Business Advantages of Supporter Community ... - Supporters Direct

4 Developing Facilities
Key Question:
Has community ownership helped with development of facilities
Top Three Findings
i) Supporter community ownership assists clubs in getting commitment
from key public sector partners – especially local authorities – because
there is a level of protection of public benefit and transparency that
private companies do not provide; as well as an alignment of public
benefit agendas.
ii) Assistance from local authorities ranges from provision of land, funding
and ‘in kind’ support for ongoing strategic partnerships and deployment
of planning regulations to protect assets from speculators.
iii) Supporter community ownership – in the form of community benefit
societies – also allows clubs to raise finance for facilities in innovative
ways that do not jeopardise the long term future of the club and cement
the community benefit function of facilities developed.
The business advantages of being a supporter community owned club are
particularly striking in the area of facility development. Evidence gathered
The strategic, financial and in
kind support of local authorities
has been a key feature of facility
development by supporter
community owned clubs.
as part of this piece of work as well
as during the Social and Community
Value of Football research suggests that
they would not have their new facility
development if they had not been
supporter-owned.
The strategic, financial and in kind
support of local authorities has been a key feature of facility development
by supporter community owned clubs; because authorities can rely on
the community benefit function of clubs; and their open and democratic
ownership structure. This type of reliance is simply not possible with
privately owned clubs.
In addition, there are distinct advantages to a CBS structure. One of these is
that clubs that are supporter community owned can raise significant finance
for facilities via shares in the society. This is explored in greater depth in
Supporters Direct’s Briefing Paper No.3 on raising finance 9 .
9 See also Development Trust Association and Co-ops UK (2010) Investing in Community
Shares and www.communityshares.org.uk for further information. Add to footnote. See also,
Jaquiss, K and Walsh, A (2011) Punk Finance: Capital Made Mutual, London: Mutuo
Business Advantages of Supporter Community Ownership 21