Crowd funded transfer budget?

[JohnnyRocket]

This post may get me ridiculed, but I can’t help but think it’s an idea with thinking about. Or it might be an awful idea that qualifies me for worst thread of the year.

I think most would agree that the idea of supporter ownership is pie in the sky and messy. But what of transfer budget crowd funding? Has any club ever tried it?

It would only work for clubs with massive fanbases. It’s hard to determine the Liverpool fanbase size worldwide. Some sources have it at around 70 million, some have it as high as 580 million.

So the club says to the supporter base that there is a transfer budget, but it can be added to through contributions by supporters. So what the club could do once a year is declare a month – let’s say March, as the crowd funding month. So that by 31 March you cut it off so you can start planning based on the total transfer budget.

The club then goes on a worldwide social media campaign throughout the month, issues bank details and invites all Liverpool supporters to contribute. Ideally with a whole lot of transparency around it in terms being able to tell how much has been generated at any given point in time. Some might contribute £5, some might contribute £100. I’m South African, so because of our poor exchange rate it would be harder to contribute meaningfully, but I’d willingly put in £15 - £20 or so. So if you work on a fan base of 70 million, and assume an average of £1 per supporter, that’s an extra £70 million into the transfer budget.

It’s worth remembering that football is something that people have a particularly strong affinity to. Which makes me think the propensity to contribute would be strong. Even if many don’t, you’ll still have some that are willing to put a fair amount in. Hell, even if we can just raise £10 mil per season to help.

Viable idea or load of shite?

 

[cloggypop]

Who covers the extra wages?

 

[manwithnoname]

This post may get me ridiculed, but I can’t help but think it’s an idea with thinking about. Or it might be an awful idea that qualifies me for worst thread of the year.

I think most would agree that the idea of supporter ownership is pie in the sky and messy. But what of transfer budget crowd funding? Has any club ever tried it?

It would only work for clubs with massive fanbases. It’s hard to determine the Liverpool fanbase size worldwide. Some sources have it at around 70 million, some have it as high as 580 million.

So the club says to the supporter base that there is a transfer budget, but it can be added to through contributions by supporters. So what the club could do once a year is declare a month – let’s say March, as the crowd funding month. So that by 31 March you cut it off so you can start planning based on the total transfer budget.

The club then goes on a worldwide social media campaign throughout the month, issues bank details and invites all Liverpool supporters to contribute. Ideally with a whole lot of transparency around it in terms being able to tell how much has been generated at any given point in time. Some might contribute £5, some might contribute £100. I’m South African, so because of our poor exchange rate it would be harder to contribute meaningfully, but I’d willingly put in £15 - £20 or so. So if you work on a fan base of 70 million, and assume an average of £1 per supporter, that’s an extra £70 million into the transfer budget.

It’s worth remembering that football is something that people have a particularly strong affinity to. Which makes me think the propensity to contribute would be strong. Even if many don’t, you’ll still have some that are willing to put a fair amount in. Hell, even if we can just raise £10 mil per season to help.

Viable idea or load of shite?

That might work at a smaller club, but in the Premirership, where tickets can cost £100 and there's all the associated costs of Sky/ BT subscriptions, replica kits, etc, I don't think many people would feel OK with paying MORE money into an additional crowd-funded transfer kitty. It's already crowd-funded anyway.

 

[JohnnyRocket]

Who covers the extra wages?

Yea good point. I suppose the fund would need to be a 'recruitment' fund that covers both wage and fee. Something that the club uses as a revenue source each year.

 

[HC]

Lol, I think the idea of fundraising for a business owned in principle by a couple of billionaires and in control of a massive investment vehicle is pretty crazy to be honest

 

[Grjt2]

Yea good point. I suppose the fund would need to be a 'recruitment' fund that covers both wage and fee. Something that the club uses as a revenue source each year.

Cloggy makes a good point, because it was this element of transfers which blew the minds of the various american owners when they entered the PL.... they thought it was completely retarded that a club wasn't accounting for its financial liability of the full contract value when making deals/handing out transfer funds

 

[Gerry_A_Trick]

How are Ebbsfleet doing this days

 

[dantes]

It will cause a further inflation of transfer fees and wages.

 

[dantes]

If anything, the reverse needs to happen with the money supply going out of the game to fund other more worthy causes. That will cause a deflation of fees and wages.

 

[My_Blood_Bleeds_Red]

Nobody ever thought about the legalities of this naively absurd idea ?

 

[My_Blood_Bleeds_Red]

Actually I was wrong. Just discovered the likes of Grimsby and Ebbsfleet have crowdfunding their transfer kitty.

 

[Modo]

Swedish hockey club Djurgården couldn't afford to sign one of their club legends for an additional year so fans started donating money.
They got the right amount and he stayed.

