Sports Funding: Melbourne City Football - Case Study Example

Table of Contents Executive Summary 2 Cover Letter 4 1.Sport Property 6 1.1.About the Sports Organization 6 1.2. History of the Organization 6 1.3. Goals and Objectives 7 1.4. Event Information 7 2.Target Markets 9 3.Promotional Plan 9 3.1. Melbourne Football Club Website 10 3.2. Social Media 10 3.3. Television and Radio 10 3.4. Newspapers 11 4.Benefits of the Sponsorship Agreement 11 4.1. License and Endorsements 11 4.2. Contracts 12 4.3.Exclusive Content 12 4.4.Online Benefits 13 4.5. Customer added value 13 4.6. Signage 13 5.Creative Leverage 13 5.1. Company Mission 14 5.2. Company Vision 14 5.3. Goals and Objectives 14 5.4. Benefits for both parties 15 5.5. Combating Ambush Marketing 15 6.Budget, Investment and Evaluation 16 6.1. Budget 16 6.2. Investment 16 6.3. Evaluation 17 7.Marketing Plan for the Property 18 7.1. Situation Analysis 19 7.1.1.The SWOT Analysis 19 7.1.2.The PEST Analysis 21 7.1.3.Competitor Analysis 22 8.Inventory of Assets 23 References 24 Sports Funding and Sponsorship Proposal Executive Summary Melbourne city football club is one of the only two football clubs in Melbourne that participate in the Australian A-league. The club is owned by city football club and M.S holdings Australia. The club activities and home games are held at the AAMI park stadium located in Melbourne. The following funding and sponsorship proposal has been drafted to show the benefits and the financial obligations that will be assumed by the Coca-Cola Company if they agree to enter a sponsorship agreement with this football club. Some of the benefits that the Coca-Cola Company will be able to enjoy include the right to use the properties of Melbourne City football club to promote their brand and market their products. In order to gain these rights, the Coca-Cola Company will be subjected to some financial obligations that will help to sponsor the events of Melbourne city football club. The benefits and obligations of this sponsorship will be explained in the proposal. Cover Letter 1st June 2015 Managing Director, Coca-Cola Company Limited, Australia, 40 Mount St North Sidney NSW, Australia. Dear Sir, Thank you for inviting us to discuss your sponsorship marketing objectives. We enjoyed the meeting and are confident that we have prepared a good marketing proposal that will enable your company to meet both its immediate and long-term goals. Your situation The Coca-Cola Company is currently one of the leading producers and sellers of soft drinks in Australia. The company’s closest competitor is Pepsi Company Limited that produces the same products and competes for the same market. Your objectives From the meeting between your company and our football club, we were able to assess that the specific sponsorship marketing objectives are to: Increase the awareness of the Coca-Cola products in Melbourne and other parts of Australia. Make use of the Melbourne City club products to promote the Coca-Cola brand all over Australia. The Project Melbourne City FC has a lot of events lined up throughout the year as will be listed this sponsorship proposal where the Coca-Cola Company will have a lot of opportunities to market their products and their brand. Marketing and promotional benefits Through this sponsorship agreement the company will be able to get some benefits such as access to exclusive club content, signage benefits, online benefits and customer added values. These benefits will enable the company to attract more customers and promote their brand Investment Your investment in the Melbourne City FC events will be paid back many times because of your organization’s improved ability to cultivate new fans and ticket sales for the club. The next step I have attached a detailed proposal for the Melbourne football club events. Included in the proposal are the media marketing strategies and the public relations and promotional strategies. Thankyouonceagainfortheopportunitytosubitthisproposalwelookfowardtohavingapartnershipwithyouandwehopethatwewillhavethechancetocontributetothesuccessofyourorganizationinthelongrun Yours sincerely, (Insert Name) Sponsorship Director. 1. Sport Property 1.1. About the Sports Organization Melbourne City Football Club (MCFC) is a professional soccer club in Australia. The club is based in Melbourne, Victoria. This club has been licensed by the football federation of Australia to play in the Australian premier competition, the A-league (Danforth, 2010). This football club was founded in 2009 and played for the 2010-2011 A-league season. It was originally known as the Melbourne Heart before it was acquired and rebranded in 2014 by the City Football Club and Holding M.S Australia. The club operates from a facility in La Trobe University, Melbourne. Its home matches and training is done at the Melbourne Rectangular Stadium (AAMI park stadium) a 30,050 seat stadium located in the City Centre. This club also has an affiliated NPL team that plays in the National Premier League and a youth team that participates in the National Youth League (Danforth, 2010). 