COMMERCIAL PILLARS IN GRASSROOTS SPORT2014 WHITE PAPER

THROUGH THIS WHITE PAPER YOU WILL:

Gain an understanding of how to make a difference within sports administration.

Learn about sustainability of the community grassroots club structure.

Learn how to improve efficiencies within administration processes at club level.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Recently, I spoke at a National Sports Organisation (NSO) AGM in New Zealand, covering grassroots sport and the commercial challenges we are all facing as funding models and society change.

Sport in New Zealand is going through similar issues we have in Australia, as government budgets tighten, approval for facilities and grants become more difficult, the battle for the funding dollar has never been more challenging.

Sustainability of the community grassroots club structure is on the minds of progressive sports administrators at the moment, but it’s a difficult space to implement change or coordinate cohesive processes. More often than not, attempts are made at national levels to improve key areas and syndicate solutions, but once these filter down to the associated levels, progression and opportunities give way to the usual push backs and protests.

For any number of reasons the reluctance to change often comes from those less able to adapt or those unable to appreciate the bigger picture, particularly at board level. Change is not always easy, but it is inevitable, and the longer our sporting structures fail to adapt to the changing landscape, the harder it will become for them to survive.

The good news is, that despite the many obstacles, some sports are making headway, changing their legacy habits, systems and administration processes, working towards sport wide common standards and systems.

These three areas are referred to as the “Commercial Pillars of Grassroots Sport.” These three areas help underpin a healthy grassroots structure.

Following is a condensed version of my presentation from last month, designed to articulate real-world learnings.

These are by no means silver bullet strategies to solve all of sports problems, but key areas that can make a difference, backed up by facts and real life case studies. We know these strategies work, because we have been able to see tangible results when we’ve applied them.

Paul McDonnell, Commercial Director at IMG Sports Technology Group.

THERE ARE MANY AREAS AND TOUCH POINTS THAT REQUIRE IMPROVED ADMINISTRATION AND ULTIMATELY FUNDING, BUT THE THREE AREAS FOCUSED ON IN THIS PAPER ARE:

Administration

Membership

Sponsorship

“COMMERCIAL PILLARS IN GRASSROOTS SPORT”

Volunteering in society is recognised as a fundamental part of community cohesion, helping integrate communities and allowing people to share common interest and values. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), back in 2007, volunteers across all sectors, contributed 623 million hours to the economy, which translated into an estimated value of $14.6B. That’s an extraordinary (and commendable) amount of free time, skills, IP and service being given back to the community.

Not surprisingly, the ABS reported that across all sectors of volunteering, Sport and Recreation tops the list of unpaidvolunteer work for both men and women, with a total of 2.3m (37%) out of a total 6.1m volunteers according to the 2010 ABS report “Volunteers in Sport”. The important thing for sports to recognise, is that the true value of the volunteer’s time should not be underestimated, and it is crucial to ensure these volunteers are working within the most efficient processes and frame work.

From state to state and club to club, the non-conformity of individual entities to embrace syndicated systems and processes is costing sports time and money, with volunteers chasing paper, double handling tasks, trying to reconcile accounts and fees.

In an example such as the above, many administrative functions can be automated or run through syndicated software systems. Why have volunteers spend precious time on manual administration that can be done by today’s technology? Believe it or not, there are still sports out there asking themselves the same question, but not doing anything about it.

Fast Fact – Sport will always rely on volunteers, it’s part of the fabric of community sport, but volunteers time is precious and should be directed into more rewarding tasks such as training kids, development of skills, team and player management.

ADMINISTRATION - “LET THE TECHNOLOGY DO THE WORK”

AREAS WHERE SPORTS CAN IMPROVE:

Streamlining administrative tasks across National, State, Association and Club

Utilising common systems, reporting and metrics to measure and manage the sport

Tied into efficient administration is membership. For far too long, membership has been seen as just an ‘association fee’ or ‘club fee’; this is no longer the case. Membership is the life blood of community sport and it needs to be given the attention and support it deserves.

Progressive sports are now treating membership as a ‘retail proposition’, for example creating value for money, value added and competitively targeted membership offerings, not only to compete with other sports but to better reflect the discretionary spending habits and capacity of the individual. As the Australian Sports Commissions (ASC) “Future of Australian Sport” report shows, people are working more, and spending less time and money on sport.

The competition to attract and retain members within sport has further intensified as many sports expand their offering to cover both winter and summer competitions, regardless of what season the sport has traditionally been run in.

We’re seeing a growth in shortened versions of team sports, for example Twenty/20 cricket, Five a-side football and Sevens Rugby.

Changing lifestyles and motivations have driven an explosion in individualised ‘user centric’ sports such as casual cycling, running and aerobics/fitness. Participation statistics over 2001 to 2010 have shown a decrease in organised physical activity and an increase in non-organised activity.

To ensure team sports are able to cater for these social trends, strategies on lowering the barriers to membership entry, demystifying member offerings (e.g. classification of memberships) and ensuring that membership is an engaging experience are more important than ever.

MEMBERSHIP - “LOWER THE BARRIERS TO ENTRY”

TWO KEY AREAS TO MEMBERSHIP THAT AREN’T WELL UNDERSTOOD ARE RETENTION OF MEMBERS AND THE ENGAGEMENT OF NEW MEMBERS.

