Business Advantages of Supporter Community ... - Supporters Direct

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Supporter community owned clubs have an advantage because they canraise finance relatively cheaply and easily, without going into debt, or givingup equity in the club and without altering their one member one voteownership structure. It also ensures that capital raised is used primarily forcommunity, rather than private benefit.Runcorn Linnets – Back Home With Council BackingRuncorn Linnets were formed in 2006, after the demise of RuncornFC. At this time they played at Witton Albion FC, as they lacked asite in Runcorn with facilities up to the required standard and theold ground had been developed for housing. The club developeda relationship with Halton Borough Council as they needed theirsupport to move back into Runcorn.Derek Greenwood, the Linnets’The Council’s support was aChair, says that they were verydirect result of the potential that a fortunate because they had a verysupporter community owned club good contact at the council – theoffered the local area and the level Head of Culture and Sport andof buy-in from fans.quickly had access to the ChiefExecutive of the Council. A subgroupmet with the Council regularly and this helped establish trustbetween the Council and the club.The Council offered the club land in the new town area of Runcorn,which was part of an existing sports facility with pitches and an oldgym that has now been developed into a function room.The Council’s support was a direct result of their realising thepotential that a supporter community owned club offered thelocal area and the level of buy-in from fans. Greenwood said:‘The old club originally was very much a central part of the community ofRuncorn, but never really spread itself out into the community. That meantthat when the end came there was nothing there to support the club – theycouldn’t go back a step and run a youth team or anything, because therewas nothing there at all. Right from the outset our plans were that thistime round, it was owned by the fans and could never go down the road ofone-man ownership again and secondly to ensure that whatever we did, weinvolved the community.’The Council offered the club a grant of £100,000 to develop the landand they secured a further £93,000 from the Football Foundation,22 Supporters Direct Briefing Paper No.4
whilst supporters raised £30,000. This allowed the club to createa stadium which meets Step 4 requirements (Northern PremierLeague), one level above where they are currently playing with thepotential to develop the ground further. The close relationship alsomeant that the council managed the project for Linnets. Greenwoodbelieves that this level of support was only possible as a supportercommunity owned club. He said that if it had been a traditionallimited company structure, with the potential for asset stripping orfor funds to be used for other purposes, the scheme would not havehappened.FC United – Raising New Forms of Facility FinanceFC United have raised £1.3m to date via a Community Sharescheme to support the development of a stadium and communitysports complex. FCUM are one of ten pilot projects in the countryin a scheme supported by Co-ops UK, the Development TrustAssociation and the Cabinet Office.As a community benefit society,As a community benefit society, the the club can issue shares that allowclub can issue shares in the club – people to invest but do not carryshares that allow people to invest voting powers, protecting the club’sbut do not carry voting powers, one member one vote ownershipprotecting the club’s one member structure. These are issued againstone vote ownership structure. an offer document that outlineswhat the investment is to be usedfor and, critically, prioritises the community benefit function of theasset to be developed.Alongside a donation scheme that has raised over £350,000 it hasmeant that the club can put significant capital – around 50% of thetotal scheme – into the project, helping to leverage in other grantsand investment from the local authority.Underpinning this is a statutory asset lock that FC United have put inplace which means that the use of the money members have investedin the new asset is protected – the facility cannot be sold on in orderfor proceeds to be distributed to shareholders.Business Advantages of Supporter Community Ownership 23
Page 2 and 3: About Supporters DirectSupporters D
Page 4 and 5: IntroductionThis paper is the fourt
Page 6: Community Benefit SocietiesThrougho
Page 10 and 11: 1 Strategic PartnershipsKey Questio
Page 12 and 13: The council took over the freehold
Page 14 and 15: the stability of the football club
Page 16 and 17: Erik Samuelson, AFCW’s Chief Exec
Page 18 and 19: supporters’ trusts.AFC Wimbledon
Page 20 and 21: the club crest and manufacturer whi
Page 24: 5 ResilienceKey Question:Does commu
Page 27 and 28: 6 Co-operative ‘Added Value’Key
Page 29 and 30: community club can be an advantage
Page 31 and 32: at a “normal” football club, yo
Page 33 and 34: Exeter City - Valuing Supporter Vol
Page 35 and 36: FC United of Manchester do not curr
Page 37 and 38: the area of donations. Many clubs w
Page 39 and 40: with specific skills - in areas suc
Page 41 and 42: costs and the additional ‘buy in
Page 43 and 44: goodwill within the wider community
Page 45 and 46: Category Average Score of Average S
Page 47 and 48: ● 73% of respondents from support
Page 49 and 50: community ownership, the community
Page 51 and 52: The Supporters Direct Briefing Pape

Business Advantages of Supporter Community ... - Supporters Direct

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?