St Prex Consulting helps football clubs achieve financial stability

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In the ever changing world of football, financial sustainability is essential, not just as a goal but as a requirement for lasting success.

Achieving financial sustainability in football requires maintaining a balance between generating revenue, managing expenses, and making strategic investments.

The strategy at St Prex is specifically designed to focus on these critical aspects, guaranteeing that clubs do more than just survive; they excel in a competitive landscape. The consulting firm offers five distinct methods to help your club achieve success and sustain long-term growth.

  • Diversification of Revenue Streams

Football clubs frequently depend significantly on matchday earnings and broadcasting rights. To reduce the risks tied to these revenue streams, St Prex recommends diversifying income sources by exploring alternative avenues such as commercial partnerships, digital platforms, and global reach, St Prex recommends:

Digital Innovation: Utilising digital platforms for merchandise sales, virtual fan interactions, and exclusive content can unlock additional revenue streams. This strategy involves harnessing the power of social media, club websites, and mobile apps to deliver a cohesive and immersive fan experience. By doing so, clubs can not only boost sales and engagement but also build a stronger, more loyal fan base. The integration of e-commerce, personalised content, and interactive features on these platforms ensures that fans stay connected and invested in the club.

Commercial Partnerships: Fostering robust partnerships with sponsors and local businesses is key to developing mutually advantageous opportunities. This approach encompasses not just conventional sponsorships, but also innovative collaborations that can elevate brand visibility and generate new revenue channels. By engaging in creative joint ventures and leveraging local networks, clubs can enhance their market presence and forge lasting connections that benefit both parties.

Global Reach: Enhancing the club’s international footprint through activities such as summer tours, global merchandise sales, and collaborations with international brands can greatly increase revenue. By reaching out to new markets and engaging with fans worldwide, clubs can tap into diverse revenue streams and build a global brand presence.

  • Strategic Partnerships

Forming strategic alliances is essential for maintaining financial stability. By building strong partnerships and collaborations, clubs can access new resources, share risks, and unlock additional revenue opportunities, St Prex supports:

Community Engagement: Partnering with local businesses and community initiatives to boost the club’s visibility and support can significantly reinforce its connection with supporters. By engaging in community-driven projects and creating mutually beneficial relationships with local enterprises, the club can foster deeper emotional bonds with its audience, enhance local support, and build a more dedicated and engaged fanbase.

Educational Partnerships: Collaborating with educational institutions to offer training and development programs for players, staff, and the local community can create significant benefits for the club while also promoting social advancement. These partnerships provide valuable learning opportunities that enhance skills and knowledge across various levels, from on-field performance to personal and professional growth.

  • Long-Term Financial Planning

Achieving long-term success requires careful planning and anticipation. St Prex assists clubs by providing guidance in areas such as:

Goal Setting: Setting well-defined, measurable financial objectives and devising strategies to achieve them is crucial for success. St Prex collaborate with clubs to establish attainable targets and formulate practical plans to meet these goals. Their approach includes assessing current financial conditions, identifying key performance indicators, and developing detailed action plans that outline specific steps and timelines.

Contingency Planning: Anticipating unexpected challenges through the establishment of strategic reserves and comprehensive risk management plans is essential for resilience. By preparing for potential financial disruptions, clubs can safeguard their core operations and maintain stability during turbulent times. This involves setting aside financial buffers, implementing risk assessment procedures, and developing contingency strategies to address various scenarios.

  • Embracing Innovation

Innovation fuels progress and enhances efficiency. St Prex assists clubs by:

Technology Integration: Leveraging data analytics to boost performance, fan engagement, and operational efficiency is crucial for growth. St Prex helps clubs integrate advanced analytical tools to improve various aspects of their operations. This encompasses deploying sophisticated scouting systems to identify and recruit top talent, using performance tracking technologies to monitor and enhance player and team performance.

