WHEN commercial director Rob Mitchell first joined AFC Bournemouth, the club was in a perilous position.

It had just come out of administration but was already struggling to cope with mounting debts. Securing new support from local businesses was essential if the club was to survive, but convincing anyone to get involved with the club was an uphill battle.

“It was a challenge,” admits 34-year-old Rob. “The club had gone into administration, there hadn’t been a commercial operation and companies were a bit unsure about getting involved with the club.

“We literally had to open the doors, invite businesses in for a free buffet, to watch the football and to hear from the chief executive and myself about what we wanted to do.

“That helped me get to new people, it was a free ticket but people got to see some of the commercial opportunities.

“We had to work hard at getting out to businesses but we did it and the success on the pitch has helped breed success off the pitch.”

It’s the 90 minutes of on the pitch action that hits the headlines and interests the fans, but Rob and his staff are tasked with ensuring the club is successful seven days a week, 365 days of the year.

His job is to generate revenue for the club, whether that’s through sponsorship, business partnerships, advertising or hospitality.

Bournemouth University graduate Rob, who is currently the president of Dorset Chamber of Trade, has also set up AFC Business, which has 1,300 members, and organises sportsman’s dinners, corporate golf days and player award dos.

And then there’s the club’s huge range of community work, which sees players promoting healthy lifestyles, environmental projects and Respect.

“We’ve got lots of strong commercial support from businesses who want to fulfil their social responsibilities and make a difference in the community,” he said.

“The community sports trust is now reaching out to 3,000 people a week. In 2008 when I joined I would go to soccer schools and see kids wearing Chelsea and Man Utd shirts, now I go and the majority are wearing AFC Bournemouth shirts.

“There’s a lot more interest in the football club but it’s making sure that we’re bringing on the right brands to support the club.

“We’re very proud of our core values as a football club, being community and family driven. We want to make sure that the companies we work with share similar values to us and ideally are locally based businesses because we’re not suddenly going to pretend that we’re Manchester United.”