An English football team is raising equity capital so that it can pay for a promotion push - another example of how investment and the Beautiful Game intersect.

Sports investment took a new twist this week when English football club Stevenage FC announced that it was offering fans and investors a chance to buy shares in the institution, helping it to eventually rise up the game’s leagues.

Funds raised through the Stevenage FC Equity Offering will mainly be used to boost the club’s wage and transfer budget so that it can compete for talent. The immediate goal is to win promotion to English Football League’s League One bracket and eventually, the EFL Championship. The club finished a point off the EFL League Two play-off places in the 2018/19 season.

Chairman Phil Wallace wants to raise £1.2 million ($1.52 million) by offering 12 per cent equity in the club. Shares are priced at £25 each, with a minimum subscription of £1,000 for 40 shares.

Football and other sports create business for wealth managers – particularly at the higher-paid ends of the spectrum – but as this example shows, they provide investment opportunities at the same time. That said, pumping money into team sports is as much an “investment of passion”, such as buying fine art or classic cars, as it is about securing returns. Such investment could even be regarded, perhaps, as impact investing because the objective is to help a community gain a sense of pride, and is not just about monetary returns. (This publication has run a series of stories about the intersection of sports and wealth management and continues to welcome readers’ suggestions.)

Shareholders will receive a 25 per cent if the club wins promotion to EFL League One, and an additional 75 per cent dividend if the club reaches the EFL Championship. They will also get voting rights on a one share/one vote basis, and will be consulted on key issues relating to the club’s identity, such as kit design, club colours and the location of the stadium.

The offering is available through sports investment platform Tifosy, which launched English football’s first online bond with Stevenage in 2017, raising £600,000 in six weeks to build a new north stand. Construction will be completed this summer, increasing the stadium capacity by 1,400 seats. Clubs that have previously raised funds through Tifosy include Norwich City, which raised £5 million to build a new academy, and Italian clubs Pescara Calcio and Frosinone Calcio who raised funds for infrastructure and academy projects.

Wealth management institutions sponsor sports for branding purposes, as is the case with UBS and Formula 1 motor racing, to give the case of the world’s largest wealth manager. Standard Chartered sponsors Liverpool FC – now winners of a sixth European Champion’s League trophy - and, in that case, connecting with a big fan base in Asia-Pacific. BNP Paribas, to give a third case, sponsors international tennis tournaments.