The club
How Witton Albion raised money off the pitch, 2006–09
A historical record of the sponsorship packages Witton Albion advertised in 2008 and 2009, the local firms that backed the club and the fundraising nights held at Wincham Park. None of it is on offer from this archive.
A semi-professional football club lives on gate money, a bar and whatever local businesses can be persuaded to pay for. The old Witton Albion website set out the last of these in a page called "Commercial Options", and its news pages recorded the dinners, race nights and Christmas events that made up the rest. Together they show how a club at the seventh level of English football paid its way in the late 2000s.
This page is a historical record. The prices are those of 2008 and 2009, the offers ended long ago, and this archive has no connection with the club and nothing to sell. Anyone interested in sponsoring Witton Albion today should approach the club itself.
What sponsorship cost
The page was archived twice, in January 2008 and April 2009, and the prices changed between the two.
| Package | What it included | January 2008 | April 2009 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Matchday sponsor | Programme advertisement, public-address announcement, food and refreshments in the boardroom, a memento | £250 for two people, £300 for four, £350 for six | £350 for up to ten people |
| Matchball sponsor | Programme credit, announcement, boardroom hospitality, a signed ball | £150 for two people | £200 for up to four people |
| Player sponsorship | Programme credit and a signed shirt at the end of the season | £100 a season | £100 a season |
| Vice-president's ticket | Entry to all league and cup matches, programme credit, boardroom hospitality | £500 a season | Not listed |
| Perimeter board (listed as "16x3") | Pitch-side advertising | £250 a year | £300 a year |
Programme advertising was priced separately:
| Advertisement | January 2008 | April 2009 |
|---|---|---|
| Inside front cover, full page, colour | £300 a season | Not listed |
| Full page, colour | £250 a season | £400 a season |
| Half page, colour | £175 a season | £200 a season |
| Full page, black and white | Not listed | £325 a season |
| Half page, black and white | Not listed | £125 a season |
Sponsorship of the team coach and a "mascot for the day" scheme were by arrangement, and the club said it would tailor packages to order.
The changes are small but telling. Between the two lists the club went from the top of the table to the relegation places, and the matchday package was reshaped to bring in a larger party for the same top price.
The sponsors
In 2007–08 the first-team shirts were sponsored by Jack Richards & Son, a transport firm with premises at Lostock Gralam, and the reserves' by Buxton Accounting. Town & Country Motors and Turners Sandwich Shop sponsored the two terraces, and PP Racing the matchday programme. The full list is on the club profile page.
A separate sponsors' page added in the 2008–09 season thanked three local businesses: Jack Richards & Son again, Aandys Travel, and Town & Country Motors. The homepage that season also carried the name of Len Cooke Financial Consultants.
The club's news pages record the small ceremonies that went with all this: a presentation evening at which sponsors were shown the new home shirt, and another for the reserve team's sponsor.
The social club and fundraising nights
Wincham Park had a social club that was let for private functions. In January 2007 the hire charge was advertised at £50, which included a £25 drinks voucher and a happy hour.
The functions calendar was a fundraising tool in its own right. Items on the club's news pages between 2007 and 2008 include:
- a race night in January 2007, with the profits pledged to the manager's playing budget;
- the final of a "Miss Witton" contest the same month;
- a sportsman's dinner in November 2007 at which the former Everton captain and England defender Dave Watson spoke, followed by a comedian and an auction of signed shirts and boots;
- a winter ball on 22 December 2007, billed as an evening of fundraising for the club;
- evenings with Joe Royle and for St Patrick's Day in the spring of 2008.
After the sportsman's dinner the chairman, Mike Worthington, was quoted as saying how much such events contributed to the running of what he called a community football club.
Supporters' money
The clearest statement of how much the club depended on this kind of income came in May 2008. Announcing the return of the manager, Jim Vince, the acting chairman, Mark Harris, said that supporters' fundraising had been vital to the title challenge of 2007–08 and that the supporters had now agreed to raise more. A meeting was called for later that month at which a new commercial team was to be introduced to supporters. The story is summarised in the 2006–08 news digest.
It did not last. The playing budget was cut that summer, most of the squad left, and by November 2008 the league's own newsletter was reporting that officials were worried by falling attendances. Witton were relegated in April 2009.
The club also earned a reputation for using its website commercially. In May 2008 Worthington was invited to speak at a seminar on raising money online, partly on the strength of the advertising the club sold on its site and of its match video service.
Sources and notes
Prices and package details are from the Internet Archive's copies of the commercial page dated 23 January 2008 and 10 April 2009, and the sponsors from the club's pages of the same period. The page gave a named contact and a mobile telephone number, which are not reproduced. The description of Jack Richards & Son as a transport firm rests on the club's own wording ("for all your transportation needs") and the address it gave.