One of the major sources of funding for sports below the highest level in future years is likely to be through crowd funding.
The democratisation of investment into business and the arts has taken off in the last two years with an increasing number of start up companies and arts projects looking to a broader audience of smaller financial might to raise funds to get started or develop.
Last week the Jamaican Bobsleigh team completed the raising of $120,000 to make sure they would have the right equipment to do themselves justice at the Winter Olympics next month in Russia. The Jamaican Olympic Council stepped in to cover travel costs but public support was needed to make sure of their participation.
Lincoln Wheeler, one of the individuals who got the funding under way on a service called crowd tilt said “this was about the idea that we, as fans, could have an opportunity to influence sports.”
Fundit is one of the best known crowd funding programmes running in Ireland but does not include sporting projects on its platform.
nTrai is being developed in Limerick and has already secured a number of high profile projects with which to start its offering. The Indoor Athletics Arena at Athlone Institute of Technology is one such project in its early stages, backing up their appeal with a video reproduced below.
“It is becoming a global movement in finance and is now active in every industry in the world. Crowd funding has become very popular in every sector in the US and Canada and is rapidly becoming the same in the UK and Ireland.”
“Sports is the latest entrant to the Crowd Funding revolution and it makes complete sense to any pro sports person team or club. It also give fans and communities the opportunity to follow and support an athletes journey.”
Fans or supporters who donate generally earn rewards which could range from a tweet to signed merchandise or special events featuring the individuals they are supporting.
It works for clubs who are in need of continual fundraising and moves to a broader audience, even an international one that goes a long way further than can be reached through flyers and cake sales.
There is also a strong crossover between sporting and cause projects like the Challenge Ten project presented at last year’s Sport for Business 20/20 event which is raising money for a round the world cycle in support of mental health awareness.
The greater the diversity of projects on a platform the more the audience can grow but ultimately it will be down to an individual or club’s own network to provide the initial kick start to get a project moving.
Crowd funding websites generally charge a fee of around 5% of the donation to cover the cost of promotion and hosting.
Sport for Business will host a Members’ Round Table on Crowd funding on Thursday 20th March. Contact us today if you would like to be a part of the discussion.
This is the video in support of the Athlone Institute of Technology Campaign on nTrai.
