Sligo Rovers marketing questions

[Kivlehan]

These are honest questions. I'm in the USA and I have never been to Sligo, but I have been following the club's results online for the past season and a half because I like soccer and my grandparents came from County Sligo. I don't know much about the area, so some of my questions are going to seem really rudimentary. I apologize for any ignorant remarks in advance. I'm hoping to try to understand what level of creativity is being brought to the effort to run the club as a business by the management team in charge, as well as what potential exists that might not currently be tapped into.

What does the club currently do as far as the following potential revenue streams?:

A. Ticket sales and ticket promotions.
B. Merchandise sales (shirts, toys, swag, etc).
C. Sponsorships
D. Concessions (food/soda/beer sales)

How does the club promote itself in the Sligo area? Does the club do any marketing on the radio? Any promotion through signage in Sligo? Does the club keep a mailing database of fans so that it can mail offers for ticket promotions and catalogs with merchandise?

What is the club's level of community involvement? I saw a post about an ice cream party for down syndrome recently which is a nice community oriented project. How often does the club do things like this to engender goodwill in the community?

Does the club ever partner with other forms of entertainment to sell one-price"doubleheader" event tickets like taking in a Sligo Rovers match and then watching a rock concert or something of the like?

Does the club ever give away extra tickets to charity/schoolchildren causes so they can sell them for their own fundraising and maybe get a few people bit with the Sligo Rovers bug so they'll want to attend a match as a paying customer in the future?

What is the effort to get children involved with the fun of being a Sligo Rovers fan at a very young age?

In the local market, what are the competitors for entertainment dollars, sporting and non-sporting? (GAA? I'd imagine rugby would not be significant since the main Connacht team are in Galway)

What are the reasons why people would NOT want to go to Sligo Rovers games? Is the atmosphere family friendly? Is it safe to bring kids? What is the makeup of the crowd demographically? A bunch of rowdy drunks cursing or a nice pleasant atmosphere to watch a game in? Are the tickets expensive? Is it affordable to bring a family to the game?

Are there universities/colleges in the area that have significant student populations? I can only find Institute of Technology, Sligo online. How many students does it have and what appeal is made to get them to go to the matches? Any discounted ticket rates for students?

Wikipedia says Sligo county has a population of 60,000+ while Sligo Town has a population of just under 18,000. What is done to bring people from outside of Sligo Town to the matches? Does the team ever sponsor buses and offer one price to bus people from outlying communities to the matches and back again? Are Sligo Rovers seen outside of Sligo Town as Sligo Town's team or Sligo County's team?

Additionally, Leitrim (28,000+) and Mayo (123,000+) have no teams of their own and Roscommon (58,000+) may sort of have Athlone but they are Division 1 and are far south, so perhaps northern Roscommon is a market. What is done to try to involve soccer fans from these areas with the Sligo team (understanding that Galway may rival for Mayo-based fans)? Overall, what is done to generate excitement for Sligo Rovers / FAI Premier Division soccer in the larger potential market? Does radio broadcast coverage reach into these areas? Are there any promotions in concert with local tourism bureaus done to try to get people in these areas up to Sligo Town to spend an afternoon and see a soccer match?

I apologize if these questions seem boring or are looking at sports club marketing from a standpoint that seems too "American" or something like that, but I wanted to ask them to see if there are any good ideas that can come from these questions to help Sligo Rovers through its current financial crisis and ultimately build a stronger financial base to allow for a healthier and stronger club for the future.

[Midgit]

One thing the Rovers should do is give out free tickets to country primary schools. It is something the GAA have used and from my own personal experience it actually works. Not all of the childeren go obviously, but if the club could get a few sponsers (eg.Toy City, Smiths......) on the free tickets handed out well then that in itself would cover the costs of printing them and all the advertisement etc that would go with it.
In doing this the club would be building a youth fan base which will grow and mature and some day may become regulars in the future. This is building for the future. Also the Kids(U-12) would obviously have to bring an adult which means that is more gate reciepts. And obviously indirect income would be a rise in tuck shop sales and half time raffle sales. Everyone wins.
This is something the board should seriously look into and if they put their minds to it and it should be all up and running for the new school term in September.
I hope this is brought up at the meeting as i will not be their to say it. And if a board member is reading this could you please mention it to Mr.Toolan. Hey maybe it may not work but it worth a try and they will not lose money if they get sponsers.

[Kivlehan]

Involving children at a young age is huge as is reaching out to the widest possible area of fan base.

Here's an example from the USA of how reaching out to a greater region and becoming a "regional team" can be enormously beneficial: In baseball the Atlanta Braves are the team of the "Old South." Their popularity and fan base far exceeds the borders of Atlanta and the state of Georgia. It runs from Southern Virginia through the Carolinas out to Alabama and Mississippi and Tennessee. This is because they aren't many competitive options at the highest level in those areas (just as their aren't many competitive options in the area surrounding Sligo). They generate a lot more revenue with this appeal than they ever would as just Atlanta's team. They broadcast on TV/radio into these areas. If Sligo Rovers could do this with Connacht (at least radio broadcasts and grassroots work like busing people to games), they'd be looking a lot better. It is the type of thing that takes years of grassroots work as well, but has enormous benefits. By the way, the Braves just finished up a run of 14 straight division championships with 3 World Series appearances while playing in the same division as far larger cities like New York and Philadelphia.