January 9, 2008
Best. Idea. Ever.
Have you ever watched a game, and thought “man, why did they get this bum?”. I’m sure you have. Ever thought you could do a better job? Well some people in the UK thought the same thing; and have done something about it.
My Football Club is a UK based website where the fans have decided to put the fate of one minor league soccer team in their own hands. From their website,
For the first time in football history, fans have the opportunity to buy and then take control of a professional football club – both on and off the pitch.
Every MyFootballClub member will have an equal say in team selection, player transfers and the running of the club.
Members will own the club through their MyFootballClub Trust, and together they will attempt to guide their football club to success.
The team that the site’s 50,000+ members have decided to buy (a decision made by
popular vote) is Ebbsfleet FC. The team is currently ranked 9th in the Blue Square Premier and one promotion away from reaching Football League. Owners of the club each put down an initial deposit of about $71.00 US dollars to gain part ownership in the team. And what does their part ownership get them?
The probable new owners will manage the club, voting online to choose match lineups and buying new players. To help run the team, the fans will be able to view all the matches online and, after the game, receive statistics on how each player has performed. They will also get weekly updates from the team’s head coach on how each player is doing during practice.
Is this not the coolest idea ever? Even though a new poll shows that only 8% of the population plays fantasy sports (although I can’t tell if this poll was only limited to ESPN games or not), I’d like to think that more than 8% of the population would be interested in actually having ownership in a professional sports team.
From a business standpoint it will be interesting to see how everything pans out. What is going to happen with regards to merchandising and licensing agreements? or team revenues? According to the website, everything will be re-invested into the club, but if the club becomes extremely popular or prestigious, it will be interesting to see if things change.
For more information on how the club is run, you may want to go and read their FAQ section.
For anybody ready to talk about trying to do something like this over here in the states (with a different sport), feel free to drop me an email (emmettjones@sportsbusinessdigest.com), or leave a message in the comments.
Note: Check out the whole WSJ article for some other attempts at starting or buying a sports club. Or check out SportsBiz for a look at some people trying to organize the purchase of their own hockey team.
Zs Newsbits: Poll: Only 8% of the Population plays fantasy sports
Wall Street Journal: One Team gets 26,000 owners — All With a vote on who plays
5 comments
The people at FanZ Enterprise (or maybe it’s FanZ Racing) have been trying to do this with a NASCAR team for the last few years…unfortunately it hasn’t worked do to the cost of running a NASCAR team and lack of sponsor/driver interest.
Yeah, it seems like it’d be really hard to do with a Nascar team…those costs have to be astronomical…Even if they were involved in one of the “minor league” racing leagues, costs in car racing are always variable (car crashes, tire burnout, gas, etc.)
It’s done on GolfInvestors (http://golfinvestors.com) with golfers. Investors invest in golfers to both in simulation and in real stock markets.
Your article reminded me of what Sports Illustrated writer Alexander Wolff did when he created a basketball franchise called the Vermont Frost Heaves. http://www.vermontfrostheaves.com/about/
He started a movement to build a Fan Club via the Internet and then allowed those members to vote on who their first head coach would be, also asking their opinions on certain issues. Not quite owning part of a team, but having a say in how it is run. In the same spirit as you describe above – letting fans run the show to some extent. I certainly find the concept interesting.
Nope, am not gonna raise my hand for that one, sorry
!!
Thanks for the compliment on the pictures though