Creating Shared Value

Stadium Naming Rights

Through my company Technology and Society, Incorporated, my wife Ginny and I sponsor London Seaward, a London-based women’s football (soccer) club that plays in the Women’s National League Division 1 South East (Tier 4). The 2024/25 season will be our third time around with the club—we can’t wait to see what’s in store!

There has been a fair bit of offseason turnover on the coaching and player fronts, but the new staff is in place and there’s a solid core ready to move forward. Seaward continue to benefit from a long-term groundshare agreement with Redbridge FC, offering a stable base from which to operate. The 2022/23 season was difficult, with their home ground forcing Seaward to sign a series of eight-match contracts without assurances they would be able to play all of their games at the same venue. Redbridge’s generous terms put that uncertainty firmly in the rear-view mirror.

When you alight at Barkingside station on the Central line and make the short walk on Station Road to the stadium, you’ll also see something new: a 3G artificial turf pitch that was just installed. The new, durable surface will reduce match postponements due to weather; provide a more reliable and predictable schedule for players, staff, and fans; and serve as a valuable community resource.

You will also notice that the stadium has a new name: techsoc.com Stadium at Oakside. Redbridge invited my company to join the backers group funding the transition; while I will receive some return on my investment, I believe the arrangement should acknowledge and reward the work that Redbridge have put into their club and facilities over the years. Naming rights offer meaningful non-monetary compensation, for which I’m grateful.

Joining the Team

When I spoke with my lead UK attorney, she wondered why in the world I cared about a couple of football clubs (actually three, including Newbury Forest) in east London. I’ve written about how I discovered London Seaward when their vice-chair put out a call for support on (then) Twitter after the club had been cut loose with almost no notice by their big-name men’s club, but I’ll reiterate that the players’ determination to make a go of it as an independent club in a league with Queens Park Rangers, Norwich, and Cambridge United on limited funds spoke to me. My own experiences competing against huge schools from northern Virginia on a Rockingham County Public Schools budget meant I had no end of empathy for Seaward’s position.

London real estate is expensive, especially when you consider that east London is historically one of least-resourced parts of the capital region. While there is more space for park pitches as you move away from central London, the lack of pitches that can be used in most weather conditions is down to the lack of funds (and will) to make them happen.

Redbridge FC had the will to assemble a team to fund their stadium’s upgrade to 3G. No one involved, me included, had the cash to pay for the upgrade individually but together we could make it happen.

Creating Shared Value

Does helping to fund Redbridge’s pitch upgrade make financial sense? Not really…I could make the same amount of money risk-free by investing in U.S. government bonds. What it does, however, is create a community resource that benefits Redbridge in particular and east London in general by adding another pitch for use by all members of the community.
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Michael Porter advanced the concept of corporate social responsibility, where a company uses its resources in selected ways to support community initiatives the company favored. Later, Porter and co-author Mark Kramer advocated for an approach they called “creating shared value”. As they stated in a 2011 Harvard Business Review article:

​Shared value…is not about personal values. Nor is it about “sharing” the value already created by firms—a redistribution approach. Instead, it is about expanding the total pool of economic and social value.

The new 3G pitch does just that. Yes, Redbridge will benefit from the rents they earn from matches, practices, school trips, and corporate events, but they will also make the techsoc.com Stadium available for community groups. They put in the groundwork (literally) for this effort, so they should reap most of the reward.

Porter and Kramer further note that shared value is about “advancing the economic and social conditions in the communities in which [the company] operates.” As a course creator and speaker whose products are available worldwide, I could claim that I “operate” in east London, but the reality is that my sponsorship of London Seaward and forgone revenue sharing in the 3G pitch upgrade will never be paid back in full. That’s OK…I’m doing fine. What’s more, Ginny and I have dedicated resources to helping a community that deserves to have a place to gather, play, and compete.

Conclusion

I like to joke that my philosophy of life is “Think globally. Act randomly.” but there’s real benefit in looking beyond one’s immediate surroundings for places to make a difference. Ginny and I still support local groups such as White Bird Dance and the Many Hats Collaboration, but the opportunity to support London Seaward, Redbridge FC, Newbury Forest, and east London in general offered a way to provide significant benefit to a community we’ve come to care about a great deal.

I like to think I learned something from the baseball field provided as a community resource by the Ruritan Club in Mt. Crawford, Virginia. Just as people in a small town in the shadow of the Appalachian Mountains need a place to gather and play, so do their counterparts in east London. Now both communities have that place.