1.2. History of the Organization As one of the recommendations of the Crawford report, the National Soccer League of Australia was dissolved in 2003. Plans were later drawn up to create a new national league that was to begin in the next season. The football federation of Australia had a policy that only allowed one team per city to participate in the competition and Melbourne Victory won the license to participate in the national league, now known as the A-league. In 2008, the former vice president of Carlton football club and a business man named Colin DeLutis expressed their interest in having a new club from Melbourne to participate in the national league. The FFA considered the possibility of expanding the number of teams in the league from 8 to 12. There were three teams bidding to fill in the position of the second team for Melbourne. These teams were Melbourne City, Melbourne Hearts and Southern Cross FC. Melbourne City dropped their bid in July, 2008 and Melbourne Hearts won the bid in September, 2008. The team was officially given its license to participate in the 2010-2011 season on 12th June 2009. On 23rd January 2014, the official announcement was made that the team had been acquired by the city football group. This is what led to the change of name from the Melbourne Hearts to the Melbourne City Football Club. 1.3. Goals and Objectives This football club has a set of goals and objectives that the organization works hard to achieve. The following are the goals and objectives of the football club. To maintain a good club image in Melbourne and all other cities of Australia. To create a club that is attractive to some of the best players and coaches in Australia and other parts of the world. The club is run by a professional group of staff that is informative and can be approached by any player or coach. To develop a great team of players that will participate in the Australian national soccer league to the best of their ability. To develop a good team of professional young players to participate in the national youth league. The youth programme will also help to support the youth so that they can participate in productive things such as sports. To participate in development projects in Melbourne with extra money collected from the club’s activities and events. 1.4. Event Information Since its inauguration, the Melbourne City Football Club has been scheduled to participate in a number of events. The main event of the club is the A-league. The A-league is the national Premier league that attracts fans from all over the country. Hundreds of thousands of people from all over Australia get to attend different matches of this league. The league also attracts media attention all over the country. It is covered in different forms of media including the television, radio, internet and newspaper among others. Aside from the national league, this football club also participates in different friendly matches with other teams from inside and outside of Australia. Melbourne City Football Club has an official stadium where all the home matches are held. This stadium is known as the Melbourne rectangular stadium commonly known as the AAMI park stadium. This stadium has the capacity to carry 30,050 people and is equipped with modern seats that make the fans as comfortable as possible. The club has previously been successful in hosting football events in this stadium. In all events, they have been able to sell out all the tickets. The security in all their events has also been relatively good as they have managed to have peaceful hosting every time they have a team coming to play at their home. The following are some of the Club’s events that are scheduled for the year 2015-2016. Date Event Venue 16/9/2014 Melbourne City vs. Central coast mariners Etihad Stadium 27/9/2014 Melbourne City vs. Brisbane Roar AAMI Park Stadium 2/10/2014 Melbourne City vs. Adelaide United AAMI Parks stadium 10/10/2014 Melbourne City vs. Sidney FC Suncor Stadium 21/10/2014 Melbourne City vs. Perth Glory AAMI Park 3/1/2015 Melbourne City vs. Wellington Phoenix Westpac stadium 16/1/2015 Melbourne City vs. Central Coast Marine Central Coast stadium 27/9/2015 Melbourne City vs. Melbourne Victory Etihad stadium 27/9/2015 Melbourne City vs. Adelaide United AAMI Park Stadium 27/9/2015 Melbourne City vs. Newcastle Jets Hunter stadium 2. Target Markets Soccer is a very interesting sport that can be enjoyed by nearly everyone. In theory, this game is accessible to men and women, adults or children irrespective of their religion social class race or education. For this reason, the demographic segmentation of the people who would be interested in the events of MCFC is quite broad. Similarly, it is difficult to limit the psychographic segmentation of the people who would be interested in supporting this team. Geographically, the club is limited to Melbourne. Although there are some fans who would be willing to travel long distances to watch the games of MCFC, it is realistic to limit the target market to the people living within the city in places that are at most120 minutes from the club’s stadium. The club’s stadium has the capacity to carry up to 30,050 people hence the people in the specified areas are more than enough to fill the stadium. Although this game can be enjoyed by anyone, most of the football fans are usually men. According to a sports research, approximately 80% of all the football fans are male. The club events will therefore target more men than women. The adult segment of the market is also targeted more by this club because they have purchasing power and the power to make their own decisions. As opposed to the adults, the children do not have their money to purchase the club products and pay for the event tickets they also lack the power to make decisions and attend the events without permission from their parents or guardians. 