Baseball: Moneyball

Baseball Team Kicks Off Second Annual Crowdfunding Campaign

SportsMatthew Shanahan — Published February 15, 2016 | Updated February 16, 2016 at 2:50am

While the Concordia Stingers baseball team have been raising money to operate ever since their inception in 1995, the team has now sought to crowdsourcing for its team, using the school’s FundOne model.

The team raised $3,985 off the strength of 38 supporters last year, and will resume their efforts this week.

“[Last year’s campaign] was successful,” said Stingers manager Howie Schwartz. “Starting it up again is a no-brainer,” Schwartz said.

Concordia’s Associate Director John Bower believes crowdsourcing will benefit the team, crediting its ability to connect with potentially interested donors on “all forms of
social media,” and says “it’s a proven way to reach more people and get more money.”

It was also important to establish the initiative on a common sense level.

“This was important because we hadn’t done anything new in close to 15 years,” said Bower. “It was needed to get us into the 21st century.”

With the ever-increasing competition in university athletics, fundraising is now a year-round job and a necessity for varsity teams, according to Bower. In the past, it wouldn’t occupy a priority for more than two or three months of the year.

While baseball isn’t recognized as a varsity sport in Canadian Interuniversity Sport, the team is held to university league standards, said Bower.

“We defined a lot of the structures, what a student athlete is, what a recruit is, what can be promised during that process, solidifying these processes,” Bower said. “Simply put, the fundraising through the crowdfunding is there to enhance the student athlete experience.”

As the fundraising kicks off this week, there are still a few unanswered questions. Bower admits that the funding may go towards scholarships for players or for a “bonafide preseason experience,” but he isn’t sure yet. In any case, the Stingers have high expectations for their fundraising campaign.

“Nobody is gonna know about it until the whole crew starts soliciting people. I expect to raise as much as we did last year if not more,” Schwartz said.