Football fan sets up a 'league of donations' to save Scottish clubs
- Published
Ruaridh Kilgour spent £4,000 of his own money starting up the fundraising venture
When Ruaridh Kilgour set out to raise money for football teams who had lost out on ticket sales because of the ongoing Covid pandemic he never guessed how well it would go.
Some 125 professional and semi-professional clubs are now benefiting from the £275,000 the 28-year-old has helped generate.
So, how does the fundraiser work?
Ruaridh teamed up with graphic designer, Liam Darling, and web developers Andrew Fraser and Eduardo Toselli, to create an online site where fans could buy the equivalent of a match-day ticket.
The cash tally for each participating club is on the website for all to see, creating a competition among supporters to get their club to the top of this special league of donations.
Some of the teams have seen more tickets sold in this no-fans season than previous years when matches had crowds.
The Stenhousemuir v Berwick Rangers online fixture sold 646 tickets compared with when they last played each other in April 2018 where 300 fans attended the game.
The Beith Juniors v Tranent Juniors final, which pulled in £9,000, saw the website crash due to hundreds of fans refreshing the site to donate and to see which side had won.
The scheme has kept many sides afloat including helping to pay player wages.
Raith Rovers said the money had been spent on players' wages
Ruaridh, whose Donate A Ticket campaign, external was launched after the country went into lockdown, said: "Not in my wildest dreams did I think this amount would be raised and it's still going strong now. I feel really proud.
"I have a massive passion for football so I knew I had to do something to help when the lockdown was announced."
Although delighted with his novel money-making idea, the Edinburgh resident initially found it difficult convincing clubs to sign up.
Ruaridh explained: "At first I had a real challenge in getting the teams to trust the site as they wondered why I was calling them up for something that was free for them to sign up to and that they would benefit from. They wondered what was in it for me.
But once he was able to convince his home town team, Kirkcaldy's Raith Rovers, to join he knew his efforts would pay off.
He said: "I was the youngest ever shareholder at Raith Rovers when my parents bought me shares for my 15th birthday. Since then I have always volunteered to help with the club and I think this is why they trusted me to sign the club up for Donate A Ticket."
Tranent Juniors have received about £20,000 from the site so far
Although matches resumed about six weeks ago supporters are still not allowed to attend so teams continue to miss out on revenue from ticket sales.
Ruaridh, who runs a marketing business, said: "My work dried up during the lockdown and this soon took over full-time.
"I was paying clubs every week and spending hours and hours calculating what each club was to receive before doing scores and scores of bank transfers.
"I thought it would end in August now that clubs are playing again, but without gate revenue I've had to keep it going.
"I feel I can't turn down a team as it might mean the difference in regard to them staying afloat."
Ruaridh has spent £4,000 of his own money on the fundraising venture and because of its success he has not been able to take a break since he founded the site in March.
He has vowed to continue until fans are allowed to return to matches.
'This money has helped us to survive'
David Innes, Tranent Juniors chairman, said: "It's been great for the clubs and is really helping us now because we have started playing again but can't get any fans through the gates.
"It has been a really worrying time financially so all the support from fans has really helped us.
"We have received about £20,000 from this site, which pays for about 10 players wages for a year."
Bill Clark, director of Raith Rovers, echoed that view saying the fundraiser had been "invaluable".
He added: "It's been a greatly imaginative and ingenious way to raise money. No doubt this money has helped us to survive and we are very appreciative to all the fans who have donated."
The web page has been so successful that six English teams - Woking, Maidenhead United, Eastbourne Borough, Hungerford Town, Whitehawk and Northwood - have joined along with Northern Ireland team Glenavon.