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Your parents' financial situation should not determine if you get the opportunity to participate in sports or other physical activity, that's a common ground a lot of us can agree upon. However, that's not the case.
It's a simple concept.
For a sports club to work they need to have revenues to cover their costs, just like any other company. Memberships, competition fees, material fees, etc. are some of the income smaller sports clubs really on to manage the operations.
These are also barriers for a lot of families if they want to get their kids involved with sports. Some families do not have the possibility to drive their kids to practice, camps, competitions because of time constraints.
When my two brothers and I were kids we played all kinds of sports - table tennis, football, floorball, hockey, well you name it.
Fortunately, some of these activities were held locally in our village where we grew up. However, once we became better and better we kind of outgrew the village team and started looking for other teams to join to improve our skills.
And since there is some age difference between my brothers and I, we were of course divided into different teams. So there we were, doing 2-3 different sports each, having 3 different practices hours each per week. That's 27 different practice times our parents had to drive us to.
It was not until older days when I actually realized the amount of work and scheduling my parents had to do to manage all this.
And the practice was just one element. Besides that, we had matches and tournaments that we went to every weekend. In summer, we had football and in winter we played table tennis.
Most of the time these tournaments were in other cities, which meant staying in hotels, hostels, and other living arrangements, as well as food expenses.
I can't even imagine how much money and time my parents have spent on my brothers and me, including living arrangements, food expenses, membership fees, travel expenses, and more.
We were lucky to have parents that could afford it and had the time to support us. However, these are huge barriers for a lot of families, meaning a lot of kids are missing out on the beautiful things my brothers and I got to experience thanks to sports..
We were lucky
Besides all the driving to practices and competitions, we were lucky that we never had to worry about the competition fees or accommodation costs. It was not until we got older that we realized the huge costs that my and other parents put out every weekend so that we would have the opportunity to compete. Then we also had our sports club that covered part of the competition fees for each competition, which was also very helpful.
Later in our teens, when we had to pay for everything ourselves, we quickly understood the cost of everything. We had to select how many classes we could register for, where we would live and how we would get to the competitions. Many competitions had to be excluded because of the cost. Besides that, we also had to update our material now and then, which quickly became really expensive.
It might sound like a luxurious problem, especially for those who do not even have the same possibilities that we had.
With all of this in mind, we understand why some parents have to exclude sports for their kids.
The economical pillars of a sport club
When it comes to the finances of a club/team, it is membership fees that are usually the major source of income if we ignore the government-funded support ( a Swedish thing) that the clubs can receive. Then there are some revenues from sponsors and the sales of various products and bake sales.
Sponsorship
Companies are most interested to sponsor elite teams because it is easier to calculate the return of their investment. However, some companies sponsor teams based on their emotional value.
Companies are usually looking for increased brand awareness, brand loyalty, to sell more products, etc., and it's up to the club to show/prove how companies can achieve this by sponsoring their club. If you then have an elite team that attracts a large audience, there is a greater opportunity to achieve that return for the company. Therefore, many smaller clubs associations have difficulty selling sponsorships.
Selling
Most of us have probably sold Bingolotto( a Swedish thing), coupon booklets, New Body products, flowers, salami sausages, or toothbrushes to earn extra money for your club or team. A process that usually takes a lot of time (time which not everyone has) which usually ends up forcing your family, friends, and relatives to buy it from you.
EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO DO SPORTS.
We know how important sport is for our society and we understand the difficulties of making sport accessible to everyone. Acquiring sponsors is difficult and selling various goods is usually something not everyone has time for.
IN THIS WAY WE CAN HELP
Due to all these reasons, we developed a product that can help sports clubs and teams to increase their income comfortably and easily from the couch with the help of mobile phones. We make it possible for teams to acquire more sponsors via smart and digital marketing. Zlingit also makes it possible for parents to avoid running up and down the stairwells to sell salami sausages, cakes, roses, etc. thanks to our digital products.
In this way, we can help clubs make more money in an easier way. We can free up time from parents who do not have it. It is our way of helping towards the goal that all children should have the opportunity to do sports.
