Darlo Uncovered

1. The club have been working on this for months - if it was that simple they’d already have it.
2. 10 game ticket for the 7 games left - revenue that’s already budgeted for this season already so no gain
3. Sounds like a right money spinner.
4. So basically no other ideas

Ultimately the benefactors of the club (the fans) will have to bridge the gap. If we’re unwilling/unable to do that we’ll have to face the consequences. No one HAS to take up the 500 club offer we can all choose to donate that money instead. That way there is no future impact but the reality is that probably won’t happen so the club is offering something in return in order to get the money in.

The only additonal thing i’d be tempted to do would be to go out to all of the owners i.e. the 1000 DFSCG members and ask them all to donate a one off £20. Ultimately if they want to own their club then they need to be prepared to cover a shortfall that a single owner would have to. These people must still be engaged in some way as they are paying a yearly/monthly renewal.

divas wrote: The only additonal thing i’d be tempted to do would be to go out to all of the owners i.e. the 1000 DFSCG members and ask them all to donate a one off £20. Ultimately if they want to own their club then they need to be prepared to cover a shortfall that a single owner would have to. These people must still be engaged in some way as they are paying a yearly/monthly renewal.

This may be a potential solution. It would have to be carefully pitched, as there would be some who would view it as 'another cash call after overspending again'. But I think I would chuck £20 (say) in if DFCSG members, as owners, were specifically asked to do so

It seems to me that we overspent in the HP years under the assumption that crowds would rise dramatically at BM. That hasn't happened and now are paying for that. As a DFCSG member I'm satisfied (albeit somewhat depressed about the prospects for anything more than battling survival at this level, but that's a different issue!) in the steps the club has taken recently to try and become sustainable. If it takes a one off donation to help 'reset' the finances and to minimise the use of using future revenue to cover todays costs then so be it.

I think the idea of the 1000 SG members seems quite sensible as well to be honest but we know that we have a certain population of fans who can afford the 'extra' but a majority who can't (no blame meant here I think it's just circumstance and economics).

What is the difference between donate and get exclusive offers versus pay and receive a product / service (particularly the signed photo?). By the way - as was just thinking why not offer an exclusive benefit in return for the £20 'donation' which may be more attainable to most than the 500club extension cost.

The other option is have some more exclusive member options for the DFCSG but that come with a slight increase in cost. These are less about fixing the short term issue and more about how we get an uplift in contributions from the owners but without just a cash call.
- £1 a month to be entered into a draw to win a signed match shirt from all the players with the year of the season on the back (so every year ie. end of this season a number 19 shirt is signed by all the players framed and given to the winner, next season would be a number 20...point is they actually have a demonstrable level of uniqueness to them). Every month you enter is an extra ticket in the draw.
- £1 a month to be entered into a monthly draw to win 'something' signed by the player of the month.

I mean you could open this up to the whole fan base but almost part of it is to also 'encourage' and entice people to join the DFCSG. Every fan that the exclusiveness is an extra £24 per season in DFCSG memberships above and beyond their entry so is worth 24 fans otherwise entering.

In the past I did want to look at a tiered DFCSG membership structure with additional benefits depending on how much you paid. Ultimately everyone gets the basic membership rights - owner of the club and voting rights but others who pay a bit more get some extras. The main idea I had was access to certain discounts for high street stores - we run a perk scheme at work that gives us for instance 10% off at M&S or Currys if we buy vouchers. That way we would still be leaning on fans to provide more capital but they’d be saving themselves in other areas with hopefully a net position that they’re better off.

You do have to tread a little bit carefully on what you offer as we already have a lottery that you don’t want to dilute and a boost the budget which is a monthly donation. There’s only so much the small band of fans that can afford this will stretch to which is why imo you need to offer them some monetary benefit down the line from another avenue (ie discount on their shopping). The trouble is, that sort of thing isn’t always appreciated unless you’re a savvy, price sensitive shopper. Just don’t know whether our fan base contains enough of those type of people.

Ultimately we need to find a way to generate revenue from a different subset of people, people who may not actually be fans of the club - the only way you can do this is by having facilities and assets. That’s got to be the next step for the club.

The only additonal thing i’d be tempted to do would be to go out to all of the owners i.e. the 1000 DFSCG members and ask them all to donate a one off £20. Ultimately if they want to own their club then they need to be prepared to cover a shortfall that a single owner would have to. These people must still be engaged in some way as they are paying a yearly/monthly renewal.

I would be up for that: How many others ?

tezza wrote:The only additonal thing i’d be tempted to do would be to go out to all of the owners i.e. the 1000 DFSCG members and ask them all to donate a one off £20. Ultimately if they want to own their club then they need to be prepared to cover a shortfall that a single owner would have to. These people must still be engaged in some way as they are paying a yearly/monthly renewal.

I would be up for that: How many others ?

Yea count me in, this would have to come from the DFSCG though, it should be fairly easy to set up.