Ideas for revenue generation at Tigers

[TigerTom15]

I’m not at all belittling those in charge of the club’s finances at this troubling time. I think they appear to be doing what they can in a very hard situation. However, I do think the club could perhaps think a little more outside the box in terms of revenue generation with no match day revenue at present.

For example, what about an acces-all-areas documentary series from Oval Park/Welford Road? Supporters would pay £5 a month for unrivalled access to footage from around training and regular interviews with players, with one episode being created per week? Along the lines of the sports documentaries you see on Netflix and Amazon, and England’s Rising Sons YouTube series at the 2019 World Cup. Content is king in this day and age, and people are already used to paying for subscription models for a variety of services. There is an absolute wealth of content opportunities at a professional rugby club. I think many fans would love this kind of service, Four 30 minute mini documentaries a month for circa £1 each. In fairness you could even charge more than £5 a month. I believe Saints have recently sounded out Netflix/Amazon in a bid to outsource something similar to their platforms, although that seems like more of a one off thing.

But it could absolutely be done in-house, and It’s an extremely low-cost scheme to set up, one or two professional filmmakers could start almost immediately and no doubt there are plenty of them about at the moment with no work. Air the first episode for free and then you have to pay to watch the rest. 20,000 fans paying £5 a month is an instant steady revenue stream of £100,000 every month/1.2 million a year, minus costs of a couple of pro filmmakers (60-80k a year?). I don’t think it would be hard for the boffins behind the tigers website (the best club rugby website in England by some way by the way) to whip up a specific page that could only be reached via login for paying subscribers. Even if the scheme fell flat on its face, you would only need enough subscribers to cover the monthly wages of one or two filmmakers to break even (approx 1500 subscribers).

Yes, it’s a bit of a money-grab but we all as fans understand the situation at the club and I would certainly not begrudge anything like this if it was tried.

I just think it would be the perfect opportunity, particularly with the whole ‘new chapter - clean slate’ vibe with Borthwick coming in.

Anyway, this is something that just came to me this morning so I thought I’d share. Any other thoughts about anything else that could be done?

[fentiger]

Some good ideas there
Maybe they could tie in some kind of deal for fans who don't currently have access to BT Sport ie: perhaps an 'as live' match transmission? With a revenue spin back to Tigers?

[jgriffin]

Yep me and Mrs G wondered about that - a year in crisis documented? An expansion of LTTV activities plus email subscription seems a great idea.

[mol2]

Might be tricky to show the live matches if BT sport are covering them live or might not work with the highlight coverage on terrestral TV. Would be good if we could watch the matches BT don't cover as there are usually cameras there for th highlights programming.

[Mark62]

Those who have amazon prime will have seen that they have done a number of documentary series, I think called All or Nothing, which have covered a number of gridiron teams throughout the season, as well as Man. City and Leeds United, and the All Blacks. An all access documentary like this on a worldwide platform would be interesting and I would imagine lucrative, with product placement being allowed too.
Similar to what was done by Big Jim Hamilton for the academy.

Alternatively they could copy the format of the fantastic Last Dance, base it on Coley, and call it the Last Polar Bear.

[RagingBull]

I always thought a Leicester Tigers game pass (for those who are aware of american sports) would be a smart idea.
You could
Show Pre-Season games on it
A league games
Maybe the odd U18 game
Interviews
Have documentaries on it.
Maybe try and open up the entire Tigers video achieve on it also.
charge Seasonally or monthly (Yearly at a discounted price)

Alternatively maybe look at the e-sports route look to set up a twitch account maybe have some players on it, Genge streams for example.

[johnthegriff]

Sounds like a possible good idea, there would have to be due consideration given to player confidentiality which may cause a few problems, and of course some would accuse the club of lying if there was not full disclosure, the Academy match viewing would be a winner for me, I love it when I get to watch the kids with their sheer enthusiasm for the game.

[fentiger]

Might be tricky to show the live matches if BT sport are covering them live or might not work with the highlight coverage on terrestral TV. Would be good if we could watch the matches BT don't cover as there are usually cameras there for th highlights programming.

My suggestion was for 'as live' transmission ie: a few hours after match has finished.

[jgriffin]

Email the club!

[JP14]

Those who have amazon prime will have seen that they have done a number of documentary series, I think called All or Nothing, which have covered a number of gridiron teams throughout the season, as well as Man. City and Leeds United, and the All Blacks. An all access documentary like this on a worldwide platform would be interesting and I would imagine lucrative, with product placement being allowed too.
Similar to what was done by Big Jim Hamilton for the academy.

Alternatively they could copy the format of the fantastic Last Dance, base it on Coley, and call it the Last Polar Bear.

I'm sold.

[sam16111986]

I always thought a Leicester Tigers game pass (for those who are aware of american sports) would be a smart idea.
You could
Show Pre-Season games on it
A league games
Maybe the odd U18 game
Interviews
Have documentaries on it.
Maybe try and open up the entire Tigers video achieve on it also.
charge Seasonally or monthly (Yearly at a discounted price)

Very much like this idea. Do it in conjunction with Loughborough University to give students studying relevant degrees the chance to work on the project over the year in an apprenticeship style, we only pay expenses and not a wage. Helps save costs and would be a benefit to the university, saves the students leaving with little on their CV. Instead the students can apply for jobs with good quality experience and the university can advertise the fact in their prospectus. Wins all round.

[RichieB]

Just a germ of an idea - would season ticket holders pay something to have their names fixed to their favourite seat in some way?

[BFG]

I always thought a Leicester Tigers game pass (for those who are aware of american sports) would be a smart idea.
You could
Show Pre-Season games on it
A league games
Maybe the odd U18 game
Interviews
Have documentaries on it.
Maybe try and open up the entire Tigers video achieve on it also.
charge Seasonally or monthly (Yearly at a discounted price)

Very much like this idea. Do it in conjunction with Loughborough University to give students studying relevant degrees the chance to work on the project over the year in an apprenticeship style, we only pay expenses and not a wage. Helps save costs and would be a benefit to the university, saves the students leaving with little on their CV. Instead the students can apply for jobs with good quality experience and the university can advertise the fact in their prospectus. Wins all round.

Now that is a good idea.
I had some of the most imaginative haircuts done at the training college, often several months before they became the norm.
I don't know if I was sad or relieved that I was no longer able to be a trendsetter for the top knot!

[Longshanks]

The problem with behind the scenes documentaries is that they seem to need something controversial and gossip-worthy to kick start the viewership; that can be uncomfortable for some. It would also be unfair to expect every step of a new Head Coach's tenure to be serialised on TV.
That said, I like the idea of archive match footage being available, particularly if the definition is good (my old VHS to DVD conversions don't look great on a modern TV).
Not sure it's going to raise enough to cover one player's salary, let alone £5M and fear the reality is that only success on the field is going to make a significant difference (leading to richer sponsorship, extended TV rights, match-day receipts, season ticket sales, shop turnover and corporate hospitality revenue). Or you could offer the Club for sale again, with the expectation of a much lower price than last time.

[wellstiger]

Crowd funding or donations directly to Tigers Plc??