Digital Transformation: Embracing digital tools and platforms is essential for optimising operations, enhancing communication, and elevating the fan experience. This approach covers a wide range of technologies, from advanced ticketing systems that simplify purchases and manage attendance to virtual reality experiences that offer immersive and engaging content for fans. Additionally, implementing digital solutions such as mobile apps, CRM systems, and social media integrations can further improve operational efficiency and strengthen connections with supporters.

  • Rigorous Cost Management

Proper cost management is crucial for maintaining financial stability. St Prex offers:

Budgeting Tools: Sophisticated budgeting solutions are essential for monitoring and managing expenses effectively. St Prex provides advanced tools designed to help clubs meticulously track their expenditures and ensure that each dollar is allocated efficiently. These tools offer detailed insights into spending patterns, identify areas for potential savings, and facilitate more accurate financial forecasting.  

Operational Efficiency: Enhancing operational efficiency to lower overhead costs and boost productivity is crucial. This process involves optimising staffing levels to ensure the right balance of personnel, improving energy efficiency to reduce utility expenses, and utilising technology to automate routine tasks and streamline workflows. By adopting these measures, clubs can minimise operational expenses, increase overall efficiency, and focus resources on strategic initiatives.

In 2020, St Prex Consulting expanded its expertise in the football industry by acquiring Impact Soccer. Established in 2013, Impact Soccer was a leading consultancy in Australia, collaborating with universities, clubs, federations, and state organisations at various levels, from community and youth to professional football. This acquisition has bolstered St Prex’s presence in the Asia-Pacific region and introduced additional expertise in player development, coaching, and grassroots initiatives. Combined with the existing global network, St Prex Consulting is now positioned to provide more tailored, high-impact solutions to clients across Australia and beyond.

Notably, Impact Soccer pioneered Australia’s first Diploma of Football program, offering students elite-level coaching, personalised strength and conditioning, and academic support through a university partnership. This innovative program enabled aspiring players to enhance their skills both on and off the field through a comprehensive football education.

LEDiL: Producing more effective football stadium lighting

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Image credit: LEDiL website

LEDiL was first founded in 2002 by Tomi Kuntze and Hannu Hukkanen who designed LED lighting solutions for the automotive industry.

In their 22 years of existence, the company have released 15 specialist products, nine of them indoors and the other six outdoors.

The company have released a blueprint for both their ‘Sports Indoor Lighting’ and ‘Sports Outdoor Lighting’ products which cover multiple different sports and the dimensions of their usual playing ground, with a solution on how to create competitive lighting best effectively.

However focusing on football, LEDiL’s S Beam lighting systems are the solution to clubs wanting effective and compliant stadium floodlighting with the needs and requirements of the leagues they play in.

The technology is complex and has been a project that the company have worked on for a while before being first utilised by FK Mačva, the club on top of the Serbian first division.

How does S beam lighting work?

S-beam is a semi-symmetrical beam intended for stadium lighting with special shape of light distribution consisting of two cut-off zones and effective uniformity zone.

With traditional symmetrical beam lighting, it creates an oval-shaped area of light meaning that the light must be titled upwards in order to cover enough space for the clubs to reach the necessary lighting requirements.

This compromise leads to a worse viewing experience for fans at the ground, broadcasters who film the matches on worse lighting, effects the players performance during the match and increases light pollution in the nearby areas of the neighbourhood.

The lens directs the beam from the LEDs more efficiently by controlling the spill light vertically and providing more light to all areas of the ground.

Benefits of LEDiL LED system

– The use of LEDs has resulted in an energy saving of more than 55% reduction in energy costs.

– Reduced energy consumption leading to vastly reduced electrical installation costs and a faster payback.

– The calculated lifetime of the installation is up to 20 times longer than a conventional halogen solution, leading to a considerable saving in maintenance costs for clubs. This is a massive benefit with costs being a main reason why clubs stay away from starting upgrades.

– Improved lighting conditions for players (Training, ability to host night matches).

– Better viewing experience for the fans at the ground.

Optics

Optics distribute the power of LEDs efficiently, something that is especially important in larger sporting arenas and stadiums.

LEDiL utilise their optics to also reduce power consumption and the number of other components such as LEDs and further reducing the investment needed.

