AC Kajaani: The Start
By the time I turned 18, my practical training with the football club AC Kajaani had been going on for almost two months. After getting the taste of the job of the first team's administrator, I shifted my practical training towards performing marketing activities for the club. I started a Fanclub and named it 'Ravens of Ketunpolku' after the street I lived in. As part of that experience, I've organized several nice offline events with the football players of the first team. However fun was the experience with AC Kajaani, I was hungry for new experiences. Thanks to one of the football players of AC Kajaani's first team, I found the new practical training place in the football club TP-47 from Tornio.
TP-47: First fail
Arriving in Tornio for the summer training, I was expecting to invest all my time and energy into the work with the football club. While the expectations were high, my social connections in Tornio, as well as my knowledge, were insufficient. For 2 months, I managed to only update the commercial offer, did small marketing research, and went for several trials to sell commercial spaces of the football club. Whatever it sounds, I was sure that making sponsorship deals was way simpler. In practice, I did not even think that someone could say "No" to sponsoring football clubs. That experience taught me that it is really hard to offer ROI from sponsorship deals. A football club from a small town in the country that belongs to the football peripheries, in general, does not have much to offer to potential sponsors. I could not provide the service that I was hoping to bring. That experience was more painful than the first one but it also offered me way more knowledge.
Erasmus Exchange in Aberdeen, Scotland
Later the same year, as part of the Erasmus exchange program, I went to Aberdeen, Scotland to study Sports Promotion at Robert Gordon University. As part of this study, I got a chance to complete yet another internship for the Denis Law StreetSport organization. The internship has mostly included the organization of small-scale football tournaments between children from regenerative areas. The picture above illustrates the team that I was part of when organizing the events. One of the nice perks of that internship was access to Aberdeen FC home games. One of the most impressive things I remember from Aberdeen FC games was the marketing books given to fans before games. Each of those books included at least 40 pages! I am not sure that anyone was reading them, though..! While organizing football tournaments for children, I was also visiting football stadiums around Scotland. The most impressive visit was to the stadium of Celtic from Glasgow. The large stadium, so many Champions League trophies, great hospitality services, etc... That stadium you won't regret visiting! That same day I visited Celtic's stadium, I was also lucky to visit the game of another legendary Scottish team: Glasgow Rangers FC. The game itself was not particularly remarkable but the meat pie I ate at the Ibrox stadium left a strong impression in my memory!
