Fund raising for the game

[iangidds]

Just reading about the Challenge cup and the lack of a full house again and I was trying to think of the answer to our problems. 

What about the RFL engaging with us the fans about a detailed 5 year plan about the game on all levels ? Set out their vision of what we can achieve as a sport , cost it out ; and ask the fans of the game to help ! If we all chipped in a tenner a piece and maybe we got companies , national lottery and sport England to match our donations we could raise significant funds that will enable us to move forward rather than treading water ?

As long as the money is ring fenced for development and not paying off a series of inept employees i would certainly be in ! 

Maybe an additional 10 pounds on an England member package would be the way ahead ?

We are a small sport struggling for a foothold in todays sporting world and we need to look at avenues to raise funds , standards , participation as well as increasing our supporter base .

[Chronicler of Chiswick]

Great idea, the only snag being that there's a better chance of Mick Gledhill being the next Pope than the RFL actually listening to the supporters.

[Gerrumonside ref]

I understand your intentions here and agree that much of what holds us back is the funds to copy what works successfully in other sports with deeper pockets.

I’m not sure a fans whip-round is the way to achieve it.

I imagine that there’s a lot of well intentioned, hard working, Rugby League loving, people trying to market and sell the sport to sponsors.

To me though we need to look at how football transitioned and gentrified from a core lower socioeconomic group sport to one where more (and crucially some different) people would be prepared to pay more and those people have the appeal of sponsors.

Edited August 13, 2023 by Gerrumonside ref

[Exiled red]

I've no idea if rugby league do anything similar but the ECB send out a questionnaire every year to people who play the game at all different levels.

[RugbyLeagueGeek]

22 minutes ago, iangidds said:

Just reading about the Challenge cup and the lack of a full house again and I was trying to think of the answer to our problems. 

What about the RFL engaging with us the fans about a detailed 5 year plan about the game on all levels ? Set out their vision of what we can achieve as a sport , cost it out ; and ask the fans of the game to help ! If we all chipped in a tenner a piece and maybe we got companies , national lottery and sport England to match our donations we could raise significant funds that will enable us to move forward rather than treading water ?

As long as the money is ring fenced for development and not paying off a series of inept employees i would certainly be in ! 

Maybe an additional 10 pounds on an England member package would be the way ahead ?

We are a small sport struggling for a foothold in todays sporting world and we need to look at avenues to raise funds , standards , participation as well as increasing our supporter base .

Nice idea, but I think the challenge for the RFL is to engage a new audience of fans, rather than trying to get more and more money out of the relatively small number of existing fans again and again.

[Anita Bath]

24 minutes ago, Exiled red said:

I've no idea if rugby league do anything similar but the ECB send out a questionnaire every year to people who play the game at all different levels.

and look what a mess that led to….

[iangidds]

40 minutes ago, RugbyLeagueGeek said:

Nice idea, but I think the challenge for the RFL is to engage a new audience of fans, rather than trying to get more and more money out of the relatively small number of existing fans again and again.

This is part of the plan , new and old support is required 

[iangidds]

32 minutes ago, Anita Bath said:

and look what a mess that led to….

ECB has problems for sure but how many fans were there for the Ashes and that seems to have followed on with the hundrec ; its engaging new and old fans 

[iangidds]

1 hour ago, Gerrumonside ref said:

I understand your intentions here and agree that much of what holds us back is the funds to copy what works successfully in other sports with deeper pockets.

I’m not sure a fans whip-round is the way to achieve it.

I imagine that there’s a lot of well intentioned, hard working, Rugby League loving, people trying to market and sell the sport to sponsors.

To me though we need to look at how football transitioned and gentrified from a core lower socioeconomic group sport to one where more (and crucially some different) people would be prepared to pay more and those people have the appeal of sponsors.

I understand your comments but how do we move forward? We have no cash or vision to make money that we can re invest back into the game . Its not so much a whip round but a community led action program that could have real benefits for the game and it may attract government support as well as other key stakeholders. 

[gingerjon]

Just now, iangidds said:

I understand your comments but how do we move forward? We have no cash or vision to make money that we can re invest back into the game . Its not so much a whip round but a community led action program that could have real benefits for the game and it may attract government support as well as other key stakeholders. 

IMG is the plan. There's been a fair few threads about it.

