How to get members for your sports club

Every grassroots club dreams of a group of people who pay a fee each month and turn unpredictable income into something you can actually count on. We call those people members, and having them transforms a club’s finances.

This guide explains how to get members for your sports club, being clear about that signing them up is the easy part. The hard part, and the one that really keeps a club going, is making them stay. We’ll cover both.

Member, season-ticket holder, donor: not the same thing

Before the method, let’s sort out the terms, because they get mixed up and they aren’t the same:

• Member. Pays a regular fee and, in return, belongs to the club and has a voice (in many clubs, a vote at the general meeting). It’s a recurring commitment.
• Season-ticket holder. Pays for access, usually by season, mainly to watch the matches. In grassroots football clubs the line between member and season-ticket holder blurs quite a bit.
• Donor. Gives on a one-off basis, with no commitment to continue. Good for a spike, not for the day-to-day.

What a club needs in order to breathe is the first category: recurring income. The other two help, but they don’t hold up the monthly budget.

How to get members for your club

Getting members isn’t about asking, it’s about offering a clear reason to belong. A method that works in a grassroots club:

1. Define what being a member is and what it costs. A clear fee (monthly or yearly, say) and, above all, what they get back: belonging, information, a card, access to something. Without a concrete offer, nobody signs up.
2. Start with the inner circle. Families, former players, coaches, neighbours who already feel the club is theirs. That’s your natural base and your highest-converting one.
3. Make it easy. A two-minute sign-up form and a payment that renews itself. Every extra step loses people along the way.
4. Make the number visible. A member counter, a goal (“reach 100 members this season”), publicly thanking those who join. Belonging pulls harder when it can be seen.
5. Ask at the good moments. A promotion, the start of the season, a big match. People join when the club feels alive.

Signing members up is easy, keeping them is the challenge

Here’s the point almost nobody tells you. Recruiting members on a good run is relatively simple. The trouble comes in March, when the novelty wears off, the team loses three in a row and the quiet cancellations begin.

A club doesn’t lose its members all at once. It loses them one by one, in the month nobody remembers why they joined.

Retention is worked the same way recruitment is, but all year round: communicate what the club does with that money, show results (not only sporting ones), make the member feel their fee turns into something. A member who sees the impact renews. One who only sees the charge cancels.

The membership ceiling and how to lift it

And even doing everything right, members have a ceiling. Each new member is someone you’re asking to pay extra every month, and a neighbourhood doesn’t have endless families willing and able to take on another fee. It’s the same limit as raising the club fee: the moment it pinches, people drop out.

That’s why the interesting question isn’t only how to get more members, but how to let all the people who want to help but can’t commit to paying contribute anyway. That’s where a different route comes in:

• Membership at no cost, with cashback. When someone in the club’s circle buys their everyday things at a partner store through Esportik, the store pays a commission that comes back directed to the club, at the same price and no extra cost. It’s a way to “be a member” by contributing without spending more. We explain it in what is cashback, and how it adds up across many people, in support your club.
• Local sponsorship, to add a yearly income with the shops in the neighbourhood. The method is in sports sponsorship.

That’s the powerful combination: paying members for a firm base, and a no-cost route for everyone who wants to pitch in without taking on a fee. What each income stream covers is in what can be financed.

Frequently asked questions

How many members does a grassroots club need? There’s no magic number. The useful way is to work backwards: look at how much it costs to run the club a year and work out how many members, at the fee you set, cover that fixed part of the budget.

What fee should I charge? The one your circle can comfortably take on, even if it’s low. Better to have many members at a small, steady fee than a few at a high one who end up cancelling.

What if I’ve just set up the club? Then members are part of the plan from the start. How that fits with constituting the club is in how to set up a sports club.

Start with your people

Getting members isn’t a marketing campaign, it’s giving the people who already love the club a clear, easy way to keep it going. And the more ways you offer, paid and free, the more people you let help.

Create your club’s profile among the available profiles and start building that base of support today, with and without a fee.