Welcome to our Community!
How do you fancy running your own over 50’s Team Sports games in your local area and become part of a ‘Life in The Old Dogs Community’?
Now you can with the assistance of a Life in The Old Dogs License.
The games have been running for over 4 years in Bath, Somerset and organised by one individual (retired over 60 sports mad person and wanted a project for fun and stay busy and healthy) and his digital marketing son. These new activities have resulted in not just new team games for the over 50’s but the development of a new community. It’s been hugely rewarding and resulted in a very positive impact on the local over 50’s community.
Life in The Old Dogs is a relatively new community project and all about reconnecting the over 50’s back to Team Sports that they used to play as young people. Today’s 60 years old is the new 40!
Life in The Old Dogs has many benefits including fitness and wellbeing but equally important is the social connections and new community it creates and these days almost becoming a Family. Players often become friends, they play for fun and meet up after for drinks, food, networking, etc.
Life in The Old Dogs fills a gap between the veterans games currently played which are highly competitive and mostly suit the over 40’s to the relatively new walking sports which are in plentiful supply but obviously played at a walking pace with no running allowed.
Taking on a License to run games under the umbrella of Life in The Old Dogs will generate an income and depending on the cost of venue/pitch hire and the price selected to play will result in a surplus to benefit the Licensee. It’s fun to get paid to keep fit!
Sport is Everything!
The Licensee will certainly need to be ‘sporty’ and organised (although technology helps a considerable amount!) but the Licensee does not have to be at every game, everytime. Once up and running the teams can be selected online and balls and bibs can be orgnaised outside the match day.
The License allows you to run up to 4 games per week in an agreed location and additional games can be played for a small supplement per game payment to Life in The Old Dogs Limited.
It’s More than Just a Team Sport
A monthly social event takes place in Bath called ‘Who Let The Dogs Out’ when players from all the sports meet up for a drink to catch up, meet other Old Dogs and enjoy a night out!
The Old Dogs games have resulted in new friendships, new contacts and a range of other benefits from finding a tradesman to recommending a chiropractic! All ranges of people take part and a monthly e-Newsletter is circulated to keep players up to speed on games and social activities.
Being the organiser of the games is a key position to orchestrate new events/ideas and in Bath we have had players represent the over 50’s GB squad in Tag Rugby to play at the International World Cup and The Old Dogs Football group play 11 aside games against other teams around the region. The Basketball Team play against other regional teams for fun ‘away’ games. Players have also entered an Old Dogs team for other activities such as the Bath Half Marathon.
In the future, there are plans to orgnanise a yearly Old Dogs Conference and Tournament alongside future activities such as Ski trips and tours.
It can be what you want to make it and what time you want to put into it from just running a simple game every week to doing lots more. It’s really down to you.
What Makes a Good Old Dogs Licensee
It certainly makes sense that you love sports but you don’t need to have managed a business or been active running a team in a sports league before.
It would be helpful if you are orgnaised, energetic and helpful since players will require assistance and will come to you as the event organiser.
Ideally this is a retirement project or for someone with a few hours spare time on their hands who wants to keep fit and get paid for it. Once set up with a large squad of players, it can run itself since players are very loyal and want to book in and play every week.
Costs v Income
Costs
Your costs to operate an Old Dogs Licensee will be a yearly fee to connect you to the Old Dogs network, pitch hire, public liability insurance (around £60), a very small marketing budget (mainly one off and continued social media/PR) and an optional cost of a booking system if you want to go down that route
If you want to run more than 4 games that is also not a problem but an additional small fee is payable.
A start up marketing plan and budget will be agreed with you which will be mainly digital (and can be implemented for you by The Old Dogs) but some budget for print will also be recommended.
You should allow for a total marketing budget of at least £1k to get you up and running to establish local awareness.
We recommend that to start, games are played mid week after 6pm. Hiring sport centre/leisure centre pitches can be difficult (due to the high demand after 5pm) and often expensive during the evenings but many schools have indoor halls for hire and many have outdoor astro turf pitches with floodlights for all year round hire.
Cost can vary from £25-35 for a hour hire for a pitch/hall outside London.
You may decide to build your own website and add a booking engine but you could start by using a WhatsApp group for each sport you run to allow players to book in and the purchase of a simple card reader to take payments on the day. Players could also pay you by bank transfer to keep start up costs low.
Income
All games will be a minimum of 10 players.
Charges per game can vary but we would recommend at least £6 per game, per player.
I would also recommend a yearly Old Dogs Membership fee of £15 per player to cover your Licensee fee and help with other small costs.
In Bath games can often be 8v8 for Football and certainly often 7v7. Basketball is restricted to 5v5 but with roll on roll off (which is normal in Basketball) we can still accommodate up to 12 players per game.
Obviously this is only an example and prices and fees can vary from place to place.
Start by Getting in Touch
If you are interested in becoming an Old Dog Licensee get in touch. Email us at help@lifeintheolddogs.com and we can send you an Application Form details and a copy of our Terms & Conditions
