Almost every football club in the world endeavours to maximise its income through commercial ventures of varying sorts. Glenavon FC is no different. Instance our matchday sponsorships (match £500, ball £150 and Man of the Match £100), stadium advertising, club lottery, matchday programme, shirt sponsorships, Bedeck Suite functions, draws, one-off events etc. To be successful on the commercial side a club needs a small dedicated band of supporters with ideas and initiative, prepared to devote no more than a couple of hours each month to the requisite planning, organising and promotion which is so essential behind most ventures. At the present time our club is trying to recruit such a team. Disappointingly at an initial meeting arranged for Monday of this week by our club’s new Commercial Director only two supporters turned up.
It has been well documented that Glenavon cannot exist as a Premiership force on gate receipts alone. An effective commercial arm is quite simply a must. A few years back “Mourneview Needs You”, “Who Wants To Be a Thousandaire” and more recently the “Mega Draw 1” brought income unheard of in times past that enabled the Manager to press ahead and recruit better quality players. Achieving European qualification over the past three seasons has undoubtedly helped him push even further ahead to build an attractive competitive team graced with some of the League’s best players and witnessed Glenavon established again as one of the top clubs in the Danske Bank Premiership. However only a fool would sit back and take UEFA funding season after season for granted. What happens if Glenavon do not qualify? That is where commercial income is so, so important by ensuring that failure to secure a European place does not have financial implications for our club.
Thus the significance of establishing a pro-active commercial committee to work alongside the Commercial manager. Can YOU spare a few hours a month for the sake of Glenavon and in doing so hopefully help secure the financial future of our club in the years to come? If you believe you have the talent, the ideas, the energy and the time don’t sit back and leave it to others. Come along to the next meeting planned for Thursday of this week at 7.30pm in the Boardroom and meet with our Commercial Manager. This is your personal invitation!
To those who feel committees are not their thing – and that is perfectly understandable with some folk – an active part can still be played by supporting the various fundraising ventures which our club currently promotes. Some of those were mentioned earlier and the Commercial Committee once up and running will hopefully be promoting a number of interesting new ones. Whether its agreeing to become a member of the Commercial Committee or of the highly valued “Mourneview Needs You”, or sponsoring on a match day, or advertising around Mourneview Park or in the club programme, or selling or buying lottery or Mega Draw 2 tickets or simply supporting an organised event YOU as a Glenavon supporter have a part to play in ensuring our club continues to be one of the leaders in the local game.
Today, it still very much remains the case that Mourneview needs YOU.
