How to raise money for a football pitch

[lesshaste]

My DS is football mad and starting reception in a primary school that my DD already goes to. A very nice dad runs the school football teams as a volunteer but apparently the rent of the pitch (from a local secondary academy) has gone up to £3000 now. The subs don't even begin to cover this once you factor in the costs of the kit etc. and we can't realistically increase them either The dad has asked us all if we can help in some way.

What are the options for raising money for something like this? We have asked the PTA who haven't replied yet but I am not 100% sure it is in their remit anyway as it only helps a small subset of the school. Does anyone have any experience of this sort of fund raising? Are there sports grants you can apply for?

[TeenAndTween]

No idea, but can you clarify what you are after:

• marking out white lines on a field the school already owns
• grassing up an area
• buying goal posts
• or an 'all weather' surface for playing on
• or just paying the rent at the secondary school

Have you got a ball park (like what I did there?) figure you need to raise as that will make a difference to advice?

[lesshaste]

TweenAndTween It's just paying for the use of the pitch at the secondary school. We really need to raise close to £3000. The subs pay for the kit and other small things and we used to have an EU grant of 1500 but that scheme has ended.

[Scattrercushion]

Have you seen the thread on cake sales?!

[JackieAndHyde4eva]

Contact local fooball club and ask about holding a penalty shoot out fun day with their players. Maybe they could donate a jersey for raffle. Have a parents/teachers blitz day (not sure if blitz is the right word for soccer?)

[smellyboot]

Change venue. Pitch hire here is more like £70- 100 / hour for a huge astro or 3G to accommodate several teams. One team training at an off peak time would be £15-30 on a part pitch for a junior team. City location but not london.

[nancy75]

Agree with smelly, the way to go is to look for another site, how often is the pitch used?

[BikeRunSki]

Local sponsorship - business names on shirts, is how the local junior football club here is partly funded, but this may not be appropriate for a school team.

[PurpleCrazyHorse]

Agree with looking at other sites. Local leisure centre or other schools? Shop around.

[TeenAndTween]

why can't they just use the primary school - is there no field there?

[Maplestirrup]

Either find another, cheaper pitch or start fund raising yourself and sponsorship from local companies.
Fundraising is hard work. In my experience, 1 big fundraising event that is really really good is far more lucrative and less work in the long run than a weekly cake sale. Although a weekly lottery is always popular if you can get people to pay for so many weeks up front. I suspect you need a licence to do this officially, but there are many that run unlicensed.
I have generally seen sponsorship from companies come from relatives of kids who use the pitch. They will still want promoting for their sponsorship in some form or another, ie, name on sports kits or bags, photos of the kit for use on their websites etc etc.

[lesshaste]

TeenAndTween There is no playing field in the primary school sadly. Finding another site in walking distance isn't going to work either as this is the only astroturf one. All the others are waterlogged half the winter.

[nancy75]

Does it have to be walking distance? the thing is if the rent on the pitch has gone up this is not a one off £3000 you are looking for, its going to be the same every year.

[admission]

There are two issues here. The first is whether the cost at £3000 per year is reasonable. I would suggest that the price is not unreasonable, given all the maintenance issues, cost of staffing and lights etc.
The second question is why the primary school does not have any playing fields at all and whether the Local Authority should be doing something about it. The problem is that this is voluntary, presumably after school, so I suspect that the LA will not want to know.
I think I would get the head teacher to talk to the Principal of the Academy and try and twist their arm for a much better deal.

[smellyboot]

Lots of schools incl ours in cities doing have playing fields and no space to,put one! We do have the advantage of senate high schools nets by however and can use local park if not too wet

[TheSpottedZebra]

Surely they don't need astroturf at primary?
Plenty of older, more experienced teams play sports throughout winter on grass pitches.

[lesshaste]

admission The price increase came directly from academisation. There is some legal issue I am not clear on where the academy has to charge a commercial rate. The football is indeed voluntary and after school as you suggest.

TheSpottedZebra A well drained grass pitch would be fine but the ones we can get access to locally and cheaply just turn into water bogs in the winter.

[BikeRunSki]

Use a grass pitch in the summer, and only use the AstroTurf pitch in the winter?

[admission]

Not sure it is a legal issues that they have to charge a commercial rate but actually all schools should be looking at what they charge for services at school. Quite frankly most cannot afford to ignore any such possible funding streams.
Having said that £3K may not sound unreasonable in my previous post, one does have to ask the question, how often are you playing there and for how long? If it is for a couple of hours a week for say 40 weeks a year, then that comes out at £37.5 an hour. Put like that it does not sound an unreasonable cost.

[lesshaste]

admission It is exactly for a couple of hours a week for say 40 weeks a year as you say.

[smellyboot]

I put the local costs round here in for comparison. Cost per hour will depend on peak / off peak and size of pitch or part pitch