Investing in a rugby club

By joining Our Rugby Club, you have the opportunity to help propel a professional rugby club through the leagues up to the dizzy heights of professional rugby.

By bringing together a community of knowledgeable, like-minded rugby supporters and by pooling our financial resources, ORFC will help a rugby club to attract new players and coaching staff, to purchase state of the art training equipment and to provide everything required to transform the club into a Premiership heavyweight.

Individually, we could all give our local club £30 to put towards administration costs, but collectively, we could potentially offer £300,000, which would make a real difference to the club’s fortunes.

Once Our Rugby Club has been registered with the FSA, members will be invited to contribute financially through the subscription fees, and 100% of this money will be donated to a rugby club. Unlike similar ventures in football (My Football Club and The People’s Club), our intention is not to buy a rugby club, but by offering such significant investment, we will all be important stakeholders.

Given that we will not purchase a club outright, we will not have to incur significant legal costs, or be burdened by the practicalities of owning facilities and employing players - instead, all of our money can be put towards improving the existing setup. This should mean that our investment will yield results much more quickly.

The relationship with a club will be established over the next year or so, with the first donation made in the summer of 2010, prior to the 2010/11 rugby season. A shortlist of clubs will be drawn up and members will be able to vote on the final decision.

Have your say in club matters

All major decisions will be voted upon by the members, and this will be put forward to the club. ORFC members will be able to have their say on selection matters, the appointment of coaching staff and the general running of the club.

We do not seek complete control of these matters, but members’ opinions will be heard and taken into account. Like any investor, if our opinions are not sought or heard, we can withdraw funding at any time and find a more suitable club to work with.

Register your interest

At this stage, we are inviting people to register their interest in this exciting venture (click here to register your details) - we have already had very positive interest, and we have secured sponsorship from The Rugby Blog to cover our initial costs.

To ensure the project is viable, we are aiming for at least 10,000 people to register in the first year, so please tell your friends about Our Rugby Club and ask them to sign up too.

Once enough people have been brought together, people will be asked to pay a £30 annual membership fee. They will then be entitiled to vote on a shortlist of potential clubs, and once the decision has been made the money will be invested in the winning club on an annual basis.