Sponsored Substitutes

I've thought of a way sports clubs could make some extra money which would be especially beneficial to lower league clubs who struggle to compete on a shoestring budget and hardly get a sniff of TV revenues. It would need the blessing of the various bodies governing the game however. The sponsored substitute.

Clubs could have 2 additional substitutes slots for each game, both of which are taken by auction winners and neither will ever be played. One slot's takings could go to the club, the other slots takings could go to a local charity that the club support. The slots could be auctioned eBay style with a starting bid of the ticket price plus say £100 (the extra is to cover the costs of the prizes like shirts to guarantee no loss). The winners would then get to watch the game sitting in the dugout of their favourite team next to their players and a replica strip in their size with their name on the back. They could also get presented with an official team photo including themselves.

There would obviously need to be security measures in place to prevent some nutter winning a place with the potential of harming a player. Perhaps having to agree to some terms and conditions before you place a bid is a good start, with the club able to veto and select the next closest winner if they know the person as a troublemaker. It'd be a good idea to have someone from the club's security standing nearby too to step quickly in if something does flare up.

To be able to play there are all sorts of rules in place to ensure players are registered etc. Obviously auction winners would not be, so there's no confusion in the winners mind that they may get to play in the last few minutes if the team is at the "oley" stage.

The value to winning the auction is in having your name and photo in the programme for that match, having your name read out by the announcer as a substitute for that match, and watching that match from a position normal fans never see; the dugout.

This would be a memorable way of helping to fund both their team and a local charity. It could also apply to other sports too with a little tweaking if needed, not just football.