3. Promotional Plan From the previous chapter, it is clear that Melbourne City FC participates in both friendly and A-league matches. Different media outlets will be used to promote these events. The following promotion plan has been used to market the club and its events so as to get the right people attending the events and paying the right prices. 3.1. Melbourne Football Club Website The primary source of information for the club events is the club website. All information on new games being played by the club, both friendly and unfriendly, will be included in the news sections of the website. The site will also include fixtures for all the dates and venues of the club’s games in the A-league. This mainly targets people who are already fans of the club and they visit the club website frequently. 3.2. Social Media Social media sites are the most visited sites in all parts of the world and therefore using them for promotion will enable the club to reach a wider audience. The club has social media accounts in all the famous sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram which will all be used for the purpose of promoting the club events. Information to be shared in these sites includes the dates, time, venue and ticket prices of all the events. The fans will also get information about the places they can purchase the tickets for the events. 3.3. Television and Radio Television and radios are watched and listened to by almost every single person in Australia. Television media will be used to advertise the match fixtures in the sports segment of the news and also in the sports channels such as Super Sport. Radio stations will also be very useful in announcing information about the games including the dates of the matches, the venues and the time. Ticket information will also be announced in these sites. 3.4. Newspapers Newspaper dailies and weeklies all over Australia will be used to announce the events of Melbourne City Football Club. In the sports sections of the newspapers, fans will be able to get relevant information on the tickets for all the matches and the places they can acquire them. 4. Benefits of the Sponsorship Agreement The sponsorship agreement has been set in such a way that both parties involved will be able to gain some benefits. By agreeing to this sponsorship agreement, the Coca-Cola Company will not only fund the Melbourne City Football Club but they will also get some benefits that will help them to achieve some of their goals and objectives as a company. Most of the benefits of the contract will allow the Coca-Cola Company to achieve its benefit of making their products number one selling product in all areas of the world. The following are the benefits that the Coca-Cola Company stands to get by signing the sponsorship agreement. 4.1. License and Endorsements By agreeing to this sponsorship, the Coca-Cola Company will acquire the license to use the products of the Melbourne city football club to market their products. This implies that the company will be able to use the club logo, images or events to promote the Coca-Cola products in any way they deem fit. They will also be allowed to use the club players to help promote their products. This agreement will also lead to the club gaining responsibility in endorsing the products of the Coca-Cola Company. The Coca-Cola Company logo will be included in some of the club merchandise such as the players’ jerseys the club’s website, the club’s event tickets, club magazines and also at the club’s stadium. During the club events the attendants will be able to get souvenirs courtesy of the Melbourne City Football Club. This will help them to get more acquainted with the products of the Coca-Cola Company. The fans of this team will also be able to gain a lot of interest in the Coca-Cola products just by learning that they are one of the club’s sponsors. The agreement also gives the Coca-Cola Company the right to create co-branded merchandise to be sold for the benefit of both parties. For example, the two organizations can co-create fan jerseys branded with both organization’s logos and the revenue be shared between the organizations. 4.2. Contracts The company will be able to get a significant discount for the contracts if it is a three or more year agreement. If a long term sponsorship contract is signed between the two parties, 15% of the contract fee will be reduced as a discount. At the maturity of the contract, the Coca-Cola Company will be given first priority in choosing whether the contract should be renewed or not. 4.3. Exclusive Content This agreement will give the Coca-Cola Company access to exclusive content about the club including activity, star players training dates and event dates. The company will also have access to background information about the club including the club statistics autographs of the star players and exclusive pictures and videos. This information will be useful for the company because they can use it in their social media sites to gain more followers, their website to get more visitors and advertising. The company will also get exclusive access to the club premises, be able to meet the star players and attend all the club events. 