Growing the association of teams and clubs is at the core of our work. We want to help you get started, review the information below and please reach out at any time for free consultations on making a team in your community possible. If you’re not looking to start a team, but you’d like to join one, please join our player network instead. While not all markets can handle having multiple teams, many can handle it and we’ll support additional teams in markets.
Our 4 step quick start guide to starting a team
Step One
Determine whether there is a club in your area, and who the nearest LGBT soccer clubs may be.
- Other clubs in your city? Can you join their efforts?
- If Yes, get introduced. If you need help, let us know. Many clubs desire new leaders to come forward, so taking on an existing club may be the best route instead of creating a new one.
- If No, take the next steps in planning. Try to differentiate from other teams if they are in the same market.
Step Two
You can go it alone OR get a solid group of volunteers to lead the club. It’s recommended to find 3-5 persons to serve on the Board of Directors in varying capacities. Though you can certainly do all of this on your own to start.
Make things official:
- Get a club name agreed upon.
- Secure social media handles on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram
- Market yourselves, send invites to friends, ask folks to share. Reach out to community bloggers and LGBT establishments.
- Secure a domain website: www.teamname.com (and suggested to buy the .org)
- Becoming a not for profit? Get a constitution for your club to abide by
- Develop a vision for your organization:
- What purpose do you intend to serve
- Where do you want to see the club in 3 months, 12 months, and 36 months
- Develop a mission, and if you’re thinking 501.c.3 make sure it aligns with what is necessary for that status
- File for a business status, we suggest incfile.com as an affordable option to get started or see if anyone you know can offer pro-bono assistance
Step Three
Get affiliated and determine how you want to evolve your club! Reaching out to other clubs in the association is an important way to network and get connected.
Step Four
Get on the Pitch
- Grow your member base through engagement and playing
- Start a Facebook Group Page to be the central hub of activity for you club. It’s proven essential to have at least the Facebook group. You can use other tools like the Spond app, Teamlinkt, Heja and more to organize your team(s) too.
- Start pickup soccer in your area, try to rent or secure field space. By hosting pickup soccer you can break down the barrier to playing as jumping right into league play can be more difficult as a first step to establishing the club.
- Determine where your team fits into your local soccer scene:
- Soccer is a challenging sport, and persons interested in it as an adult may have reached various levels of play. Having a higher and lower level of play opportunity will be an essential component to sustaining your club as there will be a desire by both level audiences to play with like skilled players.
- Playing in smaller format leagues tends to be a lesser barrier to launching a team/club as it requires fewer players and the playing style is simpler than traditional 11v11 soccer. As you grow, you can begin to offer various formats, days, levels of play, gender oriented teams and more.
- Often teams start because of friends and friends of friends, so starting niche is okay. The goal is to be inclusive in the long run, but in the short term it’s okay to be just men or just women, or an all gender team. There will be times when you cannot serve everyone due to the complexity of sport, but doing your best always to be inclusive and help others find a home in sport even if it’s not in your club is important.
- Have questions? Let us help! Every team, club and city has it’s unique challenges and opportunities.