Sam's Vision - Part Four

OUR five-part series examining the changing face of Bolton Wanderers since Sam Allardyce's arrival, today focuses on Phil Gartside -- the chairman who appointed Big Sam. GORDON SHARROCK looks at the pioneering work he has sanctioned in the commercial field

BEHIND every successful manager stands a good chairman. The old marriage analogy, so often applied in business, could not be better illustrated than in the cut and thrust of the football industry.

No appraisal of Sam Allardyce's management can be made without reference to the man who gives him his head and, ultimately, signs the cheques. So it is no surprise to hear Phil Gartside speak of his partnership with the man he brought to the Reebok three years ago.

"In normal business it's important to have a good relationship between your chairman and manager," says the Wanderers' chief, "but in football it is essential. The understanding has to be spot on and Sam and I have a great relationship."

Newly-installed as chairman of the board, he had a good idea what he was getting when he recruited Allardyce in the wake of Colin Todd's departure in the autumn of 1999. As a fan himself, he remembered Big Sam's playing style, but he also knew he had become one of the most innovative managers in football.

And that suited a chairman who refuses to be held back by the twin constraints of tradition and narrow-mindedness, however unusual the idea might be.

The prospect of Juventus being interested in a partnership with Wanderers raised a few eyebrows. But the Italian giants believe they can learn a lot from Gartside and Co in terms of stadium development and merchandising, while Allardyce would love to dip into the Turin club's playing reserves.

Such plans show the chairman's open-minded approach, which he encourages in his staff. "I've always said that if there's anything new they want to try they can do it -- provided they can justify it and make it work," he explains. "You'd like it to make money too but, as long as it's good for the fans or good for the team, we'll give it a go.

"With players' wages as big as they are, spending £10,000 or £20,000 on a promotion like Teamcard is nothing. That can be a week's wages for some players.

"As long as it stacks up from a business point of view, it's worth speculating."

Innovation is not exclusive to the football department.

Commercially, Wanderers have become brand leaders in the last five years since the move to the Reebok -- pioneers in fund raising and widely-acclaimed experts in the field of maximising the earning potential of their stadium, 365 days a year.

When Teamcard was launched a year ago, they became the first professional club in the world to operate a multi-functional 'smart' card - a season ticket and loyalty card combined. Figures released today show that supporters spent £750,000 with Wanderers Teamcard partners (participating local businesses) in the year to October 1 and earned five million loyalty points, equivalent to £50,000 in cash.

Wanderers have profited too, but in addition to financial benefits, Teamcard gives them more information on their supporters than ever before - their lifestyle, spending habits, the turnstile they use and even what time they use it!

They have introduced new ticketing, retail and lottery technology and have set up a customer relationship management system in a bid to improve further their service to supporters.

"Clubs have assumed in the past that fans would remain loyal, no matter how they treat them," commercial director Gareth Moores concedes. "But that is not the way forward. We want to provide a four star service-led business, just like the hotel.

"We do a lot of research to keep us in touch with the supporters' needs with regular focus groups and questionnaires and we constantly monitor our own performance."

Hamstrung by debts in excess of £30 million -- a consequence of the stadium and hotel development -- Wanderers are constantly having to find new ways of generating revenue. If they stood still they might lose the trust of their bankers.

The balance sheet will be the measure of their success on that score.

But an invitation to join 35 of the top clubs in Europe -- Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Leeds, Chelsea and Newcastle are the other English representatives -- at a workshop on The Commercial World of Football, hosted by the Italian giants Lazio, suggests they are on the right lines.

"The reason we have been invited is because we are seen as having a blueprint for best practice, especially in the area of broadening and diversifying -- building a broad-based business platform.

"It's not necessarily new to clubs in this country. Chelsea have a similar philosophy but the vast majority of the top clubs in Europe, Italy in particular, are way behind us. We are not as big a football club as Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus or Inter Milan but in some respects we are light years ahead of them.

"That's demonstrated by the number of clubs who have come to look at what we are doing here. We are held up as an example of how to grow, how to become successful and compete at the highest level."

Standing 11th in the Premiership's commercial league, Wanderers are punching way above their weight with their off-field activities but the table that matters shows that on the field they are struggling to compete with the elite of English football.

But recent expansions, which have turned the Reebok into one of the largest hotel, conference and banqueting businesses in football, 1,300 corporate customers per match day and the development of offices in the North Stand should help cushion the blow -- if things do not work out on the field.

"We don't have the fan base some of the big clubs have," Gareth Moores acknowledges, "but we have a strategy to supplement our income from football with other income streams - none of which are exposed to the volatility of football. We've created a fairly stable business platform which will help us compete with clubs who have a much bigger fan base.

"Relegation is not something we want to think about because the financial implications are massive but the mere fact that the club has developed this broad-based business means that if the worst comes to the worst we will be in a far, far better position than other clubs to bounce back."

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NEXT: The Young Ones -- a look at the Youth Academy