Business Advantages of Supporter Community ... - Supporters Direct

6 Co-operative ‘Added Value’
Key Question:
Does co-operative community ownership help create ‘added value’ for
the club
Top Three Findings
i) Most of the clubs felt that community ownership could give them
advantages when marketing the club as co-operatively owned.
ii) Some clubs have overtly and deliberately used this distinctiveness to
their strategic business advantage.
iii) Clubs who felt that this impact was limited said that this was due more
to the limitations of their overall marketing strategy overall rather than
their co-operative ownership.
Most clubs involved in this work felt
Most clubs involved in this work that marketing their businesses as
felt that marketing their businesses co-operatively owned gives them a
as co-operatively owned gives competitive advantage over companies
them a competitive advantage over owned in more common, private
companies owned in more common, ways. This was based on it giving them
private ways.
distinction in the market place but
also a set of demonstrable values with
regards to co-operation, financial responsibility, democracy and community
involvement that other clubs could not match.
Lee Carter from AFC Telford United said that the ‘closeness’ of supporters,
staff, players and officials was something that helped attract wider audiences
compared with other football clubs:
‘The power of the community owning the club is still the most attractive message
we can get out to the public. Our ethos is attractive to people once they can see
that Telford is a family-friendly, community-owned club, where they can bring
their children to games and have that experience of touching and feeling a football
club again – being able to speak to a manager or get the autograph of a player
and feel a part of something. I believe that is what community ownership gives us
and that’s very powerful in terms of our marketing.’
One point that was raised by several clubs was that it does take time to build
an understanding of what co-operative ownership means and to change
Business Advantages of Supporter Community Ownership 27