Fundraising ideas for semi pro level

While you got me thinking about it,

if you need players, what you want to do is recreate local high school team friend groups

your target player is roughly 23-27

what I would try and do, is draw about a 20 minute radius from where you're practicing, figure out all the high schools in that radius, then figure out who the Head Coach was 5-10 years ago there, then see if you can meet them for coffee or a beer

what you want, which guys from teams do you think loved football to the point where they really miss playing now? what you really want, who on those teams was a leader/really popular, such that if they go play semi-pro football, they can call 5-10 guys, and get them all to show up too (and keep showing up because they like hanging out with that guy). Also, is there anyone I should avoid, such that if other players show up and see that guy, they won't bother coming back?

Then the names you get, you want to try and recruit, face to face if you can, "hey, I was talking to your old coach, he gave me you name as someone who loved the game and might enjoy the chance to still play, what do you think?"  sell your program

If the coaches from 5-10 years ago are different than the current coach, you should see if you should meet the current coach too, but expect the current coach to be trying to funnel his current guys into schools, not a semi-pro team, but you should inquire about guys who fell through the cracks of that system, (make sure they're not total headaches who'll drive away teammates)

Publicity

Couple of idea, first, go to the library and do some research, most towns have a small local paper that comes out once a week, some of them cover local high school sports, usually their back issues are on microfiche at the local library

figure out which guys got coverage on the teams you're recruiting from 5-10 years ago, its usually a QB or RB, but sometimes its some other player, if you're able to get one of those guys on your team, you have a pretty decent chance of getting that reporter to do a "where are they now" piece on that guy, if anyone on your team got any better sort of coverage in a bigger paper, try to do the same thing at that level

Any media that gets done on your team, make a point of having everyone on the team share it as widely as they can on facebook, twitter, whatever, a lot of reporters respond to what sort of stories get shared, share media on your team as much as you can

TV - see if you can get your games broadcast, and helpfully rebroadcast. Local access TV usually has no programming, you should see if you can get your games shown there, it'll be a good recruiting tool, players get a kick out of seeing themselves on TV

again, if you can get your games shown there, promote it as much as you can on social media

TV production - are there any colleges in you 20 minute radius? Do they have a communications major or something similar, you can offer internships, (see if you can get them to be for college credit), beware, that college kids on internships tend to be really flakey, treat them well, buy them pizza etc, if there's no college like that that makes sense, high schools have AV clubs, kids can put it on their college applications, again, treat them well to prevent flaking (which is a good general rule in dealing with everyone at the semi-pro level)

a lot of that probably seems like its on the owner's plate, and maybe the owner has already taken care of that stuff (if he has, express how impressed you are in his ownership and figure out something else that needs to get done), but in my experience, semi-pro tends to be a deal where if you don't do it, it doesn't get done

anyway, good luck