Aim

Sportal - Helping To Connect Sports Clubs With Sports People

 Sportal - Helping to connect sports clubs with sports people

Sportal is a new social media and recruitment tool which allows sports clubs to attract a wider audience and bring in new players and members to help teams and clubs maintain sustainability and grow. On the other side Sportal will allow for the individual to get an idea of the club they are joining and allow them to make an informed decision before investing both time and money and allowing them to find the perfect club for them.

Why the need for Sportal? 

In the UK there are over 150,000 sports clubs, all of which need to attract members and individuals to join to ensure that the club survives. In a lot of cases local sports clubs and teams are an integral part of local communities, allowing individuals to keep fit, meet new people, give an outlet from day to day lives and can actively reduce antisocial behaviour. In the busy modern world however, people's time is at a premium which often means that other priorities take participants away from playing sport. This can then cause teams to turn up with basic numbers or at worse postpone or cancel games which can lead to both financial and non-financial sanctions from governing bodies. Take into effect the potential reputational damage and frustration of players and members for cancelled sessions and matches and the issue of lack of participants can be extremely serious and costly to a sports club or organisation. When you consider that there are approx. 64 million people in the UK of which 15.7million take part in regular organised sport there must be a better way of attracting new members to ensure that clubs are able to function and grow. 

On the other side of the individual is the potential lack of information that is available when choosing to join a new sport or club and can lead to the individual joining a environment that perhaps isn’t fully suitable. However a lot of times the realisation that you may have joined the wrong team can come after a physical and financial commitment. Many people look to play sport for various reasons including:

• improved confidence
• relief of stress/tension and stress related illness
• losing weight
• improved posture
• improved body shape
• meeting people
• making friends
• increased social activity

For all the variety of reasons that people look to join sports clubs it makes sense that there should be a way for people to search and research to find the club that ticks all of the boxes for their individual reasons for wanting to take part in sport. This is especially important when taking up a brand new sport or moving to an area where that individual may not have knowledge of clubs already and therefore will be making a choice at times completely blind.

As an example of this an individual wanting to join a new football club can go on to the FA website and do a search for local teams however they will just be presented with very basic information such as contact details, a map, a list of the teams they run. If they wish to find out any more information they then have to spend time trawling through multiple social media pages which is extremely time consuming, especially as a lot of pages do not display full and up to date information until a join request is accepted. This can mean hours of wasted time to try and find a team to play the most popular sport in the country.

This is where Sportal comes in....

Sportal will allow for sports clubs to:

• create a bespoke and individual social page which will give them the opportunity to advertise all aspects of their teams both on and off the field
• Link in with existing social media pages to display updates, tweets and status' in one place 
• Upload photos and video to give an insight into life at the club
• Advertise for specific roles and positions to ensure that they are attracting the right people to their club 
• Advertise upcoming events to help boost attendances at fixtures and social events leading to increased income 
• Be accessible to a wider audience than ever before 

For individuals:

• Search by postcode, area and sport to find clubs in their local area
• Filter further by specific criteria to help narrow down results and present excellent choices to choose from
• View all the information and media on each clubs pages to get a better idea of all aspects of the club both on and off the field 
• View both sporting and social events 
• Access full contact details of the club

The Business Plan...

Sportal will raise money primarily through sports clubs purchasing a membership to allow them to create and maintain a page on the site. Membership will be offered as the following:

• £12.99 pay monthly (£155.88 annual cost) with the ability to cancel or upgrade to one of the other memberships at anytime 
• £60 one off cost for a 6 month membership (£120 annual cost)
• £90 one off cost for a 12 month membership (£90 annual cost)

We believe that all three memberships on offer provide excellent value for money. For the majority of sports clubs the cost of an annual membership can be covered by attracting one new member to their club for half a season*.

Individuals will be able to join the website for free and will be able to use their Facebook account to sign up quickly and efficiently and allow them to get searching straight away.

As the website and business grows advertising opportunities will be offered to local business for each section ensuring a targeted local audience.

 *based on individual paying £5 a game playing 4 games a month 

Turnover for Sportal will be as follows:

• Sales of membership from sports clubs
• Advertising on website 

Initially in the first year we project 1000 sports clubs to be signed up then aim to double this number each year. 

Costs for Sportal will be as follows:

• Legal and Accountancy fees 
• Development, Maintenance and hosting of website 
• Travel expenses 
• Other expenses

We predict that based on predicted turnover against predicted costs profits will be see within the first 1-2 years of the website going live. 

Primarily Sportal will advertise on Facebook and Twitter to communicate both with clubs and individuals and to advertise the website. Viral advertising campaigns will be used as well as promoted paid for material on both the social media sites. Once up and running and turnover starts to come in a more traditional advertising campaign using radio and television will be explored to help boost the popularity of the site. 

Where your money will go...

The majority of the funding will go towards the creation and development of the website. This will be the primary cost and will allow Sportal to start to bring in sales of membership from the sports clubs which will then be reinvested back in to the business to help fund other costs.

The rest of the initial money raised will be spread across advertising, rewards for funding and other costs such as legal fees. Any additional funds that are raised past the initial goal will also be invested between the website and running costs. 

My experiences....

Over the years I have seen the effects that lack of planning and ability to bring in new players can have on a sports club. From cancelling fixtures to closure of clubs, it is a very real issue. When you take into consideration that the majority of the population have a social media account yet over 90% of the clubs we surveyed relied on word of mouth to find new players there surely needs to be a way of bringing people together.

I've also been on the other side of looking to join a new club and not really knowing exactly what I was getting involved in - no more than when I moved to a brand new area 60 miles away from where me and my wife used to call home. Not knowing anybody in the town we had to use the tools that are currently out there to find a team for each of us (I play Football and she is a keen Netballer). I chose the club that was the closest to me and have ended up ok, however I know it could have quite easily turned out the wrong decision. I literally had no idea what kind of club both in sporting and social terms until I was there. 

This is where I feel that there is a gap that needs filling. Not just for the major sports but for all the minority sports that are looking to boost their profile and attract new members - because without people taking part a club cannot survive. 

This project closed unsuccessfully on 13th April 2016