richard III]

Shares are gud for a situation like this. If the community impact is so strong, learn from the Green Bay Packers in this respect and makes contributors feel like they will stay part of the process instead of just being money.

Re: celebs, any football players from the city who remember the team, played for it, or whatever? Any local heros? They can always pretend to be fans later...

R.III

 

[Cecasander]

Originally posted by bigfatron


Can't be done - this is the fastest growing city in England and land is unbelievably expensive and hard to find - this was the club management's preferred solution but after over ten years of looking for available land they have given up on it.

And what if you sell the ground and buy some ground on the outskirts?

 

[G-Man]

If it supports local community you can use it to convince people of it's importance and so to be able to get donations. You might also try to get govermental/local authorities to support it. You might find another deal, or try to renew the TV station deal if it's possible (Why did it collapse in the first place?)

 

[jack merchant]

A fanclub of one club here in the Netherlands had all of its members buy lottery tickets - this after a comment by a member of the committee handing out the licenses for professional clubs that buying a lottery ticket had a better chance of saving the club than the survival plan & budget that were originally proposed.
All the proceeds were to go to the club - and they won (IIRC) about E230,000 !

That was an act of desperation though - but if you're sure the footballing Gods will smile upon your club

 

[squidd]

giving your conundrum further thought sir...

this may sound quite obvious but it seems that the most logical tact would be to go events. that's events and not event because boy, that is a ton of money needed to save your colosseum.

here in southeast asia. the currency crunch plus export cutbacks have severly slashed marketing budgets. as such, companies no longer have enough money to get the levels of exposure they desire through traditional advertising (newspapers, television, radio).

this is why these companies are switching to below-the-line marketing. mostly promotions, concerts, contests, shows, etc. this brings them in direct contact with their target market in an attempt to form lasting consumer bonds.

i must confess that i have zero knowledge of the market environment where you are. but on the off chance, if you were to assemble a small crew of creative people whow will sell your stadium to corporate clients as a viable, cost-effective, venue for below-the-line activities, then it may be easier to raise you 300K.

as an additional edge to other venues, provide additional value to corporate clients. one of this could be that your sales team is also a creative team that will help clients from the conceptualization to the execution stage.

where i am, even traditional media companies are initiating below-the-line-activities. this is because when marketing monies are tight, advertisers are looking for more bang for their buck.

i will be more than glad to give additional details if needed sir.

 

[G-Man]

jack merchant - If the gods will smile at them, the club might as well just buy a lottery ticket and win the money

 

[Phantom Lord]

4000 people, 300.000 €. That's 75 € per person, right?

Well, my idea is pretty unlikely to happen, but if the people love the club, why not make it a public limited company and sell stocks of the club to the people who support it.

You will have some overhead cost, so try to raise 500.000 € rather then 300.000 €. Ask a significant and representative number of the people if they would buy stocks and how many they would buy first. If you come to the result that the people would help the club in exchange for becoming owners, the idea could be worth a second thought.

 

[bigfatron]

Lot's of good ideas, many thanks for all your suggestions.

Any more ideas gratefully received....

 

[MCdread]

How many other clubs exist in that city? Because the club probably has more than just the 4000 supporters that go to the stadium, and that way Phantom Lord's idea should be easier to put in practice.