Financial support of the club

[Aussie Stu]

Hi guys,

Just wanted to pose a question.

Obviously I'm an Aussie, so I don't get to any games. What I wanted to know is, does the club sell 'memberships'?

What I mean by this is, here in Oz I support Richmond FC in the AFL (Aussie rules). I can get to the games so I buy a membership, which gives me admission & a reserved seat to all home games, all proceeds go to the club. Obviously not everyone who supports the club can get to games, so over here the AFL clubs offer interstate & overseas membership, which is a way to financially support the club. It is reduced in cost as it doesn't allow you to have entry to the games. It sill gives you full rights as a member & you get a membership pack.

Over here it is a large source of revenue for the clubs, clubs generally have around 35 - 50k members. Generating millions of $$$ in income.

I looked on the clubs website & saw you can buy a ticket card for $2 (sorry no pound symbol on this aussie keyboard!). Not really what I am looking for as it is useless to me & isn't of any financial significance to the club.

Any suggestions??

[Rex]

Other than the Young Royals scheme and the income from member cards i cannot think of anything right now. Dirk Gently should be able to point you in the right direction.

[Barry the bird boggler]

Don't think there is, however why not write to John Madejski at the club (that way it comes down from the top and will hopefully mean it doesn't get a general hand off response) and outline the premise, citing the sort of things that an overseas supporter would get as part of the benefits and the sort of figures you're taking about, and see what reaction comes of it.

Knowing the club their initial reaction would be that there wouldn't be enough interest to cover operational overheads but all things have to start somewhere.

[Spacey hat]
This should be in Club Policies
[/Spacey hat]

[PieEater]

Don't Spurs have something like this, an extension of the member card scheme that you have to renew every year just to be eligible to buy a ticket.

While supply of seats significantly exceeds demand, I can't see anything happening.

[PlasticRoyale]

Give overpaid, chav footballers more money - i take it you're joking, right?

[Dirk Gently]

Stu - no, it doesn't work like that, as the club is owned by an individual and is a legally a company, with shares issued (although not available for purchase.)

Many clubs around the world are what the name suggests - "clubs" - i.e owned by their members, who pay an annual membership fee and appoint the president etc, who manage the club in their name. Barcelona and all the German clubs are good examples of this, for instance, and it's a model that works well in many parts of the world. In fact, German clubs have just voted to keep this ownership model as a requirement.

However, it's not really taken off in England because of the sums of money involved and the fact that clubs can't compete with the "sugar-daddy" model where someone rich pumps loads of free money in (or the "massive debt" model, in the short-term).

There are moves for this model to take off in England, for which the Supporters' Trust is the recognised legal model (see http://www.suppoters-direct.org.uk for more info). Several lower league clubs are wholly trust owned (notably Exeter, AFCW & FCUM but quite a few others) and there are moves (still a long way from fruition) for Trust ownership at Manchester Utd & Newcastle.

[tink]

But could you not just generate income through selling membership for say £20 a year to include stuff like a quarterly magazine, some cheap merchandise, maybe some exclusive ticket deals, offers at the hotel for international fans attending a game stuff like that. Like an "RFC supporters club". Surely any club can sell something like that? If we have a young royals supporters club, surely we could have an adult royals supporters club?

I don't know how much interest there would actually be, but it wouldn't cost much to set it up and run it, and it might just generate enough income to allow us to cut our cloth our little differently

[Terminal Boardom]

But could you not just generate income through selling membership for say £20 a year to include stuff like a quarterly magazine, some cheap merchandise, maybe some exclusive ticket deals, offers at the hotel for international fans attending a game stuff like that. Like an "RFC supporters club". Surely any club can sell something like that? If we have a young royals supporters club, surely we could have an adult royals supporters club?

I don't know how much interest there would actually be, but it wouldn't cost much to set it up and run it, and it might just generate enough income to allow us to cut our cloth our little differently

We have. It's called STAR

[Aussie Stu]

Thanks for the responses guys. Makes my understanding a whoe lot clearer.

So, I guess I'm not after a membership. More an official supporter package, which it doesn't sound like exists. I just looked up STAR which is the closest & sounds like a good deal with the free bus rides to away game.I might sign up to that to chip in for the club. My air fares would offset the benefit of the free bus ride though!

Just noticed you also get a 10% discount on merchandise, would have been handy when I placed an order for some gear just before posting the original post. Oh well. At least our dollar is strong against the pound at the moment.

Thanks for the info Dirk, I think the one thing the AFL has over football, is because it is a domestic sport with huge following, it is able to set the rules in place with drafts & salary caps that prevent the sugar daddys (despite a few having tried over the years) having the same clubs at the top every year. I mean the sad thing is Man U will never know what a relegation battle is ever again. The system here works well, though it could never be introduced in football in the UK, the world game has gone way too far past that.

[weybridgewanderer]

I just looked up STAR which is the closest & sounds like a good deal with the free bus rides to away game

rofl

maybe someone from star can point him in the right direction

also, would I be right in assuming the membership fee or STAR goes to STAR, not to the football club.

[Terminal Boardom]

Alternatively, there is the Vice-Presidents Club. I am not sure how that works or how you get in but I think there is a fee involved.

[Forbury Lion]

Sounds like a winner to me:

Club receive money annually

Club e-mail a monthly/weekly/matchday newsletter containing programme content which exiles do not get to see (can be copy and paste, minimum effort)

Club throw in some discount codes for online megastore purchases which overall generates cash

Add in some sponsorship space for our global sponsors

Club gets more names on the database which may in time allow for pre-season moneyspinning tours

Club puts overseas fans in touch with STAR, STAR exiles get them talking in each country, maybe they fly over and spend loads of cash in the megastore, stay at the madejski millenium hotel, buy tickets to games, generate publicity.


Costs to the club:
1. Adding names to the database
2. Producing newsletters / copy paste
3. Collecting the cash payments

Overall, a resonable fee would cover the cost of this. 1 is a one off cost, 3 is a once a year cost, 2 is a regular cost but can be combined with the person writing the programme and it's a fixed cost not linked to the number of members, so more members and the income rises with the costs remaining the same.

Where's the catch? - Well maybe the programme content will make it's way to UK fans who stop buying programmes? Perhaps a time delay between programmes and the content being recycled for the newsletters will stop this happening?

[Fox Talbot]

Many clubs around the world are what the name suggests - "clubs" - i.e owned by their members, who pay an annual membership fee and appoint the president etc, who manage the club in their name. Barcelona and all the German clubs are good examples of this, for instance, and it's a model that works well in many parts of the world. In fact, German clubs have just voted to keep this ownership model as a requirement.

However, it's not really taken off in England because of the sums of money involved and the fact that clubs can't compete with the "sugar-daddy" model where someone rich pumps loads of free money in (or the "massive debt" model, in the short-term).

Well, it has been tried before. RFC was a members' club from 1871 to 1897 when it became a Limited Co.. Membership entitled you to watch games (season ticket in effect) to play (if you were good enough / club was short enough!) and to vote for officers and committee. From 1897 to soon after WWII shareholders were allowed, I believe, to vote on a per head basis (i,e if you had one share you had as much say as someone with 1000 shares). Then we progressed to the current arrangements

[Magnus]

If RFC weren't out to fleece the fans at every opportunity then I'd say this would be a good idea but as others have said doesn't really work with the business model.

I'd suggest the OP just bought an overpriced replica shirt and some other merchandise.

[PieEater]

Forbes, that sounds quite like what they are doing to the STHs.

I must admit I was a little disappointed when I realised the fanastic ST benefits they'd gone to all that trouble to write to me about were actually just discount promotions to buy stuff I didn't want.