8 Top Apps & Software to Help Make Managing a Sports Club Easier
Running a sports team is no small feat. There are numerous tasks involved with it; from keeping track of your sponsors and club expenses to making sure your website is up to date and connecting with your fans on social media.
Luckily, there are several useful tools out there that can help make managing a sports club easier and in this post, we’ll share them with you.
Top Eight Apps To Make Managing A Sports Club Easier
The apps below will help you create a stunning website, manage your team members and expenses, stay in touch with your fans, and more.
SportsPress
Our number one recommendation for all sports teams and clubs is SportsPress. SportsPress is a plugin for WordPress that makes it easy to create a powerful website for your team. It can display player profiles, match results, interactive scoreboards, tournament brackets, and more.
What’s more, you can make use of various SportsPress extensions such as BuddyPress for SportsPress or WooCommerce for SportsPress to create a community site or sell team merchandise and make extra money for your team. You can download SportsPress for free from the official repository and try it as well as upgrade to the pro version for extra functionality. Pricing for the pro version starts at $99/year.
Expensify
As a team, you probably have a lot of expenses. Expensify makes it easy to track your expenses and scan the receipts so you can keep track of them. You can scan your receipts with your phone instead of keeping all those paper receipts and making sure they don’t get lost. Whether it’s gas mileage, travel expenses or equipment expenses you want to track, Expensify has you covered.
You can try a limited free version and upgrade to the pro for unlimited monthly scans. Pricing for the pro plan starts at $4.99/month.
QuickBooks
Speaking of finances, if you accept donations, sell merchandise or sponsorship packages, you’ll need a way to track your income. QuickBooks is a popular accounting app that’s easy to use and you can use it together with Expensify to have a complete overview of your team’s finances.
QuickBooks doesn’t have a free version but the pro version is affordable at $7.50/month for the basic functionality and simple accounting.
MailerLite
Collecting email addresses from your fans as well as potential sponsors and donors is the best way to stay in touch with them during the off-season. By staying top of mind and nurturing the relationship, you’ll make it easier for them to continue following your progress as well as donate and buy your sponsorship packages once the season starts over.
MailerLite makes it easy to build your email list as it allows you to easily create signup forms and newsletter campaigns. It’s also free for the first 1000 subscribers and includes marketing automation even on the free plan. All of this makes it a great option for anyone new to email marketing. Paid plans start at $10/month.
Trello
If you’re looking for an easy way to keep track of your sponsors and donors, consider Trello. This kan-ban style project management app has an easy to use drag and drop interface that lets you move your tasks around — just like sticky notes.
You can create boards for sponsors, donors, team members, and even your matches and organize them with lists and cards. Trello can be used for free and you can create unlimited personal boards as well as 10 team boards which is more than enough for small to medium sized sports teams. If you need more features, you can upgrade to the paid plan which starts at $9.99/user/month.
Buffer
Posting regularly on social media is another great way to keep your fans engaged and allow them to stay up to date with everything going on behind the scenes of your sports team. But posting in real time is tedious, not to mention it’s all too easy to skip a day or a few. Buffer makes it easy to schedule social media posts across multiple social media networks.
You can post on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and even Pinterest. Although Buffer doesn’t have a free plan, you can take advantage of the 14-day free trial to try all of its features. Paid plans start at $15/month and support scheduling posts on up to 8 accounts. You can even use it on your phone and schedule social media posts on the go.
Discord
If you’re looking for a way to stay in touch with your team members during the off-season or even on days when you’re not practicing, try Discord. This app can be used on your desktop computer as well as mobile devices. It lets you create a private server where you can chat with your teammates and even have a voice chat.
Each server can have several different channels so you can have one for general sports talk, one for topics related about your team, and one where you share day-to-day life.
You can use Discord for free although paid plans are available if you need more advanced features. Paid plans start at $9.99/month.
Dropbox
Our last suggestion is Dropbox. Dropbox makes it easy to share files with other people and it also lets you store all your important files in the cloud and access them anywhere and on any device. On top of that, you can easily create Microsoft Office and Google Docs documents within your Dropbox folders.
If you have important team documents that you want all team members to access, Dropbox is a great choice. You can use the free version that gives you 2GB of storage space or you can upgrade to a paid version if you need more than that. Paid plans start at $11.99/month.
Final Thoughts
Managing a sports club is fun but it’s also a lot of work. If you want to have an easier time, consider giving the apps above a try and don’t forget to download our cheat sheet so you can remind yourself what each tool does.