 

[Squiggles]

Yep. It's a nicer idea and good for smaller, lower league clubs, but as for the Premier league the whole thing is already a rip off and this would be one step too far. Clubs know this already I feel - otherwise I suspect it would have been tried.

We already spunk the fans money on shite like Ballotelli, Mignolet, Lovren, Sakho, Moreno, Lallana, Carroll, Markovic, Aquilani, etc. Asking to throw more money of our money into that decision making process is just insulting and shouldn't be required.

 

[Markeh]

I'd probably fork over a few pounds to bring back Luis

 

[cloggypop]

I'd probably fork over a few pounds to bring back Luis

I'd be willing to stretch to buying an LFC tea towel or possibly a mug.

 

[Mamma Mia]

I've often wondered about this. I think there might be something to the fact that @JohnnyRocket and I are both from SA.

Around these parts there aren't many fans who feel that they are directly contributing to 'their' club near as much as they would be willing to.
Satellite TV is pretty expensive, but the sports coverage is one of the best in the world, especially to a football fan. The incumbent rights holder is also oft maligned for so many other reasons that pretty much no fan blames their hefty subscription on greedy clubs (even though it's a big reason for it).

Some people buy a couple of shirts a year. There's very little else that feels like a contribution towards the club, and so we're a long way away from feeling like we're being milked. We're actually prime for milking, and I suspect there are fans in a lot of other countries who are too.

We all recognise this, and that's why we put up with far flung pre-season tours and sponsors whose names are not in English.

But maybe there's merit in exploring just how many fans would willingly hand money to the club instead of doing it in little pieces via a host of parasitic conglomerates for shit they either don't need, or would have bought anyway.

 

[keniget]

The problem hasn't been money in recent years but dreadful decision making and an inability to attract top tier players.

 

[JohnnyRocket]

I've often wondered about this. I think there might be something to the fact that @JohnnyRocket and I are both from SA.

Around these parts there aren't many fans who feel that they are directly contributing to 'their' club near as much as they would be willing to.
Satellite TV is pretty expensive, but the sports coverage is one of the best in the world, especially to a football fan. The incumbent rights holder is also oft maligned for so many other reasons that pretty much no fan blames their hefty subscription on greedy clubs (even though it's a big reason for it).

Some people buy a couple of shirts a year. There's very little else that feels like a contribution towards the club, and so we're a long way away from feeling like we're being milked. We're actually prime for milking, and I suspect there are fans in a lot of other countries who are too.

We all recognise this, and that's why we put up with far flung pre-season tours and sponsors whose names are not in English.

But maybe there's merit in exploring just how many fans would willingly hand money to the club instead of doing it in little pieces via a host of parasitic conglomerates for shit they either don't need, or would have bought anyway.

Agree. Countries like SA, Australia, New Zealand, USA are full of massive football supporters. My full DSTV subscription for Supersport is pretty much the only money I spend on football. But let's be honest, our coverage of football is possibly the best in the world.

 

[tombrown]

I reckon you'd be lucky to get more than 10% of the "fan base" to contribute, so really doubt it woudl raise enough to pay for a single top player

 

[refugee]

Many years ago, one of my local clubs had a collection of 2 pence coins in an attempt to sign the Northern Irish player Glenn Ferguson.

They never did sign him, and I never got my 8 pence back. Bastards!

 

[Athens]

Many years ago, one of my local clubs had a collection of 2 pence coins in an attempt to sign the Northern Irish player Glenn Ferguson.

They never did sign him, and I never got my 8 pence back. Bastards!

He needs that eight pence now more than ever after losing the Ballymena United job.

 

[Woland]

This would be like when the old dears in church put their last fiver in the fund for a new roof when the vatican have ten billion sat in the bank.

 

[refugee]

He needs that eight pence now more than ever after losing the Ballymena United job.

I'm pretty sure that he once organised his holidays on the same day as a European games and refused to cancel them. Doesn't exactly scream managerial material.

 

[Athens]

This would be like when the old dears in church put their last fiver in the fund for a new roof when the vatican have ten billion sat in the bank.

Ten billion? More, I reckon.

 

[hmmmmm1]

Hasnt this already been tried and faield/banned............3rd party ownership in south america etc

 

[Mystic]

On a scale of 1 to 10, this is a awful idea.

 

[Comical Aly]

This is a pretty mental idea. 60-odd people own half the wealth in the world and inequality is massively increasing. We'll be at the point where revolutions happen soon and you think we should trickle more money UP the chain?!

 

[redhorizon2]

The club would rather you buy merchandise. You get something they get something. So to motivate you to buy Liverpool approved merchandise here is two pics;

And if that doesn't float your boat, then look at this;

 

[Woland]

 

[Athens]

I thought Rory McGrath was an arsenal fan.