On the latest episode of the Gwlad Tidings podcast for The Athletic, Greg O’Keeffe & Paddy Boyland have been discussing the latest goings-on at the Merseyside club ahead of Sunday’s game against Liverpool, including a discussion on Everton’s plans for an affiliate scheme in the USA.
Boyland wrote an article for The Athletic earlier this week about how the Toffees will be using an affiliate scheme “as part of their plans to conquer the US”. The report states that the Merseyside club had two main aims when planning this decision, namely, creating an additional revenue stream for the club which is looking to grow its commercial footprint, but also helping to build an affinity amongst young soccer fans in America with Everton Football Club.
This led to a discussion of the update on the latest episode of the Gwlad Tidings podcast, with O’Keeffe discussing Boyland’s article, before asking for some more details, saying:
“I felt when I was reading that piece you’ve done, I learned something, I took something away and it made me think more positively about the effort and the long-term planning for trying to grow our brand in the US and North America and beyond. Tell us a little bit about it.”
Are you happy with this decision from Everton?Yes
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Boyland then responded with some more details, saying:
“Yeah, so I think the first thing to say on this is that if the academy affiliate program as it is, they’ve got three clubs signed up, two in the US, one is in Florida, the other one is in Columbus, Ohio, and another one in Western Australia.
“The aim is very much first of all to create additional commercial revenues. So, clubs, professional clubs, grassroots organisations, anybody that wants it can pay to have the expertise of Everton Academy staff, giving them coaching programmes, manuals, staff, and players can come over to Finch farm when it’s obviously safe to do so, and vice-versa.
“It delivers commercial revenue, and that’s obviously something that they’ve looked to grow substantially over the last couple of years.”
TIF Thoughts…
This seems like a good idea from Everton, as we have seen fellow Premier League sides such as Manchester City benefit from these types of affiliate schemes in recent years. The citizens were able to sign Aaron Mooy on a free transfer from Melbourne City in 2015, before selling him on to Huddersfield for £8 million just two years later, which clearly demonstrates the financial benefits schemes such as this can have for Premier League teams. It certainly looks to be an exciting decision by Everton and hopefully one which they can profit from in the long-term.