4.4. Online Benefits Accepting to be an official sponsor of the Melbourne City Football Club will also get the Coca-Cola Company some online benefits. The social media sites, the websites and the e-newsletters of the MCFC will be used to market the products of Coca-Cola Company. In addition to the products, these sites will also be used to advertise any activities that have been planned by the Coca-Cola Company. A link to the Coca-Cola website will also be put in the website of the football club so that their fans can have easier access to the Coca-Cola company website. 4.5. Customer added value There are also some benefits that the Coca-Cola Company will be able to pass on to their customers and their target customers. For instance, they can use the tickets to Melbourne City FC events as a gift to selected people who purchase their products. Special customers can also have access to some special things such as earlier access to the event tickets, exclusive access to the stadium and special parking space at the event. 4.6. Signage With this sponsorship agreement, the Coca-Cola Company will also get partial signage rights for all the events hosted by Melbourne City Football Club to be shared with other sponsors of the club activities. Melbourne city football club events attract tens of thousands of people and therefore this signage right will increase awareness of the Coca-Cola products. The signage right will also apply in all press conferences held by the club to members of the public. 5. Creative Leverage The Coca-Cola Company is one of the biggest multinational companies in the entire world. The company is operated in over a hundred countries worldwide. This firm being such a big company has some long-term and short-term goals that it must achieve in order to continue thriving as a business in the next decade and even beyond that (Armus, 2005). The company also has a mission and vision that could be achieved by partnering with the Melbourne city football club. The following is the mission and vision of the company and some of the goals and objectives it has to achieve 5.1. Company Mission The Coca-Cola Company has a mission to refresh people in body mind and spirit, to make a difference and inspire some values and to inspire moments of happiness through the company brand and products. 5.2. Company Vision People: Be a good place of work where individuals are enthused to be the greatest they can be. Portfolio: Convey to the people a portfolio of superior beverage brands that satisfy people's wishes and needs. Partners: Develop a winning system of customers and merchants, together we create joint, enduring value. Planet: Be a liable company that makes a change by helping shape and support sustainable societies. Profit: Exploit long-term returns to shareowners whereas being watchful of our overall tasks. Productivity: Be a highly operative, lean and fast-moving business. 5.3. Goals and Objectives The main aims of the Coca-Cola Company are to be known globally as a corporate that conducts business accountability and honorably and to hasten sustainable growth to function in the future world. The decision making process is one of the key aspects in any corporate. This company also has the goal of maintaining a good decision making team to ensure all company objectives are met. 5.4. Benefits for both parties Through this sponsorship agreement, both the Coca-Cola Company and Melbourne city football club will get some benefits. The club will mainly gain financial help because the Coca-Cola Company will be required to provide some agreed amount of money. The club will also gain some public relations benefits since the will be associated with a company as big as the Coca-Cola company. This agreement will also be very useful for the Coca-Cola Company because through it they will be able to achieve some of the things in their vision, mission, goals and objectives. Through this partnership, the company will be seen globally as the corporate that has sponsored the activities of Melbourne city FC. Through this sponsorship, the company will get a chance to impact more lives, refresh more people and also increase the awareness of the brand. The main benefits that the company will get have been listed in chapter 4. 5.5. Combating Ambush Marketing The club has taken some measures that will ensure all the cases of ambush marketing are prevented and dealt with accordingly (Meenaghan, 1998). The company has used some law mechanisms that will be signed by both parties to make sure that ambush marketing is totally combated. Some of the things that will be included in the legal agreements include the property rights and consumer protection laws. 6. Budget, Investment and Evaluation 6.1. Budget The following is the budget of the Melbourne city football club for the year 2015-2016. The budget has taken into account all the funds that are needed to successfully run the operations of the club. Facilities The club does not own its own facilities and therefore some money is paid to hire the office, training and home matches’ facility. The total cost of facility renting is 2,000,000 dollars annually. Players and Referees The salaries of the players and referees, their accommodation and travel costs also have to be catered for by the club. These costs amount to 20,000,000 Kit and other equipment The money to cater for players’ jerseys, the training equipment and footballs amount to 1,500,000 dollars Affiliations The A-league registration fee is 1,000,000 Travel Travel costs to the away matches and other club activities venues is 7,500,000. 