Report consisting of local, regional and national teams in football Essay

My local, regional and national football team is Tranmere Rovers FC; they currently have 26 members of their first team, which is managed by Ronnie Moore. They play in the Coca-Cola Football League One, which is basically the 2nd division excluding the premiership. In 1999, the sports market was valued at around à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½4.17 billion, an increase of 4.9 per cent on the 1998 value. This means that football on its own makes nearly a quarter of the sports market now. The most successful avenue has been in the form of replica clothing and football shirts. This particular commercialisation of sports increases revenue for teams and is one of the major sources of income. A perfect example of this would be when Real Madrid bought David Beckham from Manchester United for à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½20 million plus. This was a very high transfer price but Real Madrid were very clever because they knew that they would earn millions of pounds from replica kits bought because they had Beckham playing for them. Most premiership clubs now have superstores attached to their grounds where supporters can buy merchandise. Clubs can also expand their retail business to other countries, the top teams in the world have stores in Asia where football is very popular, even more so when they have Asian players in their team. Ji Sung Park who plays for Manchester United would have made them millions of pound in revenue from fans in Asia buying replica kits. Football over the past decade has become more and more about money. Teams who earn promotion to the Premiership can expect to earn up to à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½30 million through TV revenue and sponsors. The top teams who compete in continental competitions such as the Champions league can expect to earn as much as à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½20 million more. The lower leagues do not have the luxury of this amount of money but they do receive TV revenue, but this is split between the leagues and is much lower than the à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½30 million expected from premiership teams. Because Tranmere Rovers are a professional side, they can sell their replica shirts in the retail sector. These are priced at à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½39.99 for the home kit and à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½39.99 for the away kit and provide a considerable amount of revenue. Ticket sales are also another form of income that football clubs rely on, many of the top teams can earn as much as à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½1 million per game dependent on the size of their ground. Main Stand Adults à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½18 Young Persons (17-22) à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½13 Seniors (60+) à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½10 Juniors à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½5 Paddock / Johnny King Stand Adults à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½16 Young Persons (17-22) à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½11 Seniors à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½8 Juniors à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½5 Kop Stand Adults à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½15 Young Persons (17-22) à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½8 Seniors à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½8 Juniors à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½5 In 2006 Tranmere average attendance was 7,211 in league one. Their estimated gate receipts for a home game would therefore be à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½129,798. In league 1 they play 23 home games so an estimated à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½2,985,354 a season is made from gate receipts. For the Financial year ending 30 June 2006 the club operated at a pre-tax profit of à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½397,662. Advertising is another important financial investment that Tranmere Rovers use to increase revenue. The advertisement that is available around the ground is as follows; Perimeter board – à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½1,500 per season Half page adverts in match day programs – à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½1,000 per season Full page adverts in match day programs – à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½2,000 per season Player sponsors – à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½300 Webpage advertisement – à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½300 per month (à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½3,600) per year Match day sponsor – à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½1200 for 16 guests Match ball sponsor – à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½160 Tranmere can expect to make an estimated à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½12,760 from advertising each year through each individual offer. Sponsorship is a very important factor in the overall turnover in most professional football teams and Tranmere is no different. Tranmere rovers employ many individuals to help with the daily running of the club, organising events, finance, sponsorship, and many other duties to help with the squad. The club is run by these individuals; Chairman – Lorraine Rogers Chief Executive – Mick Horton Finance Director – Richard Hughes Associate Director – Tony Adams Associate Director – Norman Wilson President – Peter Johnson They employ a further 24 people that work behind the scenes at the club as well as the reserve team and youth team. Local Rugby The local rugby team I will discuss is Widnes Vikings, they currently have 29 first team players who are manages by Steve McCormack, they have 30 first team members in their squad In comparison to football, there is a lot less money involved in rugby league. But teams such as Widnes Vikings can still make money through advertising and merchandise. They compete in the National league 1 which is a division below the Super league. When they were relegated from the super league in 2005 they decided to remain a professional side rather than switch to amateur, this resulted in the club being in debt because they failed to achieve promotion to the super league. On 29 January 1999 Halton