Business Advantages of Supporter Community ... - Supporters Direct

community ownership, the community benefit society structure offers anumber of routes to finance that other clubs cannot exploit. Furthermore,the additional buy-in of fans means that supporters’ trusts and supportercommunity owned clubs can also generate significant sums in donations,something that is also explored more fully in Briefing Paper No.3.VolunteeringIt was very notable that out of over 1700 supporters, the vast majority ofthose who volunteered were at supporter community owned clubs. Overallvolunteering levels remain very low, however, and this is an area that allfootball clubs should look to develop. This would benefit their own businessas well as involving supporters more in the day to day running of clubs,something that can help build understanding and trust as well as skills.ResilienceThere is some evidence that those who run supporter community ownedclubs feel that they get given more leeway by supporters because of theirownership – attendances being maintained when the team is performingpoorly for instance. It is extremely difficult to make any hard and fast orquantified generalisations about this in comparison to other clubs, however,as club’s circumstances are so subjective to particular conditions.This ‘resilience’ is in part reliant on greater trust, openness and transparencyin the running of supporter community owned clubs, something thatunderpins a better regulation of football ‘from below’ referred to inSupporters Direct’s other briefing papers.Supporter SatisfactionAlthough the statistics are not wholly reliable and the survey was not arepresentative sample, there were key differences between the satisfactionlevels of supporters of supporter community owned clubs and others inalmost every other area, which at the very least suggests improved businesspractice in relation to supporters at those clubs.The testimony from those that are involved in running supportercommunity owned football clubs about the business benefits they feel thatthey get reflects other research commissioned by Supporters Direct. Thisis particularly notable in relation to the Social and Community Value ofFootball work, which highlighted the importance to long term strategicrelationships of supporter community ownership as well as the additionalbuy-in from various local communities.Business Advantages of Supporter Community Ownership 49