Rochester United Football Club

Hello and welcome to the official SNAP Sponsorship profile of Rochester United FC.

We're delighted to announce that we’ve now partnered with SNAP Sponsorship and we’re looking for sponsors who are excited about affiliating themselves with a successful grassroots football club in Medway, Kent. We’re a family-orientated club with a community spirit and big ambitions.

We strive to craft a partnership with our sponsors that meets their specific objectives, whether that be community gifting, social responsibility (CSR), direct sales or brand building.

Whatever your motivation, find out more below. Thank you for visiting our profile.

Why Sponsor Us?

In order to survive and to continually improve our facilities for the local community, the club relies on sponsorship from local businesses – and this is where we would like to work alongside you.

Increased brand awareness, raising the profile of your business in our community

Do you want to raise the profile of your business or organisation? Rochester United FC is keen to develop new relationships with businesses who can offer beneficial products and services to our local community.

Sponsoring us will raise the profile of your business and benefit you in the following ways: 

• Exposure to hundreds in the local area and players and spectators from visiting teams 
• Publicity in local papers 
• Increased brand awareness on our website and social media accounts
• Satisfaction from giving back to the community 
• You’re supporting a much-needed local amenity which brings enjoyment to many. 

All revenue raised is returned to the club to improve facilities for our players and spectators who love football.

Engage with our many members and capitalise on our strong social media following

Rochester United FC is in the heart of community with links to a sizeable audience base surrounding the club. In addition to our large membership and extensive supporter network, Rochester United FC understands the importance and power of the internet and social media. We therefore use our website, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to promote our club, fixtures and sponsors to a total following of over 6000 people.

We’re an extremely social club who pride themselves on being warm, friendly and family-orientated. We regularly host events throughout the year and we’d be happy to host a sponsored networking event if desired.

Rochester United FC has an array of sponsorship opportunities which can be tailored to meet your objectives. Through sponsorship, our club will promote your company in a wide variety of ways enriching the profile of your business in our community. 

Get involved in grassroots sport and remove economic barriers making sport affordable, accessible and inclusive for all

Sponsorship of a grassroots sport delivers a much higher return on investment than traditional advertising. This is because sponsorship allows your business to become directly involved in activities that are highly valued by local consumers.

Rochester United FC is proud of its strong bonds with the community and enjoys supporting and engaging with local initiatives. Consumers are known to form strong positive associations with sponsors who support the development of grassroots sport and also contribute to the local area and by directly supporting us, you’re helping to remove economic barriers — making football affordable, accessible and inclusive for all in the community.

Contact us now to find out more and explore what Rochester United FC can offer you!

The Club Today

Rochester United F.C. is an English football club located in Strood, in Kent. We are members of the Southern Counties East League Division One and play at the Rochester United Sports Ground.

At the end of the 2023 season, it was decided by Chairman Matt Hume, his brother Lloyd and Life President Bernard Hurst that if the club was going to climb the pyramid of non-league football, changes needed to be made.

So, it was decided to ask Paul Bowden-Brown, a person with over 50 years' experience working in many roles from Owner to Chairman & Director of Football, if he would consider joining Matt, Lloyd and Bernard on the proposed journey. He agreed and joined the club as its Operations Director, with responsibilities for all Club operations off the pitch.

One of the first tasks for the new Operations Director was to change the membership club to a CIC. Once this was completed, a new board was appointed with Matt and Lloyd as Directors, Shareholders and Joint Chairman; with Bernard holding a role as Director and Life President and Paul Bowden-Brown taking up the job of Operations Director.

Once this was all agreed, discussions took place with the Club's grounds owner and the Church Commissioners to get the new Club's name assigned to the current lease – all ready for the Club's registration with their respective leagues.

This has now been completed and negotiations have begun to get the Club a satisfactory Security of Tenure so they can achieve their aims within the new 5-year plan for the Club and its ground.

It's proposed that the club in its new format will increase and support the current thriving Youth section, as well as supporting Ladies and Disability football and working within the local community.

The Club is going through an exciting and innovative time with high hopes for success and the 2023/2024 season will be a new beginning on and off the pitch. We do hope you'll join us in our journey and help to shape our future.

History of Our Club

Bly Spartans was formed in 1982 by the now President and Chairman Bernard Hurst and joined the Sunday Medway Football League. There we played for 15 years before being promoted to the Senior Division.

In 1992/3 and 1993/4 we played in the All England Sunday FA Cup reaching the last 32 on the first attempt.

In 1997, the club successfully applied to join the Rochester and District Football League Division One and the following season we won the title and were promoted to the Premier Division. We were accepted into the Kent County Football League in 2000, being placed into Division Three West. After two successive promotions as runners-up, the club was in Division One West by 2003.

In the 2006–07 season we finished runners-up to Orpington and the following season, after being transferred to Division One East, we won the title as well as two cup competitions including the ‘Bill Manklow’ Inter-Regional Challenge Cup beating Bearsted in the final 2-1, and were promoted to the Premier Division.

The club achieved Chartered Status in 2009 and installed eight floodlight columns in 2010, leading to our successful application to become founder members of the Kent Invicta League, at level 10 of the English football league system for the first time. Bly had a very good season winning the league and the challenge cup in its inaugural season.

Since being in the Kent County Football League, the club has also made improvements to the ground and changing facilities. The clubhouse has been altered and the changing rooms improved, as well as a 200 seater stand erected and concrete footpath laid down one side of the pitch.

In 2012, we became the inaugural champions of the Kent Invicta League and gained promotion to the Kent Hurlimann League. In May 2012, we announced that we’d sought permission to rename ourselves Rochester United from the start of the 2012–13 season.

Rochester United started its first season in the Kent League very well, being in the top half of the table up till Christmas 2012, after Christmas a bad run of lost games followed, we ended the season finishing fifth from bottom.

For the new 2013/14 season, the league changed its name to Southern Counties East Football League. During the closed season the club completed outstanding works and were given their ground grading so that in season 2014/2015 they were able to enter The FA Vase for the first time.

During the season commencing 2015/16, the club entered the FA Cup for the first time, going out of the competition against Herne Bay FC in the first qualifying round.

Unfortunately, on the pitch we finished 20th and last in the SCEFL Premier Division for season 2017-18 and were relegated to the First Division. Another disappointing campaign resulted in a 17th placed finish the year after, before a much-improved performance in 2019/20 with us looking good for promotion the following season until the coronavirus pandemic caused an early end to the football season.

Aspirations

When Paul Bowden-Brown was asked to join the club, he had no hesitation in saying yes. Due to experience working with numerous other non-league and grassroots clubs, he realised the club needed strong foundations both on and off the field in order to become a sustainable club with a workable business plan.

From this, the club was converted to a CIC, allowing the club to become an active part of the Community, not only through our teams that use our facilities and wear the club badge but to ensure that the local Community became part of the Club through our Club initiatives. These are aimed at bringing the local community to the club, whether it be by watching the First-Team games or supporting the great Yout section we have.

Being a CIC will assist the Cub in applying for grants so that the board can ensure that the facilities are fit for purpose. Two of the club's initiatives are to form a Ladies section and also to form a Disability section.

By working with and in the local community it is hoped that local businesses will decide to join the Club and support its aims by taking one of the large range of Advertising and Sponsorship packages that will fit all budgets, and as all businesses are finding it difficult in the current economic climate be ensure your support will be put to great use,

With membership and crowd attendances rising, we have ambitious plans to continue to develop the infrastructure at the club and grow our teams.

Naturally, we want to support our sponsors and build them in to our club on a strategic level — allowing all of our partners to benefit from our ever-improving facilities, expanding audience and our community involvement.