Strathmore Community Football Association looks for Plan B

Sharon McLeay
Times Contributor

 

At the July 20 Strathmore Town council meeting, an application for funding by the Strathmore Community Football Association (SCFA), in the second round of the Town of Strathmore Community Investment Fund (CIF) allocations, was recommended to be turned down.
The association was looking for $15,000 worth of funding to assist with change room rentals and the purchase of new helmets for the players. The association was willing to fundraise a matching amount by approaching businesses for donations and selling MVP cards.
The SCFA overall season costs are $48,500. The team draws crowds of between 200 and 750 people to the games and is completely run by volunteer labour, including the coach and trainers. Carl Seafoot, SCFA president, said in the past they have had good support for the sport from the community and businesses, but lately it is harder to secure donations.
The association has increased costs that are getting harder to meet. Rental for change rooms has increased $12,000 in the last year and they have had to cover additional costs for many incurred expenses, like a new scoreboard, rental of storage for equipment and the purchase of new jerseys.
Seafoot said many local businesses are routing funding requests through corporate offices and it is harder to tackle the barriers. He said the team doesn’t like to pester the community for donations, and when the town suggested they apply for money, the association agreed it was a good idea.
He said that on every game and road trip the players, coaches, fans and sponsors are ambassadors for Strathmore.
“We are out there waving the flag,” said Seafoot.
In the SCFA’s application they stated: “Players from Strathmore have participated in provincial All Star teams, junior teams in western Canada, and university teams in Nova Scotia. Local awards and league awards have been presented and earned.”
The team advocates the games also contribute to local businesses, when patrons and players attend the games.
The CIF committee complimented the SCFA as an excellent community organization, but felt the application didn’t meet the vision and mandate for the funding program.
The committee response was: “While these key criteria are important, the committee felt that the application lacked the ability to demonstrate the ability to enhance Strathmore’s reputation as an ‘eventful’ town, the ability to demonstrate a definitive economic impact on the local economies and the celebration of a significant landmark in the Strathmore environment, history, cultural identity and or diversity, all key criteria markers for large scale funding.”
Tracey Simpson, who presented the committee’s decision to Town council, said the committee directed SCFA to other funding sources and encouraged them to reapply if they had a special event in the season that might better qualify.
“I really think it is high time that we start to look to this committee when it comes to funding given out by this council. We have seen over the years that it’s looked at as being pretty easy to get, and money was given out here, there and everywhere else. I think we should look towards the recommendations of the committee and this is one good example here,” said Town Coun. Rocky Blokland.
Seafoot said the association hadn’t received a letter or heard back from anyone on the committee, or had notification of their decision prior to the council meeting on July 20.
“I guess I can see both sides of the coin,” said Seafoot. “It will make us scramble some, clamp down on some expenditures, game day promotional and highlighting the experience activities. We had/have some large financial outlays with our move/relocation and subsequent augmentations to the CMJHS [Crowther Memorial Junior High School] venue.
“We will have to put our heads together and come up with some other solutions. We may reapply and we will try to strengthen our application, if we decide to reapply again.”
Sponsors for the team have some real opportunities for advertising. Sponsor logos display on the website, game day flyers, and at the annual wind-up and awards banquet. Donors can be members of the Strathmore Badgers sponsor board, giving them game day exposure at home games. The sponsor boards are set at various locations around the playing field on game day.
Seafoot said sports teams support and develop youth and get families involved in the Strathmore community. He said he is not sure how they compare arts and events with sports for funding, but he noted sports and artistic events draw different types of clientele, and there should be support for all types of interests in Strathmore.