Sports Funding and Sponsorship - Essay Example

SPORT FUNDING AND SPONSORSHIP Name Institution Sport Funding and Sponsorship Executive Summary Sporting activities offer several opportunities to people with talents. La Trobe University Football Club (LTUFC) operates from such background and offers opportunity to the residents of Bundoora and institutional students. The club major draws membership from both males (100) and females (30) with ages of 10-35 in both cases. 75% of the members reside within a kilometre from the club. Over the years, the club has been participating in various soccer activities and made great achievements. The turf fields owned by the club have also been operational. However, with the increasing number of talented people seeking opportunities from the club, there is need to upgrade some of the facilities. During the weekends, Saturdays and Sundays, the club holds winter competitions for the seniors and juniors, which all require adequate funds to ensure effectiveness and success. Since the club only has two fields and the numbers of participants and activities have been on the rise, the club is seeking for donations to replace one of the grounds. From the quotation from the constructor, the club requires approximately $670,000 to replace the ground. However, the club has been able to raise funds from various sources for the project: levies from the members $100,000, bank savings $20,000, and local government funds $500,000. Sport and Recreation Victoria (SRV), is a Victorian state corporation that aims at maximizing the economic and social benefits through the sports and recreation sectors. Funding the club might offer the grantor the opportunity of fulfilling its mandate since LTUFC would increase its operational scope, which assist to accommodate more soccer players. Moreover, the club would strengthen its capacity, improve the quality of community sporting facilities, and ensuring sport plays a crucial role in people’s lives. Consequently, it would assist SRV reach its objectives. Introduction Victoria is one of the states endowed up untapped soccer potentials. Trobe University Football Club (LTUFC) offers talented youths, both males and females equal opportunities to display their talents majorly from Bundoora and institutional students. However, the club wishes to replace its old ground to ensure effectiveness of the sporting activities and achievement of the desired goals by the funding agency. The club often organizes winter competitions that draw both female and male players during Saturdays and Sundays. Replacing the old ground would draw the attention of the event organizers to allow the club earn revenues and reflect commitment of the SRV to ensuring the development of sport and recreation facilities. Cover Letter March 24, 2016 Mr. Michael Brian Sport and Recreation Victoria Department of Transport, Planning and Local Infrastructure Melbourne, Victoria. Dear Brian, I am writing on behalf of the La Trobe University Football Club (LTUFC) to share some information, activities, objectives, and plans of the institution and more importantly seek financial assistance for the replacement of the ground. LTUFC is located in Northwestern suburbs of Melbourne near La Trobe University with moderate population. The club has both men and women playing for State League Competition (North-West Division) and Women’s Premier League respectively. Most of the participants operate from with 1Km radius and often organizes winter competitions held on Saturdays and Sundays. Moreover, the club has partners with renowned institutions like the local government (The City of Darebin), Bundoora Community, Football Federation Victoria, and Football Federation Association. The club wishes to increase the level of opportunity to those with soccer talents, engage them, and assist in radicalization prevention especially among the youths. Improving the quality of the ground would guarantee the achievement of such objective as most of the locals would be viewing the move as the best step to identifying the potential among the youths. SRV is committed to ensuring the development social benefits from sport and recreation among the Victorians. Therefore, through financing the club, it is likely to maintain Victoria’s reputation as being the leading sports state, improving the quality of sporting activities, strengthening the capacity of the sporting organizations, and improving the role of sports in people’s lives. Quality soccer fields improve social benefits as it draws the attention of many people including the organizers of major events. As a result, the club might earn revenues from such activities. Thank in advance for your cooperation as we look forward to hearing from you and discussing further the information regarding the project. Sincerely, Denis Johns Marketing Manager La Trobe University Football (Soccer) Club (LTUFC) La Trobe University Football Club (LTUFC) LTUFC is soccer club with an objective of ensuring equal opportunities to those playing football within Bundoora and students from La Trobe University. The club has both males and female members contributing 100 and 30 participants respectively and age range of 10-35 years in both cases. However, most these participants (75%) live within 1 km of the club. Although the club owns two natural turf fields both having the lights, one requires replacement which forms the basis of donation application. The club originated from the commitment of passionate group of fans in 1989. Ironically, three of the members studied at La Trobe University. The factor that drove the passionate fans was the need to play football in an environment they considered friendly. The club is located in Kingsbury Drive in Bundoora. To show its commitment in ensuring the production of quality players, LTUFC often organizes winter competitions that accommodate both the senior and junior players. However, all the games occur on Saturdays and Sundays. Such commitments have been the major factors facilitating the achievement and contributions of the club (Australian Football League, 2005). In 2013, the club won the Football Federation Victoria (FFV) Fair Play Award and several premierships in the State League (Men) and Premier League (Women). Besides, the junior category for both girls and boys, under 10’s to Under 16’s, also showed significant improvements. More important, the club also offers several opportunities for passionate footballers to participate in developing their careers and coaching programmes for all the age groups (Castro & Unesco, 2002). The club has several stakeholders including the local government (The City of Darebin) that also owns the LTUFC football grounds and clubhouse, the People of Bundoora, the Football Federation Victoria (FFV), and Football Federation of Australia (FFA). The club majorly works with the local communities in a bid to offer them the opportunities they seek with regard to participating in sporting activities. Initially, most of the talented and passionate youths lavished in idleness with no opportunity to display their talents. However, since the development of the club, most youths irrespective of the gender have had the opportunity of displaying their soccer talents. The club majorly targets the youths from 10 to 35 years who are majorly susceptible to radicalization owing to inadequate level of engagement and opportunities to display their talents. To some extent, such opportunities also assist to reduce the unemployment rates since the club assist the members to nurture their talents and coach them on how to utilize such talents for their benefits. Increment in