[Gomersall]

8 minutes ago, iangidds said:

ECB has problems for sure but how many fans were there for the Ashes and that seems to have followed on with the hundrec ; its engaging new and old fans 

You’d expect the Ashes to be well supported regardless of what the ECB do or don’t do. It’s probably one of the few cricket events that gets people that aren’t regular cricket fans interested in it.

[Gomersall]

1 hour ago, Gerrumonside ref said:

To me though we need to look at how football transitioned and gentrified from a core lower socioeconomic group sport to one where more (and crucially some different) people would be prepared to pay more and those people have the appeal of sponsors.

Football has, for decades, been the sport that interests more of the population than any other. That interest ramped up when the EPL began and they had the media in their pocket telling us all how good the Emperor’s new clothes were. It quickly became the hottest ticket in town. The rest, as they say.

[Gerrumonside ref]

7 minutes ago, Gomersall said:

Football has, for decades, been the sport that interests more of the population than any other. That interest ramped up when the EPL began and they had the media in their pocket telling us all how good the Emperor’s new clothes were. It quickly became the hottest ticket in town. The rest, as they say.

Yes, I watched it all happen too before my very eyes and I have contacts in that sport.

They had many advantages in terms of sheer scale, but they also had a coordinated plan to restructure the audience when the opportunity came.

There’s no silver bullet unfortunately and there wasn’t for them.

[Gomersall]

11 minutes ago, Gerrumonside ref said:

Yes, I watched it all happen too before my very eyes and I have contacts in that sport.

They had many advantages in terms of sheer scale, but they also had a coordinated plan to restructure the audience when the opportunity came.

There’s no silver bullet unfortunately and there wasn’t for them.

You could say the silver bullet was having Sky massively push the EPL from day one and the media following suit soon after. RL in this country has never had that privilege and I doubt they ever will. It also helped that football still had a regular presence on terrestrial TV, either live cup games or a weekly highlights programme broadcast nationally in a consistent time slot.

[Gerrumonside ref]

8 minutes ago, Gomersall said:

You could say the silver bullet was having Sky massively push the EPL from day one and the media following suit soon after. RL in this country has never had that privilege and I doubt they ever will. It also helped that football still had a regular presence on terrestrial TV, either live cup games or a weekly highlights programme broadcast nationally in a consistent time slot.

Yes, you’re right about all those factors being significant.

But the make up of the crowd in term of socioeconomic groups has changed too.

I think this is something that rugby league as a sport had but has lost its way in part (perhaps to football).

[Gomersall]

13 minutes ago, Gerrumonside ref said:

Yes, you’re right about all those factors being significant.

But the make up of the crowd in term of socioeconomic groups has changed too.

I think this is something that rugby league as a sport had but has lost its way in part (perhaps to football).

True but IMO the demographic change came about because football was promoted to the hilt as a must see event which attracted the wealthier sections of society but also at the same time drove up prices in the EPL and disenfranchised many supporters because overnight football became all about the money. The clubs had to generate more money than ever before, the majority just to stay up let alone compete and they showed little if any loyalty to their supporters, again IMO.

[EggFace]

I see the bigger picture but it's about healing a nasty family class split which happened over a 130 years ago.

[Gerrumonside ref]

1 hour ago, Gomersall said:

True but IMO the demographic change came about because football was promoted to the hilt as a must see event which attracted the wealthier sections of society but also at the same time drove up prices in the EPL and disenfranchised many supporters because overnight football became all about the money. The clubs had to generate more money than ever before, the majority just to stay up let alone compete and they showed little if any loyalty to their supporters, again IMO.

It’s a part of it for sure as was many other factors including general stadium reform in football and even the feel good factor from Italia 90, both which pre-date the ‘whole new ball game’ marketing push from Sky when they obtained exclusive live broadcast rights.

[idrewthehaggis]

"Fund raising," does sort of provoke thoughts of dippy Women's Institute's raffle, a sponsored swim and paramilitary clad kids doing a Scouting "Bob-a-Job" for some kindly pensioners in the Cotswolds.

However thinking about generating Rugby League's revenue streams is a great thread discussion, whatever you call it.

The Sport's main streams are of course, match day revenues,  broadcast rights, advertising/sponsorship, merchandise, membership, etc. 

