Sporting club in Albany launches audacious fundraising campaign as winner to name the venue for a year

Railways Football and Sporting Club have launched an audacious fundraising campaign to complete the redevelopment of their clubhouse in Albany.

The club, which was founded in 1946, have made a public plea to help secure the final $500,000 needed to refurbish their old, decaying facility.

The Tigers are ready to “sell their souls” with a raffle that can give a punter anywhere in Australia the chance to name their home ground for a year.

The raffle’s top prize will be the naming rights of the soon to be redeveloped facility for all of 2025.

Club president Wayne Stubber said there had been plenty of weird, wonderful and wacky ideas to name the venue.

“We wanted something out of the box, an idea that would grab people’s attention,” Mr Stubber said.

“It’s a unique idea that has got people talking . . . people can name it after their favourite beer, their dog or even their nickname.

“There are terms and conditions on the tickets and the name has to be agreed to by the Railways committee, but we are hoping to land with a great winner.”

First works began on the development in July 2023 and stage one is on track to be completed by December this year.

However, Mr Stubber said the project — that will have new changerooms and features to make it accessible to all — has increased to nearly $2 million from their initial costings.

“It was about a $1.3 million project initially and now we estimate it is about $1.8 million,” he said.

“The timing wasn’t great when we first drew our plans up, COVID hit, and funding was rejected and then there was no Federal funding at that time.

“With cost escalation over time, that is really the money we are looking for.”

Financial support from the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries, the City of Albany and Country Football WA funded stage one and this latest push is to finalise stage two.

The country sporting club is refusing to give up the fight and has turned to an unusual and creative method in a bid to get a finished facility that can serve the entire community for the next 50 years.

The venue is home to both women’s and men’s football clubs, cricket, netball, and basketball clubs and is a base for Albany Caledonian Football Club.

A YouTube video helped launch the raffle last week and nearly 900 tickets have already been sold.

Tickets are $25 each and the first prize includes flights and accommodation in Albany for the winner to attend a footy game of their choice at Railways.

The person who wins the second prize will get to name the bar inside the facility for 2025 and the third prize is $1000.

Mr Stubber said his club had been overwhelmed by the support in a short space of time.

“We didn’t think it would gain as much traction as it has but it’s being widely shared on social media which is great,” Mr Stubber said.

“If we can make $100,000 from this raffle we would be stoked and anything over that is a bonus.

“We are encouraging especially local businesses to get onboard, it’s a great opportunity for them to have their name and logo up there for 12 months.”

Tickets can be purchased for the raffle at https://app.galabid.com/railways/items/9f677218-5d1f-441f-bb3b-458bc9ffd099