Business Advantages of Supporter Community ... - Supporters Direct

More documents

Recommendations

Info

7 Volunteering and ParticipationKey Question:Does supporter community ownership help encourage volunteeringand participation from supporters?Top Three Findingsi) Supporter community ownership means that fans have a greater ‘buy-in’and commitment to their club, which means that they are more ready tovolunteer to help the club.ii) Tapping into supporter volunteering can unlock a huge reservoir ofskills amongst the supporter base that can be a genuine businessadvantage to the club, something that result in the club being moreprofessionally run.iii) There are some extremely innovative schemes that seek to ‘value’ thecontribution of volunteers to their clubs, to give additional protectionagainst the possibility of the club being taken over.The greater sense of ‘buy-in’, engagement and inclusion of a wider crosssectionof people which seems to be common at supporter communityowned clubs in comparison with their privately owned counterparts isperhaps most evident in the area of volunteering and participation.For example, AFC Wimbledon receiveWhen you’re a football club that’s a massive amount of voluntary supportTrust owned, lots of supporters are on an ongoing basis, with aroundprepared to do things for the club – 250-300 volunteers contributingfor free, profit-free, at cost price etc. annually. Roles can involve everythingfrom sweeping out the toilets todesigning a new stadium. Even the Chief Executive, Erik Samuelson, aformer PricewaterhouseCoopers partner, who is responsible for running thefootball club on a day-to-day basis, is a volunteer, although his is paid oneGuinea per year!‘When you’re a football club that’s Trust owned, lots of supporters areprepared to do things for the club – for free, profit-free, at cost price etc.,’says Neil Le Milliere of Exeter’s supporters’ trust.‘You have a huge hitherto perhaps untapped resource, which suddenly becomesavailable. That can mean you get all sorts of work done for free, which otherwise30 Supporters Direct Briefing Paper No.4
at a “normal” football club, you’d be paying for. Your costs go down. At ExeterCity, at the end of every game, you’ll see people sweeping the ground, as with allfootball clubs; the difference is that at Exeter City they’re doing it for free, they’resupporters who at the end of the game will pick up a broom.’Such ‘routine’ match day volunteering did not occur before the club wassupporter owned and indeed levels of supporter volunteering for core clubbusiness is relatively low in football. Supporter volunteering can also leadto the development of new areas of operation. At FC United this has lead tosupporters being involved in every aspect of the club and the developmentof new services for supporters, including the establishment of a free internetradio station and free internet TV highlights of games.‘Engagement goes beyond putting a tick on a ballot paper once a year at a generalmeeting,’ says Andy Walsh. ‘It’s about supporters themselves running their clubin every way – they staff the turnstiles, they write, design and sell the programme;they procure the merchandise from suppliers, decide what the price is and put iton sale; they run events on match days including bars and putting on bands; theyrun the radio with 24 / 7 online output and over 30 different presenters; andsupporters televise games and put them on the internet. We currently have an Alevel student operating as our match day cameraman, under the supervision ofpeople who’ve done it professionally.’The added ‘social value’ generated through volunteering helps support thebrand image of supporter community owned clubs, something that hastangible business benefits (highlighted in the section on sponsorship).Supporter SurveyIn our supporter survey we asked supporters about their involvement in theclub as well as their volunteering with clubs.InvolvementWe asked about supporters’ sense of involvement in their club and askedthem to indicate which of a series of statements was most accurate 11 .● On average 47% of all respondents said they felt very involved in theirclub.● Amongst supporter community clubs, this figure was 52%, comparedwith 26% amongst supporters of other clubs.11 These were: ‘I’m not interested in being involved in my club beyond attending matches’;‘I don’t feel very involved in my club but would like to be’; ‘I feel very involved in myclub’ and ‘I don’t know’Business Advantages of Supporter Community Ownership 31
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 22 and 23: Supporter community owned clubs hav
Page 24: 5 ResilienceKey Question:Does commu
Page 27 and 28: 6 Co-operative ‘Added Value’Key
Page 29: community club can be an advantage
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

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?