[16 FEB 10] CRUSADER NEWS

 Crusaders Community Initiative

By Adam Manning

Business solutions firm Pack Smart has been trying to help the Crusaders raise awareness of the club over the past three months, and one of its founders Seanna Hardaker-Jones believes the community work carried out by the club is a “really good selling factor” at a time when match attendances have more than doubled this season.

Pack Smart has been challenged by the Crusaders owner, Robert “Dip” Donaldson, to raise the public’s awareness of the club, as his prime concern is “the sponsorship factor” according to Hardaker-Jones.

Crusaders’ community work is commonplace in Coventry, which has seen the club double its intake of primary schools from nine to 18 this year in delivering the “Hoops 4 Health” initiative, as well as adding an introductory basketball project in Canley last summer to their traditional half-term basketball camps.

“The fact that they’re going into schools is a really good selling point” enthused Hardaker-Jones. “If a project can be set up between the Crusaders and activities such as ‘Hoops 4 Health’, a local business can then be brought in which would do them good and create a circle where we can get involved and promote it further”.

Expanding the club’s fan base is something Pack Smart has been undertaking in an attempt to evolve the club’s presence in the city, and to reward the loyal following that turn up to support.

The “Crusaders Community” initiative, which can be found on the homepage of the club’s website, is a data collection tool which will enable the club to recognise their supporters, and reward them with exclusive e-letters and offers in the future.

Commenting on the progress of interacting with the fans, Hardaker-Jones says it is still very much a work in progress:

“We’ve had various ideas of things. One was season ticket incentives similar to what Coventry City Football Club do, and that’s something that we’ve spoken about with Dip that would be an income generator for the club” she said.

“So far we’ve been able to go back and show improvements, small improvements, but previously there was no fan database whatsoever. So it’s doing basic things that hadn’t been done before”.

Those “small improvements” have occurred in recruiting fans from the Christmas Cracker half-season ticket competition, which saw 45 people win season tickets.

From these 45 people the club has managed to attract an extra twelve paying fans from the first two games of 2010, and Crusaders Press Officer Chris Bestwick said that new match night ideas trialled by the club has helped to sustain and improve attendances in the ten games so far this season.

“We have had many people express their surprise at how entertaining the games are and how much they enjoyed the whole match night experience, this goes to show that we have made some inroads into improving peoples perception of this sport” Bestwick said.

“Towards the end of last season and early this season, some of our fresh ideas have started to pay off. The introduction of our resident DJ's, Martin and Chris, have added that much needed match night atmosphere that we saw worked so well in other sports like the ice hockey, and the return of 'The Crew' dancers, plus guest hosts like Brody Swain” he illustrated further. 

And as NBA figures show that basketball is the second most popular sport amongst Under 18s in the UK, Bestwick said it’s something that the club will continue to fully embrace to support the club’s devoted community work.

He concluded: “The club still has to sell itself as a 'family club' to attract a larger fan base again, especially with the hard work that Scott Neely and the other coaches put into our community projects through the Crusader Foundation”. 

Fans have two more chances to see the Crusaders in action at the Coventry Sports & Leisure Centre this season as they continue to fight for a play-off place with seven games left: they play Manchester Magic on Saturday 27^th February at 7:30pm, before they bid farewell to their home support on Sunday March 21^st  against Leeds Carnegie at the earlier time of 4.00pm.

                               

  Main Menu | News | Crusaders Community Initiative   16 FEB 2010