the number of participants reflects the need to improve the playing conditions. Such development would draw the attention of most target customers who in this case are those who are passionate about football and major the residents of Bundoora and students from the university. The funds acquired from the donors would assist to develop the field through replacement of the grounds. As a result, it is expected that the number of targeted customers would increase as well as the capacity of the club to accommodate more soccer players, which in turn assist the SRV, attain its major objectives. To increase the scope of operation and offer opportunities to many people, the club would have to improve its facilities to be accommodative for the needs of both males and females. Benefits of Supporting the Club Funding financially the project would assist both SRV, and the club meet their objectives. The club aims at increasing its scope of opportunities to participants from diversified backgrounds from Bundoora. Improving the condition of the ground would make the club more accommodative to the males and females and increase the number of number of players participating in the club. However, the objectives of the agency include increasing economic and social benefits to the Victorians through sport and recreational activities. Moreover, the outlined objectives of the agency include maintenance of Victoria’s reputation as leading state in sports, improving the quality of community sport, strengthening the capacity of the sporting organizations, and improving the role of sports in people’s lives. Supporting the club would be viewed as agency’s commitment in ensuring adequate participation in communal sporting activities and strengthening of the capacity local soccer organizations to meet their objectives. If the club’s efficiency improves and scope of operation, then it is clear that the agency meets some of its objectives. Besides, the objective of the club is to increase opportunity for those passionate about football; however, the institution lacks the capacity to accommodate most people. In addition, poor ground could be the major factor contributing to less accumulation of resources. Soccer activities offers platform for enjoying the social benefits. However, there is need for the playing ground to maximize of the number of people visiting the playgrounds. Meeting such objectives depends on the nature of the field with consideration on the capacity of the ground and quality of the playing ground surfaces. Funding the project would assist the agency meet such goal since the capacity of those who will be seeking the social benefits from the field is likely to increase. In addition, the club would also increase its capacity to organize several games, which in turn draws the attention of many people to attend the matches. As a result, the club is likely to increase its capital base from attendants. Availability of resources and facilities determines the extent to which SRV meets its social benefit objectives. There are several talents lavishing at community levels with no agencies or institutions to tap owing to the limited amount of resources required to accommodate the rising numbers. Through investing financial resources in the club, the agency would assisting to nurture the talents and assist the local communities identify their potentials. To enable Victoria achieve its goal of being the leading state for sports and capacity to hold major events, SRV has to invest in activities that would allow realization of potential among the locals and participate in the development high standard sport grounds. The development of the ground would also draw the attention of the organizers of the major sporting events which in turn markets the club and allow it accumulate more financial resources required for future developments. Sport plays a significant role in lives of people (Victoria State Government, 2016). For the players, it gives them employment opportunities and a platform to display their talents while the local communities would enjoy the social benefits associated with sporting activities. Besides, the commitment by the state agency to growth the sport sector would also motivate the passionate players and local communities to support the club’s activities. There are several ways the agency could leverage its relationship with LTUFC. Firstly, the agency could ensure frequent interaction with the club to create a good rapport that contributes to effective communication. To work in integrative manner, there is need for each institution has to acquire the trust of each other and interaction offers an opportunity for such platform. Secondly, agency could offer to advice the club on the development within the sporting sector from time to time. As a result, both parties would have the opportunity to understanding the operational frameworks that guide each institution. Thirdly, while interacting, the communication should be based on lifetime relationship but not funding of the project. The achievement of all the objectives require desirable amount of time and commitment from other stakeholders. Moreover, effective communication and commitment by the agency to ensuring the success of the club would be clear indication of it leveraging on the relationship of the two institutions. Budget, Investment, and Evaluation The club wishes to replace the grounds. Such objective forms the basis of the application to ensure efficient replacement of the old soccer grounds. However, from the quotation, the project would cost $670,000. To show commitment to the fulfillment of the objective, the club gathered finances from other avenues including levies from the members, savings from the bank, and funds from the local government, which summed to $100,000, $20,000, and $500,000 respectively. The schedule of payment for the project would be based on the contra method to prevent embezzlement and mismanagement of the limited resources. There are several problems associated with cash payments, which the project has to avoid ensuring credibility, transparency, and acquisition of the donor’s trust. Contra schedules reduce financial accessibility of most project managers; as a result, it reduces the probability of mismanagement as everything remains in check. The club only needs to bear the cost of ensuring it commits itself to ensuring the achievement of the objectives by both parties. Therefore, it is significant properly monitor and evaluate the outlined activities to ascertain that the project is achieving the required goals. The club would evaluate the success of the project through monitoring the number of people seeking opportunities and the amount of revenues generated from the sporting activities. Moreover, the club would leverage its relationship with the agency through continuously communicating the progress of the project and frequently seeking legal advice on matters relating sporting activities. The club would also focus on the methods of acquiring the trust through accountability measures. References Australian Football League. (2005). AFL record guide to season: The official statistical history of the AFL : a publication of the Australian Football League. Docklands, Vic.: AFL Pub. Castro, M. G., & Unesco. (2002). Cultivating life, disarming violences: Experiences in education, culture, leisure, sports and citezenship with youths in poverty situations. Brasília, DF: Unesco Brazil Editions. Victoria State Government. (2016). Sport and Recreation Victoria. Retrieved from http://sport.vic.gov.au/about-sport-in-victoria/the-role-of-sport-and-recreation-victoria] Read More