6.2. Investment The club has a number of investments from where it gets the money to pay for the financial obligations listed above. The following are the sources of money for the club. Subscriptions The club has a youth team that trains young people to become good football players. The training fees in this youth camp are paid monthly. Membership There is a membership program for the club fans in Melbourne and other Australian cities. The membership cards are sold at different prices depending on whether the card is a gold, silver or bronze type. The fans who own such cards get some benefits from the club such as reduced percentage in ticket prices. Match Income This is the biggest source of income for the club. The Melbourne city FC matches attract over 30, 000 people who generate over ten million dollars per match. 6.3. Evaluation The club has come up with a list of some of the sponsorship packages from which the Coca-Cola Company can choose the best one that enables them to achieve their marketing goals and objectives. The sponsorship packages have been divided into the platinum, gold and the silver package. These different packages have different financial obligations and different benefits as listed below. All the benefits that have not been listed in the sponsorship package evaluation are enjoyed by all packages. i. Platinum This is the highest sponsorship package proposal. It has the most benefits and the highest financial obligations. With this package, the Coca-Cola Company will be required to support the club with a total of 5,000,000 dollars annually until the maturity of the contract. This contract has the most benefits for the company. With this package, the company will gain the following benefits. Signage rights in every event held by the club and the press conferences Advertisement rights on the players’ jersey fronts Website advertisements on the club homepage Access to exclusive club content First hand access to 10 tickets for all events ii. Gold This is the second best package. It also has some benefits but they are fewer than the platinum choice but more than the silver package. Under this package, the Coca-Cola Company will be required to make a 3,000,000 financial obligation to the club to be paid annually until the maturity of the contract. The following are the benefits that are attached to this package. The company will have signage benefits for the weekend games only Advertisement rights on the jersey shorts Website advertisement rights Access to five tickets for all club matches iii. Silver This is the cheapest sponsorship package but has the lowest benefits. Under this package the company will make a cash obligation of 1,500,000 dollars annually until the contract matures. The following are the benefits that are associated with the following sponsorship package. Signage benefits for only the final games and the press conferences Advertisement rights on the jersey sleeves Access to five tickets for weekend and final games 7. Marketing Plan for the Property The following marketing plan will be used by the organization to market its property. The clubs main property that should be marketed is the club events. The club has friendly and unfriendly matches held throughout the year and with proper marketing they will be able to attract hundreds of thousands of people in these events. This marketing plan has taken into consideration the situation analysis using SWOT analysis, PEST analysis and Competitors analysis. The plan also demonstrates proper understanding of the brand’s bull’s eye to make sure that the marketing plan is as effective as possible. 7.1. Situation Analysis 7.1.1. The SWOT Analysis The club thought it was necessary to carry out a SWOT analysis in order to determine the internal and the external factors that affect the marketing of the club property. The strengths and the weaknesses of the club will be represented in the internal factors while the opportunities and threats are represented in the external factors (Hill & Westbrook, 1997). Internal Factors i. Strengths This football club is supported by a good leadership committee that makes sure that all the club objectives are fulfilled. The club has an efficient board of directors and managerial staff that is filled with a team of professionals with a lot of experience in sports club management. Most shares of the company are owned by City Football Club (80%) with the minor shares being owned by Holding M.S Australia. The manager of the club is known as john Van’t Schip with Luciano Trani as his assistant. Melbourne City Football Club is one of the only two clubs in Melbourne city that participate in the national league of Australia, the A-league. For this reason, this team has a very wide fan base that is a good marketing target for the club’s property ii. Weaknesses The team’s A-league performances when compared to their city rivals Melbourne victory has been relatively poor. The performance rate of the team has led to the loss of many fans to their rivals thus making it a bit hard to market the firm properties to the people of Melbourne City. External Factors i. Opportunities Melbourne city football club is a relatively new club in the Australian football which makes it has a lot of potential for improvement. The club was officially inaugurated in 2009 which means it has only existed for six years. In the six years of playing in the national league, the company has been showing some improvement in its performances. This team has now managed to make it to the top six performers of the national league. The club has also been able to sign some of the best players in Australia and still has the potential to get more of them. ii. Threats Other firms that are already in the market for sports products have been in the business for a relatively longer time compared to Melbourne City Football Club. This gives them a better understanding of the market and the exact needs that the market has from their long time in the Australian market. These football clubs have also been able to capture the attention of a large segment of the population therefore the company will have a harder time gaining the attention of the customers. 