Coventry City Ladies will be holding a ‘bucket shake’ at the Ricoh Arena this Saturday, to raise funds to help run the club for the forthcoming season.
Both players and coaching staff from the team will be present outside the ground before the men’s team kick-off their npower League One fixture against Bury. The Ladies team compete in the FA Women’s Premier League – the highest level of female football in the country – but are still frantically looking to attract sponsorship, in order to finance the season ahead.
Women’s football suffers massively in comparison to the male counterpart, with recent figures revealing that it cost the Sky Blues around £37,000 to run the club last season. Whilst that may be a drop in the ocean to the majority of male teams, manager Paul Cudby has emphasised the importance of raising the funds for the season ahead.
‘’It’s vital that we can raise money with sponsorship opportunities, big and small, and through fundraising events like this Saturday’s bucket shake’’ he said. ‘’We hope that with sponsors, we can promote women’s football in the area, and with the possibility of us applying for Super League status in the future, we can provide real role models to females in sport through the community.’’
Almost £8000 – around 20% of the £37,000 expenditure bill for the club last season – was spent on transport to away first-team fixtures, and similar problems will occur again during this campaign. A day after the fundraiser, the club travel to Leeds for their second league game of the season, with lengthy away trips to Portsmouth, Barnet, Charlton and Sunderland all taking place before the New Year.
Cudby continued: ‘’I think there are a lot of people that perhaps still don’t realise that despite playing on a national level, our players still have to pay to play as we rely solely on private sponsors. We simply have no other way of meeting our £50,000 per year running costs.’’
On the pitch however, it is not all doom and gloom for the Sky Blues. After finishing just a single point off third-placed Aston Villa, as well as clinching the Birmingham County Cup and reaching the semi-finals of the League Cup last season, they carried their good form into the new campaign, with a comfortable 2-0 victory over Charlton Athletic at the Bedworth Oval last weekend.
Aside from this fundraiser, the players will parade the FA County Cup at half-time. Earlier this year, the Ladies clinched the trophy for the first time in their history, defeating local rivals Aston Villa 1-0 in the final.
Coventry City Ladies will be collecting from 1pm until 3pm, outside the Ricoh Arena on Saturday 25th August.