Optics play an essential role in ensuring lighting meets the strict league and competition requirements of different sporting codes, especially football.

Similarly to LEDs, Optics save cost and reduce time of instalment which increases efficiency.

How Australian football can use LEDiL

LEDiL currently doesn’t have a presence in Australia and their simple but effective LED and Optics system is perfect for NPL and State League clubs.

The company’s experience in urban and local areas would improve many parks and grounds that require a better lighting standard.

For a country that is rather tight on its football budget, saving money and being more sustainable is important and the values coincide with LEDiL’s business model, making it a really good fit.

Conclusion

The LED lighting future is one that mirrors the company’s vision which is to enhance wellbeing and safety with a goal for a more sustainable future and improved quality of life.

LEDiL are the future of sports stadium lighting, and the efficiency of the product will be a hot commodity in the industry.

Ticketchainer: A new look into sports ticketing management

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Ticketchainer is a Paris-based tech company that is focusing on transforming the sports ticketing industry from a simple sales tool to a comprehensive e-commerce platform that is suited to the needs of its clients.

Founded in 2019, Ticketchainer has now worked with many sports clubs and organisations across France, including Ligue 2 side AC Ajaccio, offering a product that provides:

  • A personalised purchase journey with a customised user experience and interface, integrating the best e-commerce practices with a responsive design adapted to computers, tablets and smartphones.
  • A back office for ticketing management which configures events and subscriptions, while displaying real-time tracking of ticket sales and combined offers.
  • A fixed and mobile access control management through a dedicated mobile application, personal digital assistants (PDAs) with the Ticketchainer Application Programming Interface (API), or interfacing with existing fixed access control systems.

Co-founder and CEO of Ticketchainer, Sami Bouden, explains how the idea of Ticketchainer all came about in an article with ENSTA Paris:

“Sport, and football in particular, is the events sector where ticketing is the most complex to manage: numbered seats, annual or half-season subscriptions, security, there are many parameters to take into account,” he said.

“It seemed to me to be a challenge that was both captivating and within my reach. That’s how the idea of ​​Ticketchainer was born.”

In addition, Ticketchainer decided to branch out internationally becoming the ticketing platform for the 2023 African Cup of Nations, which was a massive achievement for the tech company.

“It was a huge satisfaction for the team because we won this competition ahead of all the big names in the sector, which is a strong signal for the future,” Bouden added via the article with ENSTA Paris.

During the build-up, Ticketchainer launched their online ticketing platform that covered the six stadiums used for the tournament which had a capacity ranging from 25,000 to 60,000 seats.

In addition, they also deployed 70 box offices across the Ivory Coast to sell physical tickets utilising their technology for digital payments.

In approximately three months, Ticketchainer sold over a million tickets for the 2023 African Cup of Nations. They also had to manage more than 350,000 connections per day, selling 25,000 tickets daily for several weeks.

However, the French tech company did come across some technical challenges along the way.

“Security was of course a crucial aspect, but we had anticipated the issue very well and all attempts at fraud were foiled. We worked enormously to adapt our technology to the scale of the event and make it safe and robust. And it worked perfectly,” Bouden said in an article with ENSTA Paris.

Although still relatively new in the sports ticketing industry already working with various sporting organisations in France, Ticketchainer is looking to continue to expand in Europe after the success of the African Cup of Nations.

“Our main objective remains to consolidate our expansion on the French and European market and to become the reference solution for the most prestigious competitions,” Bouden said in an article with ENSTA Paris.

“At the same time, the success of our performance at the African Cup of Nations naturally allows us to nurture ambitions on new markets, particularly in the Gulf countries, and emerging markets where the event industry is exploding. We have just proven that we have all the assets to achieve this.”

Ticketchainer could prove beneficial to most sports clubs and organisations to help them get a better grasp on handling and organising ticket purchases.

Although it may be a while to see this type of technology implemented in Australia, if Ticketchainer’s success in the sports ticketing scene continues we may see them expand into other continents as well as other big future sporting competitions.

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