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Venezia FC, just relegated to Serie B, launched a bond on tifosy.com to financially support the construction of their new training centre. Venezias Business Area Director Gianluca Santaniello gives insights into the reasons to choose this type of financing and the status quo of the project.
You recently announced the launch of a bond, aimed to finance the new training centre, and headquarter of the club. Why did you choose a bond as financing scheme?
We decided to finance the new training centre at Taliercio through a bond to involve our fans, supporters, and the wider investors by offering them to invest in a bond, a unique investment opportunity: get a yearly financial return while supporting their Club.
It could have been financed by the club’s investor. Why did you take a different approach?
The Club’s investors have covered all the financial needs up to now. Now that the Club has achieved financial stability, the investors consider this the perfect moment to engage fans, supporters, and the wider investors
You could have taken out a loan from a bank as well. Why didn’t you do that?
As the project is aimed at building our new training centre and headquarter, we wanted to launch a clear message: to build a successful club, from the youth academy to the first team, where support, fans and general investors are a key component of that. This is why we decided to launch a bond. We want to write a new chapter of our Club.
Financial sustainability is a big topic in football in general and especially for Venezia FC. Do you therefore focus on diversifying your revenue streams or ways of financing the club?
We clearly want to diversify our revenue streams. We do not want to depend solely on broadcasting rights, but we want to build a self-sustainable club. Therefore, we decided to launch a new training centre: we want to build our first team through players who have grown up in our own academy. This will grant us the chance not only to become more financially
self-sustainable, but will also help us building our own game idea and improve the Club identity
Would you have done that also if you were not relegated to Serie B? Because then you would have had much higher income from TV rights…
The decision to launch a bond was not merely driven by financial motives and so the league we were going playing next season. The construction of the new training centre is part of the long business plan of the Club. The decision was independent of the league table position achieved at the end of the season.
What amount of money do you want to raise with the bond? And what does the whole construction project cost?
The objective is to raise €5.500.000. The whole construction project will cost around €10m, divided into two phases: the first will cost €7m, and has already started, while the second will be €3m. As of today, the club has covered all the investments necessary. The bond has been launched to cover the remaining costs.
What’s the status quo with the bond?
We have already raised more than €1,500,000 in only 5 days from more the 27 countries. This is a statement of the appealing of the terms of the bond and the credibility of the club. The reaction from the public has been amazing, and we expect even more engagement in the upcoming days. On 20 June we opened the public phase where everyone will be able to invest on www.tifosy.com/veneziafc. On the 7 July this phase will close, unless we reach the target before.
You chose Tifosy as partner for launching the bond. Why did you choose them?
Tifosy has vast experience in capital raising. Through their proprietary platform, they have collaborated with several clubs around the world, helping them successfully raising capital We wanted to work with a reliable partner and Tifosy, with its vast experience and network, was the natural choice.
