Club Fundraising

[topsoil 2,498]

Some of the fans of non-league football clubs in the area near me came up with a novel way of raising some money for their clubs during the pandemic. Basically, they were asked if they would like to donate the cost of a ticket, for the games which they would have gone to, had the games not been cancelled because of the virus (google Social Wave Donate A Ticket). There was even a cup competition set up, teams drawn against each other, whichever set of fans raised the most money went on the next round. Obviously the further the club went, the more was raised. Some clubs raised into five figures. Some clubs offered incentives for fans to donate, like corporate days, fan experiences.

Basically, I was wondering, would speedway fans be willing to help out their clubs by entering something like this? Or has anybody on the forum seen any other novel ways fans / clubs have come up with to raise funds? 

 

 

[Ben91 1,743]

I think this would be a success or failure on a club by club basis. Depending on how valued fans of each club feel. 

I do wonder how much money Speedway is haemorrhaging in the current climate anyway? I can’t imagine any clubs employing full time staff and thus needing to furlough them. If meetings aren’t being run then there are no outgoings at all. At worst the tracks who own their own facilities will have to maintain those facilities to keep them ticking over. 

I guess clubs have already paid signing on fees to riders for the season but would these not roll over to next year as the party line so far looks like we could just be picking up from where we left off at the start of this season in 2021.

[Guest]

What is the happening for clubs who are only tenants. If they have contracts to stage a set number of meetings do they have to pay landlords even if there is not a meeting? Would such a happening be covered by any insurance a tenant speedway club may have?

[stevehone 3,427]

18 minutes ago, gustix said:

What is the happening for clubs who are only tenants. If they have contracts to stage a set number of meetings do they have to pay landlords even if there is not a meeting? Would such a happening be covered by any insurance a tenant speedway club may have?

but the other side of it is what if a stadium is not open and not able to give availability?

[Guest]

6 hours ago, gustix said:

What is the happening for clubs who are only tenants. If they have contracts to stage a set number of meetings do they have to pay landlords even if there is not a meeting? Would such a happening be covered by any insurance a tenant speedway club may have?

 

6 hours ago, stevehone said:

but the other side of it is what if a stadium is not open and not able to give availability?

That's a sound comment. Personnally I have no answer - hopefully another Poster may be able to do so.

[Tsunami 10,219]

On 8/17/2020 at 6:06 AM, gustix said:

 

That's a sound comment. Personnally I have no answer - hopefully another Poster may be able to do so.

They would not be liable to pay rent if the law prevents them from having meetings. Tenants as such could not be haemorrhaging vast sums of money, as they are not employing anybody. Areas where they could have lost money is if they paid out signing fees/deals up front, and if they have spent monies on their racing equipment like air fence panels, start gates, office upgrades, replacement equipment like tractors and graders/blades as well of course with new shale, which would then be new investment for next season. 

[Piotr Pyszny 206]

In the same way, during these COVID times, the trains have run on time without passengers, maybe speedway clubs find not staging meetings enables them to halt a trend of losing money.

Edited August 18, 2020 by Piotr Pyszny

[mikebv 10,261]

Maybe they could raffle off season tickets every month between now and the new season?

At say £2.50 a ticket, (5 for a Tenner), surely most clubs could get 500 fans or so to spend a tenner a month on tickets?

That would be £5k a month coming in and between now and March, start now and that's seven months worth of money..

Clubs have their own websites and many have their own social media pages that have considerably  more than 500 followers, as well as many having unofficial fans pages set up by loyal supporters so getting the message out wouldn't be too difficult.. 

And those who are forward thinking will already have plenty of email info of their fans to contact directly..

Obviously there will need to be some elemant of trust and belief that next season takes place but if nothing else the clubs will be able to see if such a dynamic would work for other years even if they have to pay money back or offer a roll over of the tickets..

It keeps the fans in regular contact with the club too so also affords the opportunity to sell merchandise direct etc..

And with Xmas looming winning a season ticket could get a very healthy take up in Decenber as it would make a great present for the Speedway fan in your life!!!

Edited August 18, 2020 by mikebv

[topsoil 2,498]

On 8/18/2020 at 9:12 PM, mikebv said:

Maybe they could raffle off season tickets every month between now and the new season?

At say £2.50 a ticket, (5 for a Tenner), surely most clubs could get 500 fans or so to spend a tenner a month on tickets?

That would be £5k a month coming in and between now and March, start now and that's seven months worth of money..

Clubs have their own websites and many have their own social media pages that have considerably  more than 500 followers, as well as many having unofficial fans pages set up by loyal supporters so getting the message out wouldn't be too difficult.. 

And those who are forward thinking will already have plenty of email info of their fans to contact directly..

Obviously there will need to be some elemant of trust and belief that next season takes place but if nothing else the clubs will be able to see if such a dynamic would work for other years even if they have to pay money back or offer a roll over of the tickets..

It keeps the fans in regular contact with the club too so also affords the opportunity to sell merchandise direct etc..

And with Xmas looming winning a season ticket could get a very healthy take up in Decenber as it would make a great present for the Speedway fan in your life!!!

This is exactly the kind of post I was hoping for when I started the thread, some creativity and positive way of promoting and fund raising. It makes a welcome change from the endless posts about who thinks they know more about a virus and trying to convince us the sport isn't dying but already dead. Thank you.