Borough Council took over responsibility for the entire Stadium, both financially and managerially. This was necessary as the joint venture companies arrangements were not performing as expected. This plunged the club into even more debt. Halton stadium can now hold 13,350; Widnes Vikings only have an average attendance of only 6,500. This is much lower than other clubs in the league and one of the main reasons could be the ticket prices. A season ticket can be up to à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½224.00 A normal match day ticket can be à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½16 This is much higher than other clubs in the league and this could explain the low attendances. Merchandising is also a major part of the Vikings revenue. They sell replica kits in many sport shops, these shirts cost up to à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½20-à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½30. Another avenue for revenue is advertising and TV revenue. Sky sports 1 regularly show live Widnes Viking’s games during the season. The money from TV revenue is a much needed source of income for rugby league sides. The main people who run the club and deal with the business are as follows: Chief Executive: Peter Barrow Operations Manager: Patrick Cluskey Head Coach: Steve McCormack Assistant Coach: Andy Haigh Under 21’s Coach: John Stankevitch Under 18’s Coach: Dave Banks Strength & Conditioning: Andy Haigh Player Performance Manager: John Foran Community Manager: Martin Davidson Community Development Officer: Rob Calland Bibliography www.widnesvikings.co.uk www.tranmererovers.premiumtv.co.uk www.wikipedia.co.uk Task B There are 3 different sectors that I will look at and how the organisation of sport is dictated. Voluntary Sector The voluntary sector is the largest sector for participation for sport in Britain. Most amateur clubs, like Sunday league football clubs are run on a voluntary basis and some voluntary clubs own their own facilities, but most of the amateur clubs hire out to train in. The facilities that these clubs hire out are usually hired from the public sector and this gives the voluntary clubs the chance to play sport. The voluntary sector is also linked to the private sector because they can have sponsorship from the private sector. The voluntary sector is funded by the members of there own club, for example in a football team you have to pay a signing on fee, pay for training facilities and pay match fee’s which usually covers the cost of team kit and the fee for the referee. Clubs can also apply for money grants from 4 different sources, which are the national lottery, national governing bodies, government and local authorities. Public sector The public sector is split up into 2 different governments which are central government and local government and each of these have many different jobs to do for sport. Local government invests à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½1.1 billion a year on British sport and focuses on providing equitable access to sport and recreation facilities and different opportunities for the public. Central government in funded by taxes, VAT and it also receives money from the national lottery. Its role in sport is to develop policies, passes laws, funds sports councils, which are UK sports council and then one sports council each for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Central government also distributes lottery money which then can be divided out to many plans, such as providing grants and to local governments. Central government has a different number of departments that are responsible for sport and they are the department for culture, media and sport (UK), the Northern Ireland of education and Welsh and Scottish offices. Private sector The main aim of the private sector is to provide a service for its customers and members while at the same time making a profit for the company. Individuals invest their own money in facilities. There are only 2 reasons why the private sector provides sports facilities and they are to make a profit off sport and to make a profit on their own investment. The areas private sectors are involved in-active sport (tennis, fitness suites), spectator sports (stadiums for football) and sponsorship. The private sectors, such as football clubs may run football camps involving the public sector to set it up with them, or football clubs might invite voluntary clubs to their training facilities and show them round the stadium. Money in football has increased dramatically since the introduction of the FA Premier league in 1992. The main reason for this is the TV revenue the teams earn by their games being aired live on TV, usually on Sky sports on Setanta sports. This is illustrated by the figures shown by Deloitte, club revenues of over à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½1.4 billion in 2005-06 while is 2007/2008 it is expected to be above à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½1.8 billion. With the new three year deal Sky will pay à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½1.314 billion for 92 games and Setanta à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½392 million for 46 games. Foreign TV rights will produce à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½625 million in revenue whilst Internet and Mobile Phone revenue will be à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½400 million. The top club in Premiership will receive à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½50m (including prize money as well as TV revenue) compared to à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½30.4 million with the current deal. The new deals will, by a significant margin, provide the Premier League with the second richest set of television contracts negotiated by any sports league in the world. This is a lot of money for a business that started out in public schools in the late 80’s, and there are a lot of drawbacks for the fans because of the media and the sponsorship deals such as: Rule changing Because the game is watched by millions of fans all around the world, on certain channels that have paid millions of pounds to be able to show, they can have the influence to change the rules. In 1994 the golden goal was introduced, this meant that if the game went into extra-time, the first team to score a ‘golden goal’ would therefore win the game. It was introduced to the game to stimulate offensive tactics and flair by teams and effectively reduce the number of penalty shoot-outs.