The ROI of a Community App for Sports Clubs
What does a community app deliver? The ROI of sponsor engagement in sports clubs
What does the business club actually deliver? Every commercial director faces that question sooner or later, from the board or from the owners. And as soon as a community app is part of the picture, the follow-up question comes quickly: what does that deliver?
‘More engagement’ is an honest answer, but it is not a business case. In this article, we show how to make the ROI of a community app for your sports club tangible. With industry figures, results from AS Roma and Girona FC, and a calculation method you can apply to your own business club straight away.
Why traditional ROI measurement falls short
Sponsorship is still often judged on visibility. How often was the logo on screen? How many people saw the shirt? What reach did the social post achieve? For a brand, those are relevant numbers. But they do not explain why a partner renews next season, or walks away.
That decision depends on something else: engagement. Does a partner attend events? Do they use the network? Have they done business through it? That is sponsor engagement, and it is exactly where traditional measurement rarely provides answers.
Usually, that is not down to a lack of effort but to fragmentation. Registrations sit in spreadsheets, agreements in inboxes and contacts in someone’s phone. If you do not bundle that information, you cannot demonstrate engagement either. That is where the real ROI of a community app lies: not in the number of downloads, but in making visible what partners actually do with their membership.
Sponsorship ROI in numbers: what does the industry say?
The industry itself shows that sponsorship pays off. Sports marketing agency Infront cites research by Kearney showing that sponsorship returns typically range between 3:1 and 6:1. In other words, every euro invested generates three to six euros in return, which places sponsorship among the more effective marketing investments.
The market keeps growing, too. According to the ESA Sponsorship Market Overview 2026, produced by Nielsen Sports, the European sponsorship market reached €34.45 billion in 2025. Sport accounts for 72 per cent of that, almost €24.8 billion, and grew by 5.9 per cent, faster than the market as a whole. The UK alone grew by 10.5 per cent to €6.15 billion.
Fans confirm the power of sport as a connector. Research by Teads among 9,000 sports fans in nine countries found that 47 per cent feel a stronger connection to a brand that advertises around sports moments.
More money in sponsorship also means more accountability. Sponsors want to know what their partnership delivers. Boards want to know what the business club delivers. If you can back that up with data, you are in a stronger position at the table.
In practice: AS Roma and Girona FC
AS Roma: from free to paid, with 80 per cent renewing
The AS Roma Business Club is regarded as one of the most innovative business networks in European sport. Before Bundeling, events were organised through a patchwork of spreadsheets, external forms and email. That cost time and made it hard to keep an overview.
Guglielmo Donnini, Premium Corporate Sales Account at AS Roma, has seen the business club evolve first-hand. The most telling figure: when the club moved from a free to a paid membership, 80 per cent of members renewed. A strong signal that members saw the value, even once they had to pay for it.
Usage tells the same story. The app has been opened more than 50,000 times and events are fully booked within a short time. Members connect directly, register for events and use exclusive offers within the network, and those connections have already led to new partnerships and deals between members.
Girona FC: 50 per cent more members in two seasons
The Girona FC Business Club brings together partners, hospitality clients and suppliers. Over the past two seasons, membership grew by 50 per cent, and the club is expanding its calendar from 2 to 12 events per year.
As Alex Torremorell, Partnerships Operations Manager, and Francesc Rojas, Head of Hospitality & Business Club, explain, communication with members used to be traditional and largely manual. As the business club grew, it became clear that approach would not scale. With Bundeling, Girona FC brought communication, member data and interaction together in one environment. Alex sums it up:
“It’s a very powerful tool for us and our partners.”
Do the maths: an example calculation
Hoe ziet zo’n berekening er in de praktijk uit? Hieronder werken we een voorbeeld uit met fictieve cijfers, puur What does this look like in practice? Below, we work through an example with fictitious figures, simply to show how the method works. You can then enter your own figures and see straight away what a community app could deliver for your club.
An ROI calculation does not need to be complicated. You set the return you can reasonably attribute to the platform against what the platform costs. Typical sources of return are:
- Retained revenue: memberships and sponsorship contracts that are renewed, partly thanks to demonstrable engagement.
- New revenue: new members who join through the network or through referrals.
- Additional income: for example, visibility within the app that you sell to partners.
- Time saved: hours your team no longer spends on emails, phone calls and keeping lists up to date.
Example (fictitious figures). A business club with 100 members invests €20,000 a year in the platform and its management. The club estimates that €80,000 in return can be attributed to the platform, through higher renewals, new members and time saved.
- Return per euro invested: 80,000 ÷ 20,000 = 4. Every euro returns €4 (4:1).
- Net ROI: (80,000 − 20,000) ÷ 20,000 = 300 per cent.
You will come across both notations. The 4:1 ratio compares directly with the 3:1 to 6:1 range from the Kearney research. Net ROI shows what remains once the investment has been deducted.
Now enter your own figures. Be deliberately cautious about what you attribute to the platform: a conservative calculation you can back up will convince a board more than an optimistic estimate.
Demonstrating ROI with Bundeling
An ROI calculation is only as strong as the data behind it. As long as communication, events and the network are spread across separate channels, most of that data stays invisible.
When you bundle everything in one environment, you see what is really happening. Who is active? Which content works? How quickly do events fill up? How is the business club developing over time? These are exactly the insights you need for the conversation with your board, and for renewal talks with your partners.
Curious what this could look like for your club? Explore Bundeling Sports.
