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"It's essential to learn from each other" - SLC Managing Director Maximilian Madeja in an interview with Sportplatzwelt
In the run-up to the Sportplatzwelt LIVE Congress presented by SLC Management on 13 May 2025 at the RheinEnergieSTADION in Cologne, Maximilian Madeja, Managing Director of SLC Management, talks in an interview about the biggest challenges currently facing sports clubs, possible solutions and the key players in successful club management.
Sportplatzwelt: Based on the title of your input: What are the key players of successful club management?
Madeja: The key players of successful club management can be described with our 3C Model© from SLC (Concept - Competence - Capital): so simply and yet impressively, it becomes clear time and again that if one of the "C's" is missing, the sustainable, target-, market- and member-orientated club development must be questioned, stagnates at a certain point or is left too much to chance. A club therefore needs a clear sporting and economic concept. This is only possible if the people involved - whether full-time or voluntary - have the necessary expertise to recognise the need and develop the concept. Last but not least, of course, the capital must also be available, whereby, as we all know, capital can be generated with expertise and a concept, and expertise and a concept are mandatory prerequisites for raising capital. This is certainly a connection that has existed for decades - at least since clubs have had to emancipate themselves from pure financing from membership fees and public funds.
Nowadays, however, all three key players have to deal with a far more complex "game": they have to deal with solid decision-making principles based on valid data, relevant KPIs, new software, the pillars of sustainability, digital optimisation, automation, consideration of the possibilities of AI and much more at every stage of their work. This brings together the proven key players with the challenges of our time and it is important for the "trainer" to maintain an overview.
Sportplatzwelt: What are currently the biggest challenges or obstacles for clubs?
Madeja: The challenges facing clubs have essentially been similar for decades, changing their face and scope a little, but - precisely because there are "many more roads to Rome" today - they are not necessarily easier to solve. Let's take a look at a number of individual challenges that we face every day when supporting clubs: For many clubs, the increases in membership fees have been exhausted, some clubs have not dared to increase their membership fees for years and would have to increase them by a significant double-digit percentage, funding pots have been exhausted, a difficult economic situation means that promised funding is shaky, and the sports facility capacities for growth and additional monetisation through course income are also exhausted at some point, Volunteers are becoming scarce, full-time positions are becoming more costly and demanding, existing organisational and process structures are no longer able to cope with current requirements, competition from commercial providers is growing, the jungle of digital and AI offerings has long since become impossible to navigate... We could go on like this for a long time.
So there are many challenges in the complex "grassroots sports ecosystem", but this also leads us to the obstacle(s) of not resolving challenges: Of course I see an obstacle in not serving one of the three C's sufficiently. Let's take the two C's competence and concept as an example: Andrew Carnegie coined the saying 'Do only what you can do best and delegate the rest'. All too often, we see extremely capable and motivated managers in clubs simply taking on too much or being overconfident in terms of content, which leads to the core business (the sport) suffering, further developments progressing too slowly and concepts ultimately failing to find C no. 3 - capital - due to a lack of expertise.
Another stumbling block: a lack of change towards modern structures. There are many reasons behind the lack of change, which we don't need to go into here. But if we don't make clubs of a certain size more robust and agile through adapted structures, optimise decision-making processes, distribute responsibilities sensibly and set up personnel structures in line with the times, then we will fail to create the basis for overcoming current and future challenges.
Sportplatzwelt: What solutions does SLC Management offer?
Madeja: SLC knows and understands the challenges faced by clubs and has been supporting clubs in a wide range of projects for decades. This experience and our work for all other participants in the sports ecosystem, such as local authorities, sponsors and service providers, has led us to develop new standards and tools for clubs that do not detract from an important philosophy: you have to get to know and understand each club - this creates a basis of trust that allows us to develop customised solutions with vision and passion. Our solutions are consistently business-oriented and based on the principle of "helping people to help themselves" and range from benchmark and best-practice databases, survey systems for clubs, membership and feasibility analyses to the professionalisation of sponsorship and digitalisation concepts and the development of sustainable financing and modernisation strategies. Clubs need to be viewed holistically, as actions, changes and developments are more interconnected than ever before.
Sportplatzwelt: Why is it so important for clubs, associations and local authorities to exchange ideas at events such as Sportplatzwelt LIVE?
Madeja: It is essential to learn from each other, especially in amateur and popular sport. The personal exchange at events such as Sportplatzwelt LIVE makes it possible to think outside the box, learn about innovative approaches and take away practical ideas for your own challenges. A platform like Sportplatzwelt LIVE creates space for knowledge transfer, networking and growth - crucial success factors in a dynamically developing club landscape. It is always impressive to see what the people in the clubs are already achieving. However, they can only shape the future of their association even more actively and successfully if they also learn about the opportunities for further development and professionalisation.
Further information on the congress in Cologne can be found here: News - Insights - News: Management consultancy SLC Management
For more information, please contact us at any time:
Lea Härtel
Research Consultant & Assistant to the Management
Email: l.haertel@slc-ag.com