7.1.2. The PEST Analysis The club has used the PEST analysis to analyze the macro-environmental factors that will affect the marketing of the products. These include the political, economic, social and technological factors that will affect the marketing of the club products (Peng & Nunes, 1997). i. Political Factors Melbourne city football club is highly supported by the city council of Melbourne city. The council has allowed the club to use the council’s coat of arms in the club logo in exchange of helping in the city community program. Because of this partnership, the club has maintained a good political relationship with the city council. ii. Economic Factors The club has been able to create economic impact in Melbourne and the rest of Australia. Through its operations, the club has created a lot of employment opportunities for the club officials, the players and the rest of the workers in the club premises at La Trobe University, Melbourne. In addition to the employment opportunities, this football club has also played a big role as a catalyst for economic development. The financial flow generated from the club activities and events have been used to sponsor development projects and also fund the government in form of taxes. iii. Social Factors Melbourne city football club just like any other football team has united tens of thousands of people in Melbourne and other cities of Australia. The club events have enabled social interactions between people from different walk of life. People from different age groups come together to watch the Melbourne city FC games. Football has become an important game that has impacted the Australian society positively. iv. Technological Factors Technology has played an important role in the Australian football world. In particular, Melbourne football club has been able to use the advancement in technology to positively impact the club and society as a whole. For example, fans of the club who cannot manage to attend the matches can still manage to be a part of the games through the live coverage on different media outlets and online streaming on the club website and sites like YouTube. Technology has also made it possible for the club to interact directly with the fans through social media to find out their expectations and use this information for the development of the club and customer satisfaction. 7.1.3. Competitor Analysis The competitor analysis is important for this club’s marketing plan because it helps to understand the other companies that are already selling the same products and the market trends that the club needs to consider when making the plan (Zaiac & Bazerman, 1991). In order to properly understand the existing competitors, the club has analyzed some of the strengths and weaknesses of the competitors and the kinds of products they are selling. The closest competitor to this football club is the Melbourne Victory Football club that is also based in Melbourne City, Australia. This club has been in the market longer than Melbourne City FC and therefore has some advantages over them. This club started participating in the A-league immediately it was formed and was the only team in Melbourne that was in the league. Therefore, they got to monopolize the football market for some time before Melbourne City FC could finally join them. This has helped them to acquire more fans from the city and places around it. The club also performs relatively well compared to Melbourne City FC. However, one weakness that the Melbourne Victory Football Club has shown is that its products are relatively expensive. Most of its property targets the higher income earners. This club will try to subsidize its products so that they can attract more people than their rivals. 8. Inventory of Assets The following is the list of assets that are owned by Melbourne City Football Club. Asset…………………………………………………………… value (in Dollars) Liquid money…………………………………………………………100,000,000 The youth training academy………………………………………….. 50,000,000 Club Busses………………………………………………………….. 15,000,000 Club Cars……………………………………………………………..9,000,000 References Decker, J. (1991). Seven steps to sponsorship. Parks & Recreation (Arlington), 26(12), 44-48. Irwin, R. L. (1995). A model for screening sport sponsorship opportunities. Journal of Promotion Management, 2(3-4), 53-70. Sunshine, K. M., Backman, K. F., & Backman, S. J. (1995). An examination of sponsorship proposals in relation to corporate objectives. Festival Management and Event Tourism, 2(3-4), 159-166. Cornwall, T. B. (2008). State of art and science in sponsorship-linked marketing. Journal of Advertising, 37(3), 41-55. Skinner, B. E., & Rukavina, V. (2003). Event sponsorship. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Fullerton, S. (2006). 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