Where is the Growth Coming From?

If I remember correctly Man City achieved what they have through massive 'sponsorship' or 'advertising' deals that saw the business through this transition period? Those, of course, were the days that a top 4 spot was up for grabs and their transition period was much shorter, as they already had a modern stadium - albeit quite a small one but one capable of extracting top dollar during CL matches.

Spurs have achieved similar much more slowly and in a very different competitive environment but only a few weeks back were 'in risk of failure' due to stadium issues, no transfer business etc. Look at this morning's headlines to see how seriously we need to take those 'chip-paper' comments. They had a really good old stadium but still needed a new CL stadium to sustain investment. Solid and unspectacular but getting there - as will we.

If members can remember 10 years ago one of the arguments in favour of the Kirkby move was that a buyer would not have to wait while a new stadium was built before they saw an upturn in finances if we were in a new purpose-built stadium. That wait is here, now and is costly. When the new stadium construction is more tangible, investment will flow, and I don't think that this is from investors that have not already been identified and agreed.

The global popularity of the Premier league has been an obvious and ever growing platform to increase the clubs fanbase and revenue for 20 plus years that we appear to be blind or ignorant to.

This is likely to continue for the foreseeable future so the quicker we get onboard the quicker we can compete. Hopefully Mo is on it but as the Premier league and indeed other leagues grow in popularity the competition gets stronger and we will find it harder to compete.

Despite for over 10 years having global sponsors and globally recognised football players we appear to only have done the minimum amount of effort and communication with them.

It can be argued that player power is too strong and they get the benefits but this is a long term strategy to grow our fan base for the next 25 years and more.

Selling Tim Howard & Cahill merchandise to the USA and Australian markets was such an obvious missed opportunity, both captains of their countries in sports mad markets (although soccer is not the main sport) would have helped get Everton recognised.

A one off game, one off event, isn't good enough. We need continued marketing for an average team who win nothing to try and compete with the Man U's and Real Madrids.

We do great work with the local charity so why not link up with other charities abroad. Schools and education is incredibly important so get involved, run Everton soccer camps focusing on health and fitness with some educational elements. Give away or heavily discount children's kits and other merchandise to get kids and parents buy in.

We currently have a top Brazilian, Columbian and English players that we should be doing something with.
If those individuals are successfull they may not be with us long so we need to maximise their potential commercial opportunity now whilst being in a position to do so, likewise with any other stars in the making that play for us in the future.

Will anything change in the next 5 years, probably not. Even doing a Leicester would not help because the club are not in a position commercially or strategicly to do anything with success.

If we truly want to grow we need to put foundations in place to do so. There more prepared we are the easier it is to believe we can achieve success.

Priority for me as a fan is always on the pitch, but as a club, a business, a community there is so much more Everton could do to help itself whilst helping others.

I'm no business expert but surely it's the performances on the pitch which will bring in new fans and generate revenues. It always seems to me that Everton are milking the same cash cow they've been milking for years (the existing fanbase). I live in Warwickshire now and have done for 22 years. I can't go to the games like I used to because of work commitments. I buy my shirts though, follow the commentary every game, get down in the dumps when we lose and regularly give Everton my hard-earned money - even got a Christmas jumper for this year so I can preach to the already converted.

In my opinion, over the past 10 years or so, the marketing and range of items in the club shop are much improved but the fact that you can only get Everton kit from the two club shops is criminal. The merchandise and marketing are far superior to what they used to be but we still lag behind a lot of other clubs. This is especially noticeable when you live outside of the region. 10 years ago, you wouldn't see Chelsea, Spurs or City fans where we live. Now, every other kid is a Spurs, Chelsea or City fan. We missed golden opportunities in the past and now we're playing catch-up.

I took my lad for the first time against Valencia. It was interesting seeing his reaction and experience compared to my first match when my dad took me. For me, going to Goodison for the first time with my twin brother and my dad was one of THE biggest and most memorable experiences of my life. For my lad, it was a great day out but I don't think he'll cherish it in the same way. I used to love going into St Luke's and having a proper cuppa etc. made by the women of the church congregation. We went in before the Valencia game and it was run by what looked like Everton staff in Everton-branded clothing selling pretty dreadful brews for around the same price as a Starbucks - not exactly service with a smile either. It was a microcosm of the state of football for me. Part of its appeal was the tradition and now it's about commercialism and making a profit. When I got into my teens, I'd go on my own to the game and pay £4 to stand on the Street End. My dad would turn in his grave at today's seat prices. I remember asking him whether I could go against Arsenal in the season we signed Peter Beardsley. When I told him it was £9 because the Street End was all-seater he nearly choked on his tea.

Bramley-Moore is our one chance to gain some parity with our competitors - it can attract the next generation of fans and form a basis for us to attract players and build success. I hope it still maintains the traditions of the match going experience which is what I love about Goodison.

I feel that if we mess this up a la Kings Dock then we will be outside the top echelons of English football for a very long time.

Still being at the shockingly dated Goodison with its blue paint and wood has hit us the most. Our image in the entire Premier League era has been 1960s, Z-Cars, Tommy Steele and Liberace. Or – to sum up: Bill Kenwright.

To be fair to the club, in one of those markets, Africa, some strides are being made. The SportPesa deal, Tanzania visit, and the match against Gor Mahia went a long way towards raising the club's profile.