Membership needs to be accessible to those who know your sport, as well as those that don’t.

Simple, already available process improvements include: ensuring people can register and pay online, this is still an area misunderstood by sports today, the fact is, you can buy just about anything on-line today, membership should be no different, and paying in the one transaction ensures clubs receive their money in a timely fashion.

This then builds a base for further automating and integrating your sports offerings for example social media sharing and marketing campaigns to prospective or lapsed members.

Presenting a more sophisticated experience to members is the next step; for example, integrating team gear and equipment into the online membership registration process. This ensures that players are not only equipped and dressed properly, but this increases the commercial return back to the club through merchandise sales.

This is why you build a solid technology base for your membership, so you can grow commercial opportunities as your sport grows.

It’s surprising how many sports still rely on sign-up nights, paper forms or registration days on the weekend. Yes these days do provide a good social event for members to meet and engage, but half the sessions don’t need to be spent filling out paper, or remembering how to fill out a cheque correctly! New members don’t want to feel like it’s their first day at school.

I asked in my presentation, how long does it take from start to finish for a member or new member to join your sport?

If these steps can’t be achieved in around two minutes, then you’re already not utilising today’s available technology or working with business partners that can make this happen.

In my presentation, I ran an actual, timed, two minute video of how this works. It can be done, and sports are already doing it.

Fast Facts - membership is about the customer, not about the association fee! Lower the barriers to entry, demystify how memberships are classified and make it easy to join.”

MEMBERSHIP - “LOWER THE BARRIERS TO ENTRY”

THESE ARE THE KEY STEPS:

Find your club or association online

Read and understand your membership club facilities

Sign up

Purchase kit or product from the club

Pay in the one transaction

Receive a welcome email and next steps

SPONSORSHIP - “CLOSING THE LOOP”

The final pillar in what we see as helping sports become more self-sustaining, is sponsorship. Community sponsorship, fundraising and local business support is a fantastic part of the social fabric that is grassroots sport. However, the mum and dad businesses long associated in this space are in decline, big business (multi nationals) and SME’s are taking their place.

Depending on your point of view, this can be a good or a bad thing, however, it’s happening all over Australia, and understand-ing this change, is actually a chance to open up commercial opportunities.

Many corporations and larger SME’s think globally, but they see the value in acting locally.

From a marketing perspective the desire for these companies to interact at a community level is a huge opportunity for grass-roots sports to leverage. To successfully engage with these types of companies however, sports need to be able to quantify their membership and provide this information through syndicated technology.

These days, nearly all sponsorships have to be able to show a return on investment (ROI) because someone, somewhere in these organisations, needs to be able to quantify the cost to a board, or a CFO.

Whilst there are many facets to sponsorship, which I won’t touch on in this piece, the basics remain true for dealing with a multinational through to the local newsagent

If your Administration and Membership offerings are old, tired, out of date and unable to communicate with each other, you won’t be able to deliver value for money or provide ROI for today’s sponsorship dollar.

Put bluntly, sponsors need access to your members, this is the fair and honest commercial trade off in investing money to your club or association, because promoting to members should hopefully equate to them buying the products and services off your sponsors.

The sponsorship loop is then “closed”, the club, the member, the sponsor all sharing information and combining to ensure a fair and equitable relationship that can be measured.

Fast Facts – Closing the sponsorship loop, leveraging relationships and cross promoting through community partnerships, not only helps club finances, but these easy to implement strategies can increase awareness and engagement in enticing members.

In one case study example, a sport demonstrated, that through including an integrated fundraising/donation option into their membership online registration, they were able to raise over $30,000 in sponsorship during a six month period!

What do I get for my investment? (Quantify)

How can I measure its success? (Measure)

If I’m to reinvest again, what can we do better? (Tailored strategy)

SUMMARY

Of course not, there are many more elements to ensuring the survival of grassroots sport than just these three areas, and of course, at the margins, there will always be extenuating circumstances; each sport has its own unique set of challenges.

We do know however, through experience and real life case studies, that if you can firm up these three critical ‘pillars’ within the existing structure of your sport, you are well on the way to becoming a progressive, cohesive organisation, with thriving and quantifiable participation numbers.

That’s a great position to be in the next time you need to submit a funding submission or sponsorship proposal.

** A number of case studies were produced by IMG as part of this presentation and are available for reference on request *** National statistical facts

provided from various Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) & Australian Sports Commission (ASC) reports where noted.

Paul McDonnell: Having an extensive background in sales, marketing and sponsorship across a number of industries, Paul work’s with a wide variety of sports on strategic business development and partner integration. Working with clients in Australia, New Zealand, the U.K and U.S sees his team at IMG Sports Technology Group able to tailor solutions to any organisation large and small with a focus on efficient administration and commercialisation.

IMG Sports Technology Group: IMG Sports Technology Group is an industry leader in online sports management solutions. Working in partnership with the IMG global sporting network, IMG Sports Technology Group provides advanced sports management solutions, administration and engagement software, ensuring growth and sustainability for sports around the world. With a fully integrated suite of modules including membership management, event registration, ticketing, ecommerce and website development serviced through its cloud based platform, IMG Sports Technology Group is the forerunner in holistic business data management.

IS SUSTAINABILITY IN SPORT REALLY THIS SIMPLE?