So the first instances is to increase amounts from these, Ie more supporters through the doors, classier better value sponsorship and so on. I presume that is why IMG have been brought aboard.

The other I think you are pondering about langidds is new streams.

I had a chat with a former neighbour who works  as a "fund raiser" for a soccer club, and this is what we came up with-

First countless football clubs and now Salford have gone for membership ownership. If SRD's 5000 supporters can raise just short of £400k, then how much would sit in a Fund had it been supported by all SL supporters since 1997. Levy on match day tickets, centrally collected. £2m? £200m?

Sporting Bonds. See above.

Better utilization of club facilities.

Targeted specific crowd funding projects

Match day buckets

E sports 

Paid opportunities for kids with training sessions.

Interest from RFL loans to develop grounds.

Create a mega RL Development fund. A levy on match day ticket revenue centrally collectively and either equally distributed. 

Specific investment- stadium development etc

Add your own ideas..........

Edited August 14, 2023 by idrewthehaggis

[ATLANTISMAN]

Ditch SKY give the BBC one free to air match a week and stream 5 SL matches for 500 Pounds PP a season thats the way to drive revenue.

[idrewthehaggis]

The other aspect is reducing costs through collective action.

Regional academies

Joint contracts - merchandise, match f and d, accountancy, etc

Problem of course all this requires is a competent robust RFL. Dream on.

 

[gingerjon]

23 minutes ago, ATLANTISMAN said:

Ditch SKY give the BBC one free to air match a week and stream 5 SL matches for 500 Pounds PP a season thats the way to drive revenue.

£500 for a home viewing season ticket?

It's a bold strategy.

[OnStrike]

2 hours ago, idrewthehaggis said:

"Fund raising," does sort of provoke thoughts of dippy Women's Institute's raffle, a sponsored swim and paramilitary clad kids doing a Scouting "Bob-a-Job" for some kindly pensioners in the Cotswolds.

However thinking about generating Rugby League's revenue streams is a great thread discussion, whatever you call it.

The Sport's main streams are of course, match day revenues,  broadcast rights, advertising/sponsorship, merchandise, membership, etc. 

So the first instances is to increase amounts from these, Ie more supporters through the doors, classier better value sponsorship and so on. I presume that is why IMG have been brought aboard.

The other I think you are pondering about langidds is new streams.

I had a chat with a former neighbour who works  as a "fund raiser" for a soccer club, and this is what we came up with-

First countless football clubs and now Salford have gone for membership ownership. If SRD's 5000 supporters can raise just short of £400k, then how much would sit in a Fund had it been supported by all SL supporters since 1997. Levy on match day tickets, centrally collected. £2m? £200m?

Sporting Bonds. See above.

Better utilization of club facilities.

Targeted specific crowd funding projects

Match day buckets

E sports 

Paid opportunities for kids with training sessions.

Interest from RFL loans to develop grounds.

Create a mega RL Development fund. A levy on match day ticket revenue centrally collectively and either equally distributed. 

Specific investment- stadium development etc

Add your own ideas..........

Some good ideas there. Lots of soccer clubs have (through necessity) gone in for the fan ownership model and/or bonds. The problem, in soccer, is there seems to be a ceiling on what can be achieved by clubs using this model, league 1. Anything above that needs people willing to write off millions of pounds.

In Rugby League, we're obviously working to different scales so I would hope the model is even more viable than it is in soccer. Maybe the ceiling is aiming for top 6 each year a good Challenge Cup run?

Will be very interesting to see how Salford get on and I really hope it wotks for them. Some of our clubs have been terribly mismanaged for years, fan ownership couldn't really be any worse for them could it?

 

[Damien]

2 hours ago, gingerjon said:

£500 for a home viewing season ticket?

It's a bold strategy.

You are being generous.

[Phil W]

I'm all for anything that helps the game.

I'd be up for some form of England supporters club.

At a community level do clubs get much from the RFL on offers or incentives for tickets sold with a percentage going back to the club on major events. If not that kind of commission is something I'd look at.

The big thing for me is getting the none rugby league or casual fan on board for internationals, magic, challenge cup final and grand final. I can say this about up here in Newcastle, we never see anything advertised till the last week. They should be approaching big employers and the universities with group ticket offers well in advance.