4.3.6. Institutions
Institutions are consulted by clubs for any major event, like
move from stadium, but they also work together on many projects for the
community. Liverpool also created a full colour Community Newsletter in order
to improve communication on the work they do. Four thousand of copies are
distributed twice in the season.
Institutions expect the clubs to develop solidarity within the
community and to be an important economical actor. Archer (1995) and Mendelow
(1991) recommend, through their model, that clubs should adopt an opportunist
attitude towards institutions with minimum efforts. In France, this advice is
followed: excepted some invitations to games, clubs do not really take care of
institutions. This can also be explained by the decrease of forty-four percent
over the past four years of the subventions R.C. Lens received from
institutions. Economically, things are different. R.C. lens, for example, tries
to work as much as possible with companies from the same industrial region.
According to Maillard (2003), £20 million were spent locally, by the club,
in the last two years and the club employs 240 people. The local taxes paid by
the club are about £1.6 million per year. British clubs are more involved
in the community: they organise stadium tours, stage soccer schools for
children, they occasionally send their coaches to schools. Stoke City
F.C. even host birthday parties at the stadium! Liverpool F.C.
built a youth academy at Kirkby to help children with the school work, it also
works on an integration program set up for truants and delinquents. LFC spread
also a part of its profits between local and national charities. According to
Johnstone (2002), 3,000 full-time jobs in the Merseyside economy depend on the
football industry and football is used as a competitive tool in the declining
local economy. For every £1 spent by the clubs (LFC and Everton),
£0.31 remains in the city of Liverpool.
4.3.7. Organizations
Football clubs' top managers (often the presidents) are
permanently communicating with the national football organizations because they
organise the football competition and judge the conflicts.
How stakeholders influence football clubs' strategy ? September
2003
Theorists would consider those organisations as key players, and
they are. Clubs do not really have to manage this stakeholders group because
they have to comply with the decisions of the league. The only influence clubs
may have on these stakeholders is through interests groups.
4.3.8. Sponsors
Football clubs have commercial departments to deal with the
sponsors. They are often in contact with them to negotiate contracts, but they
also meet them at the stadium on match day.
Sponsors expect to have a welcoming access to games, to increase
their notoriety and to set up commercial promotions with the clubs. At R.C.
Lens, the club installed special luxury rooms for their sponsors to negotiate
business affairs and to invite their customers at the games. Felix Bollaert
stadium has become a meeting place for the regional companies. The club also
tries to always meet its 450 sponsors' expectations (Mendelow (1991) recommends
keeping them satisfied) and works with them to develop commercial operations
targeting fans. Liverpool F.C. has an old tradition of sponsoring: it was the
first British club to have a shirt sponsor in 1978, according to Sir Norman
Chester Centre (2002). The club is said to be in regular contacts with these
stakeholders and it seems to be efficient: the clubs' main sponsor, Carlsberg,
is a business partner for more than ten years and just signed a new
three-year-deal worth up to £15 million over the next three seasons. LFC
also keeps its equipments sponsor, Reebok, and has just signed a new contract
with them. Less important clubs maintain their good relationships with their
sponsors and these are often due to personal connections between top managers
of both organizations.
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