I haven't posted on here for a while as there appeared to be quite enough going on and as I am no longer a member of the Board I don't have any "secrets" to pass on! But I wanted to say a few words about finances and plans for 2012 season from a personal perspective as I don't think these type of "Offers" help a club like Fax.
We all know that any club only has a limited number of income generation methods
Funding from an individual or group of individuals (there are pros and cons about having a sugar daddy) but we should not underestimate how important "donations" have been at many stages of the Clubs history and I suspect still are in keeping the club alive - the Supporters Trust have done a marvellous job in this area.
Disquised sponsorship - this is where an individual/Group "hide" their donations behind sponsorship
Pure sponsorship - when the club sell something to someone who believe the price they are paying is commercial
Shared sponsorship - where clubs work together to sell their combined value (league or cup naming rights etc.)
Controlling sponsorship - where the governing body sell "rights" and funds are shared.
Prize money - usually generated as a sub-set of controlling or shared sponsorship
Club direct ancillary sales - everything from shirts, lotteries to match day parking and hospitality
Club indirect ancillary sales - funds generated from use of clubs facilities (hire of ground by third parties etc.)
gate receipts
Given the continued economic environment, the lack of the ability of any championship club to substantively grow it's fan base in the last 10 years ( despite valiant and varied efforts), the increased professionalism of the marketing teams producing limited results we need to accept that whilst we can move forward, and the club can benefit from efforts and donations - and at Fax we have had some extraordinary efforts from people over recent years- the only way to guarantee the security of the club AND deliver year on year a competitive team is for the club to be run by an individual (or small like-minded group) who are prepared to consistently inject funds.
This opens up huge potential risks, but is the model in ALL professional sport. Fiddling around the edges with season ticket offers simply moves the funding gap to somewhere else, or means th club will have less funds to spend on it's biggest cost- players.