£2506.00 ...put into the club to date, all because YOU bought the Aye of the Tigers fanzine! THANK YOU!!
The ultimate reason we do all this fanzine and website stuff is to raise money for the club. This page gives you an idea of how we do it and just how much we've managed to raise so far...
The figure above represents the total we've put Cas' way since we kicked off the 'zine, and the "Donate-o-blog"(TM) at the side offers an indication of just how we've got there. Hopefully when you read this you'll be spurred on to tell your family, your mates and even your enemies to buy the Aye.
The Aye's 'Donate-o-Blog'... [TM]
£170 - 2007 Brad Board.
As a result of our 'Spongeman' sponsorship of 2006 we were given Brad Davis' farewell playing shirt. During 2007 we raffled off this item through our Brad Board promotion to raise a bit more cash for Cas. And, unlike the previous shirt raffle disaster, this time we managed to rustle up a hundred and seventy nicker!
£600 - 2007 Player Sponsorship.
The club had to once again face up to relegation after miraculously clutching defeat from the jaws of mid-table Super League safety in 2006. However it did mean that we could once again come off the bench as it were and sponsor a proper player again. Thanks also to our 2006 decision to knock the price of the fanzine up to £1.50, we also had a bit more to contribute to the club coffers.
£500 - 2006 "Spongeman" Sponsorship.
While the raffle had been a disaster, we still liked the idea of sponsoring the club and raising the Aye's profile at the same time, so with our glorious return to Super League we approached Cas again about player sponsorshjip. The demand was naturally a bit higher now so we agreed that, rather than take up a player (who someone else might want) we'd sponsor Tony O'Brien, the 'Spongeman'. This would again mean we'd get the Aye mentioned in the club's matchday magazine and over the tannoy and it would mean we'd also get a player shirt to raffle off at the end of the year.
£6 - 2005 "Take the Shirt" Raffle.
Our 2005 player sponsorship meant we would be presented with a players shirt, so we decided we'd raffle it off to try and boost the fundraising effort a bit more. Unfortunately an extremely disappointing participation from the public at large meant that we barely raised anything at all. We made the mistake of printing free tickets in the 'zine and as it turned out nearly all of the tickets in the draw had come from Aye readers who had cut out their free entries. Virtually no-one bought any extras. Oh well, you live and learn.
£330 - 2005 Player Sponsorship.
The drop to NL1 rocked us here at Aye HQ. We knew that the club needed money (even our modest contributions) more than ever now, but we'd seen sales of the 'Zine reach a bit of a plateau over the previous season. Availability in the club shops meant it was getting harder to sell our 'Mackies' issues, something we needed to do to raise the money to print the next issue. With printing costs continuing to rise we were worried that the whole thing might be grinding to a halt, so we decided to contact the club about some kind of sponsorship. We managed to cobble enough together to secure a player sponsorship which had the dual effect of giving Cas the money we'd raised and also raising the 'Zine profile a bit among the fans through tannoy announcements and mentions in the club's matchday magazine.
£400 - 2003/2004 Tigers Club Shops Aye Sales.
The club had initially been a bit distant towards the Aye (worried about the sort of stuff we'd print, no doubt). But once they had realised we were serious - and seen the colour of the money - it became a little easier to interact with the Tigers on a practical level. We set up a deal where we'd send the club shops a 'slack armful' of fanzines whenever we did a new one and then pretty much forget about them. Cas would sell them and just put the money straight in their till, which was easier than buggering about with giant cheques and presentations. But unfortunately it means that for this period we can't accurately quantify just how much we added to the Cas balance sheet. Looking at our sales figures in general though, we reckon that £400 is a pretty conservative estimate of what was raised over the two seasons, so that's the figure we've gone with.
£500 - 2002 Cheque handed over from profits of Aye sales.
From Issue 1 we've always said that one of our key aims was to raise money for the club. It was with quite a bit of satisfaction, therefore, that after our first full season in print we managed to clear £500 which was duly handed over in a half time pitch ceremony after Disco had stayed up half the night making one of those big cheques out of cardboard, paper and Pritt stick.
Comments
Stone Coldon December 20 2006 09:43:49
A BIG thank you to all our readers and contibutors who have helped us this far...
...long may it continue
Discoon October 31 2007 20:31:30
Brad Board promotion now added into the mix, taking the total to over two and a half grand! Thanks everyone!
phil malone 09/09/2010 18:22 Think he's a good player... (not at all gay is he boyo?)
Stone Cold 09/09/2010 17:09 Youngquest... - Thoughts?
I think he's ok, but nowt to write home about
Stoke Bloke 09/09/2010 14:05 Thanx for the explanation Disco I can confirm thatI WAS THAT THICKY that didnt understand the rules.
Stoke Bloke 06/09/2010 02:38 Tell ya with all the gush from Sky and the help from the officials we wouldnt have won if saints had stayed in the sheds. dred proud great performance
phil malone 05/09/2010 11:12 Proud of the effort, 10 out of 10. Dodgy decisions early in season cost us (robins x2) etc
