The first step when working out how to start a sports club is to take your dreams and aspirations, and turn them into a more practical reality. You may have bold ambitions to build a club that’s successful on the pitch or that plays a leading role in your community, but these ambitions mean nothing without the funding and people in place to make it happen.
Before doing anything else, make sure you cover all these three areas:
Determine the size and type of your club (and name it!)
A good place to start is by working out exactly what your club intends to do. For example, how many teams or competitors will it operate with? Will it be open for adults and/or children, for men and/or women, and will it incorporate disabled sports? Which competitions will it take part in? Answering these simple questions will help you make the right decisions with everything else – and can also help you come up with a suitable club name.
Define your target market and recruitment strategy
Next, you can consider how you’re going to attract competitors, coaches and associated staff to your club. Obviously, if you’re operating on a professional or semi-professional basis, then you’ll be able to offer payments to them, but you still need to reach out to them and convince them that your club is right for them.
It’s more likely, however, that you’ll be operating on a purely amateur basis to begin with, and that makes your marketing, communication, website and social media all-important. Many established competitors (even juniors) may already be involved with existing clubs, so you’ll need to create a compelling offering to attract new members.
Work out how the club will be financed
With your key objectives and target market nailed down, you can then assess the finances of the operation. Start by looking at equipment costs, premises-related expenditure like pitch and changing room hire, competition entry and registration fees, and other essential spending like insurance.
Once you have an idea of how much it will cost to run the club for a year, you can then explore your options in generating that money. In most cases, this will be through member subscription fees, but at a time when people are looking at the finances in more detail than ever, keeping these costs down – especially for junior clubs -is vital. At the same time, don’t neglect the difference that even small-scale sponsorship from local businesses can make.
