denime
08-30-2008, 07:34 AM
Johnston: Social experiment
Few will argue that the ideals of democracy and professional sports exist on opposite ends of the spectrum. Rarely does the front office saunter down to the turnstiles on match day to poll the paying public on its overall happiness with the state of the club.
Instead, business decisions are made with relative anonymity in mahogany boardrooms that sit high above the field of play.
That is until now. An interesting social experiment is playing itself out on the Thames estuary to the east of London. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estuary)
Ebbsfleet United, an English minor league club which plays four divisions below the Premier League, is owned by a 30,000-member fan base that pay an annual membership fee of 35 GBP to keep their stake in the club.
Included in that annual fee is a voice and the right to exercise it at any time. For example, when an unidentified club makes a 140,000 pound offer for a top 19-year-old striker, as is the case with Ebbsfleet United at the current, (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/article4625521.ece) the 30,000-member board of directors must come to a unanimous decision to either 'yey' or 'nay' the move. The membership fee also gets each shareholder a say in the starting 11 each week.
Ebbsfleet United should be applauded for bringing the concept of sports ownership into the modern age. The backwater franchise embraced the undeniable truth that sports franchises exist entirely on interest from the paying public, and without that entity every field of play would be overrun with tumbleweed.
Read more (http://www.sportsnet.ca/soccer/blogs/2008/08/29/johnston_tfc_democracy/)
Few will argue that the ideals of democracy and professional sports exist on opposite ends of the spectrum. Rarely does the front office saunter down to the turnstiles on match day to poll the paying public on its overall happiness with the state of the club.
Instead, business decisions are made with relative anonymity in mahogany boardrooms that sit high above the field of play.
That is until now. An interesting social experiment is playing itself out on the Thames estuary to the east of London. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estuary)
Ebbsfleet United, an English minor league club which plays four divisions below the Premier League, is owned by a 30,000-member fan base that pay an annual membership fee of 35 GBP to keep their stake in the club.
Included in that annual fee is a voice and the right to exercise it at any time. For example, when an unidentified club makes a 140,000 pound offer for a top 19-year-old striker, as is the case with Ebbsfleet United at the current, (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/article4625521.ece) the 30,000-member board of directors must come to a unanimous decision to either 'yey' or 'nay' the move. The membership fee also gets each shareholder a say in the starting 11 each week.
Ebbsfleet United should be applauded for bringing the concept of sports ownership into the modern age. The backwater franchise embraced the undeniable truth that sports franchises exist entirely on interest from the paying public, and without that entity every field of play would be overrun with tumbleweed.
Read more (http://www.sportsnet.ca/soccer/blogs/2008/08/29/johnston_tfc_democracy/)