Rangers go back to basics to increase numbers
FFV Spotlight, Best Practice
Warrnambool Rangers have steadily increased their playing population over the past few years in an Aussie Rules dominated region of Victoria and in 2012 the club has put together a coordinated approach geared towards increasing player participation even further.
This has worked excellently, with Rangers committee member Carolyn Lehmann claiming that they have attracted an extra 30 players to the club.
Rangers have won the FFV Best Practice Project for increasing participation and Carolyn says that she believes this has been the case due to the club’s early and targeted recruitment process involving the club running a “Come and Try Day” with consistent marketing encouraging people to attend it.
“Last year we advertised in some school newsletters but not all schools in the area, and it was later on in the school year that we did this,” she explained.
“So this year we got it in the newsletter in the second week of school, which was the second week of February. We made sure that was in all of the primary school and the high school newsletters.”
As well as a strong school newsletter campaign, Rangers also took out advertisements in local Warrnambool newspapers The Standard and The Extra.
They also made it as easy as possible for players to get to their away games in Ballarat by organising a team bus.
Carolyn also said that providing a good service at a reasonable price and being transparent with your members about where their fees go is is very important, as well as understanding that children may want to play more than one sport.
“We’ve gone for a lower price to keep registrations up and it means that people who want to play football and another sport can do so and it stays fairly cheap,” she said.
“We explain that what is left over for the club after our affiliation fees covers ball maintenance, referee fees, line marking, lighting and ground fees. We make it very clear what the fees cover.”
Carolyn’s advice to other clubs looking to boost their participation numbers is to keep things simple, but do them well.
“Get your club in as many free advertising spots as you can. Run free Come and Try Days, which may cost you a little bit of money but you pick up extra players that way, and let parents and players know where their money is going.”
Carolyn hopes to keep Rangers’ number growing by working more closely with local schools, which she views as a key partnership.
“We will try and encourage the schools to promote football a bit more. Again we will do the advertising and rely on a lot of word of mouth which is important,” she said.
“If people are enjoying their football then they will try and get more people involved.”
If you are interested in learning more about Warrnambool Rangers and how they successfully increased participation, you can contact Carolyn on 0414 428 922.
Click here for more information on upcoming Best Practice Project categories, and to submit an entry for your club.
The winner each month receives 10 Jabulani Glider footballs for their club as well as a story on the FFV website highlighting their initiative.
http://www.footballfedvic.com.au/index.php?id=208&tx_ttnews%5Byear%5D=2012&tx_ttnews%5Bmonth%5D=07&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=633&cHash=95328b3e68ea2cd28a407bbeef6a2b90