Soon after, the RS opened their first Supporters club in Kenya and a stream of high-profile ex-Reds have come or are coming to Nairobi (Fowler, McManaman, Carragher).

On the Premier League Fanzone (watched globally) there are more Blues fans phoning in and wearing the shirt, notably from South Africa and India. I think the club's on-line distribution deals may be enabling a wider audience to purchase merchandise.

I cannot comment on the experiences of fans in America and Asia, but in Africa (certainly East Africa) I have noticed a significant profile increase.

There are perception issues on whether certain markets are lucrative – certainly with Africa and perhaps poorer parts of Asia.

This is undoubtedly a fair economic argument as to why these particular markets may not see greater visibility from the club. East Africa, which is a poor region by global economic measures, might be an anomaly driven by the SportPesa contract.

As for the more attractive parts of Asia and indeed the US – it would be good to have the experiences from the Blue brothers and Sisters who live there.

I think there is one more revenue stream that has been missed. The Academy.

At any given time, we have 40 to 50 players in the academy, with the "hope" or "expectation" that one or two make it to the first team squad. That leaves a lot of young players that will not make the grade at Everton, but who will or could have successful careers at other Premier League, overseas or lower league clubs.

I am not sure of the numbers, but here is a guess. If we aim to sell 10 players per year at $3mill to $5mill each, then that is a significant revenue. What are your thoughts on this?

1) The abundance of cheap imitation shirts (except ours!!) means that there won't be any sales in the region. Both the dedicated RS and Utd. shops where I usually live closed down and integrated into a general sports store with less merchandise available.

2) The locals want to support the teams that are seen as winners. One guy I spoke to last weekend where I currently live was telling me that he follows the EPL through his 9 year old son who was a Utd. supporter, is now a RS supporter but wants to change to support City.

Chang made a small difference to our profile in Thailand as in their dedicated sports pubs they gave out Everton merchandise every weekend to customers watching the matches.

We had Nike as our kit manufacturer for a couple of seasons in 2012-14. I can't recall how much they paid for that privilege but the fact we then switched to Umbro suggests it was not a great deal. At the time, I heard our top selling named shirt in the first year of the Nike deal was for Fellaini. The volume sold? Seventy! Not the sort of number which would excite a shirt sponsor.

My heart goes out!

But as this season is proving even qualifying for the massively less financial Europa League, may see teams who normally compete every year in the Champions league missing Europe altogether. The number of clubs owned by Billionaires has risen dramatically, so were the City owners came in and spent massive amounts that made a difference that isn't as easy as it was for Man City. So while the poster cites Champions League as the holy grail to untold fortunes, this has to be acheived on a regular basis. Now while Silva and Brands have had a big impact in such a short space of time, for them to get Everton into the Champions League will be a massive ask.

Finally, I will just say to Paul that he mentions maybe looking at the season ticket holders who get concessions like me over 65, I only pay £299 for my seat in the Upper Bullens. Well maybe they could charge us the normal price and I would happily pay it, but my Grandson also gets a concession and only pays £95 for his season ticket to sit next to me. For me, I take great pleasure that my club gives concessions to kids, there is nothing better than seeing so many kids going into Goodison Park. I think in the great scheme of things the concessions to some season ticket holders is a tiny amount of money and would in no way be a major contributory factor in Everton growing financially as a club.

We all know the length of the Kitbag deal was the absolute almightiest fuck-up since Kings Dock but to suggest this will roll over because no-one has told you otherwise is short-sighted to say the least.

Big name quality players. A much better product is a must.

It all starts with a billionaire and a new stadium to spoil the fans....

In any case, the question is as much: How do we make ourselves wealthier relative to other clubs? — because, if everyone gets richer, you acquire no advantage.

I agree with the author's basic premise is that we need to grow commercial and sponsorship. But that is a chicken-and-egg situation. Sadly our sponsors always seem somewhat second tier.

We've had Chang, a small beer brand in global terms; SportPesa, a small betting company in global terms; Roxio, a small gaming company in global terms. Umbro v Nike as well. Basically we can only seem to get second or even third tier sponsors. Man Utd might consider SportPesa as their East African partner, not as a main sponsor. StubHub is a sizeable business with the backing of eBay but my impression is that is a very limited commercial partnership.

When was the last big name large sponsor we had? I'm guessing it would be NEC who at least were pretty much global leaders in their field. Anyone else?

However, to answer the question about getting more revenue, seems to be based on the stadium to me — and presumably we're looking for it to be utilised every day of the year as opposed to once every 2 weeks on average? I may well be wide of the mark.

Would a top-rank sponsor want to associate itself with a team that finishes 6th and plaster its name on a 1960's stadium? Change the product to change the sponsor, not the other way round. There is a good reason why the only world-class bit of real estate Everton own has a world-class sponsor, USM.

We're finally showing some signs of significant improvement, of attracting very good rather than average players, of getting more noticed for some genuinely creative attacking football. If this progress continues, then we'll compete at the top sooner rather than later.

All the business strategies in the world won't change this. It's all down to getting success on the pitch. Not necessarily winning trophies, but success in the way indicated. With or without a new stadium, but a new stadium will be a natural accompaniment to this process of improvement on the pitch.