For many people, Saturday afternoons brings about first thoughts of being sat (or stood as many would still like to be doing) in a freezing stadium screaming at which ever football team you support, trying to drive them onto victory. As a kid I followed my home club Bradford City. My club is not a fashionable club, they are not a Barcelona or a Bayern Munich but they are still my club. I have followed them through glory years and promotion to the Premiership where we welcomed the likes of Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool. I have also followed them through unremarkable years and let me tell you that nothing brings you down to earth more than playing on a cold Tuesday night against the likes of Morecambe or Macclesfield. The simple reason I do it is because I support them and I am passionate about them and the game in general. I have never found a more purer form of camaraderie than being in your end at your home ground or away. One complete voice, one huge sharing of emotion, number twelve for your team. You find yourself talking to complete strangers, hugging them when your team manages to convert a chance, cursing together when a referee tries to spoil the game for you with a terrible decision that only he seems to be convinced on. It doesn't matter what team you support, I am sure that you can relate to the feelings I have described.
Clubs in general have conceived many different ideas to try to generate more people through the turnstiles. Reduced season ticket prices seem to be more common than ever, buy now and pay in instalments, half season deals are all available to the masses, well in the leagues outside the Premiership it seems. I know of many people who have taken advantage of these deals and thoroughly enjoy their match day experiences, or at least when their teams win! The Football leagues state that attendances are healthy across clubs with combined attendance topping 17 million people, and the Championship being the fourth best supported league in Europe, for the 2010/2011 season. Quite simply, people are still attending and enjoying what their clubs have to offer. But a negative side to discounting tickets exists. Only this week we have seen our friends at Darlington FC praying that their club will still exist. I have been there as a fan of Bradford City. We have gone through administration and it is not a nice feeling. The power of the fan is useless at that point because unless they are a multi millionaire, they cannot do anything and sit anxiously waiting for scraps of news as to whether their local community will still have a football club that represents them. Spare a thought for Northwich Victoria fans who may not even have a stadium by the end of the week! Tales of woe are becoming much more of a common occurrence in football. The impact of discounting tickets, recession and clubs over committing themselves is there for all to see. Chairmen and board of Directors across the country living the dream of owning a football club are not seeing it as much of a dream at the moment. The expectations of their fan base, lack of investment by local business, running costs, are all major areas that they have to contend with. The fans can only do so much is the cry from the supporters. But is this truly the case?
Investment in football clubs is always a talking point. For a supporter of a lower league club, it seems that Premiership clubs seem to have access to far more potential investors than lower league clubs. I mean it is highly unlikely that I am going to see a billionaire Arab Sheikh who wants to make Bradford City a major force in Europe! But lower league clubs do have a major asset - Their fanbase. I talk to major businesses around the UK and Europe everyday. One of the key factors in their marketing strategy is how do they attract more provincial business to their offering? Here they have an opportunity to invest in local football clubs that have this captured fanbase. Offering deals to fans via the club would be in some cases, more effective than advertising in local press. Programme advertising, advertising boards within the club, PA Advertising, Scoreboard Advertising, Sponsorship of a Player are all ways to attract the attention of the fan. Sponsorship of a season ticket is another good option. In Bradford City's case they have sold around 7-9000 season tickets and an opportunity exists to have your business branding on those tickets for a whole season, with an additional opportunity to engage this audience with an insert into the season ticket package that gives the fan an opportunity to purchase your service. In my opinion, a fan is more likely to support that investor than their competitor because they have taken the time to support their club. Discount structures can be put in place for the fan and a commission can be paid to the club for every sale. The simple fact is that this audience is there all of the time, they know people and so if they consume a message then it stands to reason that the offering or message you are trying to engage this audience with will get passed on.
But the fanbase consists of business owners and people of influence as well. I would say that if you are a fan of a club and can potentially invest then seriously consider it. Not only do you get the satisfaction of supporting your club but you can also secure an investment that has a strong opportunity to deliver a good return. Lets face it, financial investment in traditional sources is not exactly paying substantial dividends at the moment so increasing awareness of your brand / geographical presence, engaging a passionate audience, supporting a community in a location of one of your sites is a significant option to increase footfall and take up of your service and solutions.
I urge all fans of football clubs to analyse the people you know. Do you know business owners, do you know about the companies that are supporting your clubs, and have you taken advantage of the offering that they are giving you? For fans who have taken advantage of cheap season tickets and can afford to do so, give some of the saving back to the club. It might only be a few pounds you give back but that could be the difference in a new player coming in, new equipment into the club, travel for the team to an away fixture, or even the very survival of your club. Talk to the Commercial Directors of your clubs, find out what great packages they can do for investment in advertising or for a stake in the club or for even using their conferencing facilities for a networking event.
Take up of these actions could be the difference in a club surviving or disappearing. I would ask all football fans who have spared me five minutes to read my musing to support the likes of Darlington FC, Northwich Victoria or any other club that faces demise. It is a sad state of affairs and even though we may not support their team, we are all united in football.
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