GhostRider
Member
. Fan support is great for those clubs that would draw it in, but the majority of the revenue would need to come from other sources anyhow. Like HOS said: Youth soccer camps, sponsors, and clubhouses.
Dude -
I don't know what the point is of having a club if there isn't a membership/fan support that belong to it. Why would a business sponsor a club that doesn't have any support or in the business' eyes - potential consumers? Why would a club have a clubhouse if there's nobody there to buy the beer? Why would a club take profits from a soccer school and sink it into the men's team that nobody watches?
Furthermore, it's doubtful that somebody with deep pockets will throw money into a team that nobody else cares about.
My point is that fan support is the only way a club should pay for players. The whole point of paying players is to make the team win and who else would care about a winning team than the support?
Here's a simple scenerio that can work:
A club should get at least 500 supporters to every home game. At $5 a head that's $2,500 at the gate. On a crowd of 500 you could make at least $1,000 on beer/concession sales. Average out another $1,000 on sponsorship (billboards, game program, jersey sponsor) per game so you've got $4,500 to pay your staff for 2 games (given that you don't make anything on the away game). So if you pay a roster of 16 between $50-$200 per player your player payroll comes out to about $4,000 for both games which leaves you $500 to pay for a coach which is the key guy. You'll have to generate another $500 per home game to pay for facility/officals/miscellaneous expenses - and that can come from a soccer school or other fund raising activity. Also, on big games with higher attendance you can pay out player performance bonuses. So better players can potentially earn $500/month which is a nice supplement to their full time job.
The biggest barrier to this kind of scenerio is the lack of enclosed fields in the lower mainland that can accomodate 500-2000 spectators comfortably. Swangard is too big, too expensive, and not condusive to soccer spectating, same goes with Town Centre.
I believe any ethnic based team shouldn't have a problem getting 500 people out to their games if they have a moderate amount of promotion and community teams (Burnaby FC, Surrey Utd., etc...) should also be able to get that much. A league with Div 1 and Div 2 (promotion/relegation is essential) with 10 teams in each division is realistic for the lower mainland/fraser valley/island.
I also believe playing in the winter is also the only way to go because people get out of routine in the summer and soccer on Sunday in the winter should be a routine. Also, people are into soccer when the European pro leagues are on.
Another potential source of cash for clubs is the development and export of players but that's another thread.
So again, my point is that the only viable player paying system needs fan support.