To all part-owners, supporters and friends of AFC Rushden & Diamonds.
It was great to see so many of you at Newport Pagnell yesterday. As you can imagine, and as expected, I received a lot of questions around the Main Club Sponsorship and everyone was keen to hear if there had been much progress.
I was on co-commentary alongside the brilliant Joseph McCormack on Radio Diamonds during the first-half yesterday and spoke about this, amongst many other things. You can listen back to it here:
Do we have a Main Club Sponsor? No. But i'll come on to that shortly. I want to focus initially on the positives, of which there are many.
I'd firstly like to thank all of those that reached out to me personally following my previous open letter a month or so ago. Whilst we haven't been able to get the job done, opening up conversations with numerous supporters who want to help wherever they can has been brilliant.
I've spoken at length about the Commercial Working Group that was put together back in April and the phenomenal work that's being done on an almost 24/7 basis to ensure that we reach the level of success commercially that we have budgeted for. As I write this letter, we have contacted 1,238 businesses since the end of April which is impressive in itself. But what's even more impressive is that we have been able to grow the overall number of sponsors from 16 last season, to 44 (and counting) this year, including 6 in the last week.
This is fantastic for the Club not just now, but ongoing. For years - possibly always - we have been heavily reliant on one Main Club Sponsor giving us a significant amount of money. What we are doing here is building a solid base that moves the Club away from a reliance on one particular sponsor and the 'Brand Champion' scheme that we've implemented this year should help our sponsors realise genuine return on investment, making renewals easier for us in 12 months time. It's ultimately making The Club, and the business model, more sustainable, which has always been our aim since we came on to the board in 2022.
As it stands we are closing in on hitting 70% of commercial budget, despite not having sold the Main Club Sponsorship. To give you some insight, last year the Main Club Sponsorship represented 60% of the overall commercial output. This alone emphasises the strides we have made this summer.
I haven't publicly thanked those in the group until now, but if you know and/or see Jamie Horsman, Cameron Lee or Alfie Foster at future matches, make sure you give them a big pat on the back. Three guys that have given up their summer and worked alongside the Board to get us where we are today.
To bring everyone up to speed on where we currently stand on the Main Club Sponsorship, at the end of June we made a decision to stop actively seeking a Main Club Sponsor. Instead, we have decided to split the shirts up in a bid to sell them individually at a much lower value. Instead of looking for £15-£20k from one Main Club Sponsor, we have been seeking a Front of Shirt Sponsor. We have been looking at £8k for the Home Shirt, £8k for the Away and Third Shirt combined, or £14k for all three shirts.
This change hasn't had the desired effect and whilst we still have one lead being worked on, we are now approaching the 'make us an offer' stage.
Before it gets to that, i wanted to make one final plea to you. To those reading this. To those that care.
Please ask the question of your employer. Ask the question of friends, family or those you are acquainted with that are involved in business. The worst thing that can happen is that they say no.
If we can get this over the line now at this late stage, the PR that we can offer locally is immense.
If we can collectively get this over the line now, we can break commercial records and take the Club to new heights.
If you have any lead at all – please reach out to me on alex.raspin@afc-diamonds.com, or message me on social media.
There's one big push required now. Let's make it happen.
Yours sincerely,
Alex Raspin
Vice Chairman & Commercial Director
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