Comedy night to raise some money... feedback please

[Comedy Steve]

Hi all

Toying with ways to raise some money for the Albion and wondered if you guys would be interested in a stand-up comedy night at the Komedia mid-week. I'd try to get some decent Albion-sympathising acts to do it gratis (and naturally I'd compere it).

If we charged £9 a ticket, and sold out, that would be £2250 raised. Okay, that's only 0.1% of the total required, but at least you'd get something for your donation - and I'd be doing more to help than just shipping off some cash.

Good idea? Please let me know, as I'd honestly only go about organising it if I felt I could get an audience - those of you who've seen me at the Komedia at weekends should be confident that it would be a good show and a frankly unbeatable way of donating your money

Stephen

 

[London Irish]

Great idea. Go for it, it would sell out in no time.

 

[Pevenseagull]

An unqualified yes.

Comedy (may I call you 'Comedy'?) , absolute chickin' dinner winner of an idea. Good shout sir.

I'm 100% confident that it would be a sell out.

If just selling out the venue would raise £2,250 I'm confident that with a couple of additional fund raising thingies associated with the evening it should easily clear the £5K.

I'm sure that word of mouth through this site alone would be enough to secure a sell out, but if you think that it might need some people to put some time in towards ensuring the success of the night I for one would be happy to.

What's the capacity at the Komedia?

 

[Brovion]

It's a great idea and I do feel that events like this are better than the club just sending out letters saying "we're broke, give us some money".

We could have gigs, charity dinners, golf days, sponsored walks, anything to raise small but regular amounts of money. I don't want a certificate saying "I saved the Albion" and I certainly don't want my name on a seat (if you do, fine, I'm not criticising). What I would like to see is loads of initiatives like this with fans being proactive. The clubs is never going to raise 2mil from 'normal' individual fans, but I think with a bit of effort we can 'make giving fun'. Also there is the feeling that we've got a bit of enjoyment from parting with our hard-earned as opposed to just handing over a cheque to disappear into a black hole.

Anybody else got any other ideas?

 

[balloonboy]

Having slept on this whole thing overnight, I have a few thoughts....

1. The club needs to allow a way for group fundraising activities, but not at the expense of the already announced scheme for individual donations;

2. We know the additional costs of the Enquiry are circa £200k - a sum which is huge, but could be a target for group fundraising activities;

3. We need to widen the appeal - loads of people may have been sympathetic to our cause, but there are obviously loads of more deserving causes out there. I would suggest, therefore, that any group activity had two aims (at least) - mainly the club, but also another worthy cause (eg: REMF, or, perhaps, raising money for a children's hospital or the like).

My idea is therefore - let's have a load of fundraising activities which are aimed at (a) paying the public enquiry costs, and (b) raising money for REMF (or whatever). Could I suggest aiming for a total pot of £250k, of which £25% would go to the good cause, and 75% to the Albion.

The advantages of using the REMF is (a) it's just after 9/11, (b) it highlights the sterling work already undertaken by Albion fans. However, it may not have the wide appeal which a children's charity would have.

If we set up something like this, then I for one would be able to get a load of friends/relatives involved, who frankly would not be that excited at the prospect of just donating money to the Albion.

Against this background, Comedy's idea is great (it's good anyway!), and to this we can add many others - the most obvious is a sponsored walk from Withdean (or say Madeira Drive) to Falmer, which has already been mentioned elsewhere. That could be MASSIVE.

 

[Gwylan]

I think a comedy night is a great idea Steve.

I think a few top gigs would be an even better one: a FBS fundraiser would be awesome; he and Attila must have enough contacts between them to put on a couple of decent shows.

I like the idea that AFC Wimbledon had of a celebrity football match and asking supporters to donate to play. There must be enough football-loving celebrities would play in that and if we auction off a couple of places in each team, that could raise a bit more.

Come to think of it; why doesn't the club auction off a couple of places in the Albion team for one of the friendlies next season.

If Bradford could raise £2.5m in a few months, then surely we could achieve this.

 

[Lush]

Definitely yes to the comedy night.

Also a bit of light relief amidst the relentless fundraising and campaigning would be MORE THAN WELCOME.

 

[Safeway]

Definitely, great idea.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Top idea!

 

[CHAPPERS]

Excellent!!

This thread is much more like it!! Let's do this, it can't be that hard to raise this money can it?

 

[balloonboy]

Excellent!!

This thread is much more like it!! Let's do this, it can't be that hard to raise this money can it?

That's the spirit!

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

good idea sir

 

[Seasider]

Great idea would definetly sell out. Go with it

 

[Marc]

Top idea count me in for a ticket

 

[sully]

Definately this is my preferred option for giving cash to the club. Just writing a cheque is difficult, but a good night out for it makes it much easier to part with the readies.

Lets not forget, though, that the forty notes fund is presumably still planning such events, and the whole lot might have to be pooled together.

 

[SK1NT]

Top Top Idea! I'll be there!

 

[Wilka]

Sounds the a premiership idea!

 

[Brovion]

Definately this is my preferred option for giving cash to the club. Just writing a cheque is difficult, but a good night out for it makes it much easier to part with the readies.

Lets not forget, though, that the forty notes fund is presumably still planning such events, and the whole lot might have to be pooled together.

This is (another) thing that worries me a bit. Obviously the 40 note fund has been doing sterling work - and here we are effective talking about starting the '250 Note' fund. We have been down this route to raise money and we haven't raised enough. No excuse for not re-doubling our efforts though.

 

[Southy]

Nice one steve. Comedy night with a charity auction maybe. Signed shirts, fatboy, des, fast Show, night out with Ernest on him that sort of stuff etc. Charities do it all the time, makes them loads of dosh if you get enough people there and the right person as the auctioneer leading it. I saw Jimmy Hill do one once and he was actually superb.

 

[Albion Dan]

Isnt Steve Coogan a Brighton resident? Would he do anything for us?