For Sports Associations
Grassroots stories, told properly, at the scale your sport actually has.
Press Pilot helps national governing bodies, county associations and leagues turn club news, participation milestones and volunteer stories into local and trade-press coverage - and into the funder-ready evidence that protects the next investment cycle.
The sports association shape
One governing body. Thousands of clubs. A million good stories that never leave the WhatsApp group.
You sit above a federation of clubs, leagues and county or regional associations. They generate constant news - new coaches, junior teams, ground openings, accessibility programmes, cup runs - and almost none of it ever reaches a journalist. Press Pilot is the connective tissue.
Club-by-club story intake
Every affiliated club, league and county association submits through the same simple form. Volunteers don't need a press kit, just five minutes.
Grassroots, drafted in your tone
AI turns a club secretary's bullet points into a press-ready release in your governing body's voice and house style.
Regional and trade pitching
Local papers, regional dailies, sport trades and broadcasters - segmented by patch, kept current, ready to go.
Participation as a story
Turn participation numbers, female and disability sport growth and youth pathways into narratives funders will recognise.
Funder & Sport England-ready
Tag every story against the outcomes your funder cares about. The investment review pack writes itself across the cycle.
Sponsor & partner amplification
Co-credit kit partners, lottery funders, charity partners and local sponsors automatically. Renewals get easier.
The funder pack
What lands on the funder's desk.
- 01Participation numbers per region, segmented by age, gender and disability sport pathways.
- 02Club and league coverage tied to the outcomes your funder asked you to prioritise.
- 03Volunteer and coach stories that put a human face on the figures.
- 04Partner statements pulled directly from the comms inbox - county FAs, local authorities, charity partners.
The sports association reality
The elite team gets the cameras. Grassroots gets the funding - if it can prove itself.
National governing bodies like the FA, RFU, ECB and LTA - and the county associations and leagues beneath them - sit on top of one of the richest, most under-told story networks in the country. Every weekend there are debuts, milestones, comebacks, openings and small heroics across thousands of pitches, courts and pools. Almost none of it makes it past the club's social channels. Meanwhile the funder asks, every year, what the participation investment actually bought.
Press Pilot closes that loop. Clubs and county associations submit through one portal in five minutes. The AI drafts in your governing body's tone. Pitches go to the local papers, regional dailies and sport trades that funders monitor. Every clipping is tagged against the participation, inclusion and pathway outcomes your investment is measured against. By the time the next funding cycle opens, the evidence pack has been compiling itself for two years.
"We always knew the grassroots stories were there. Press Pilot is how we finally get them out of the WhatsApp group and into the local paper - and into the funding submission."
A day in the life
A Monday with Priya, Comms Lead at a national governing body.
Priya runs a team of two, covering 50 county associations, 14,000 affiliated clubs and a board that wants both Sunday-paper coverage and Sport England-ready evidence.
08.45
Weekend intake from the network: a club hits 50 years, a women's team wins promotion for the first time, a walking-football session passes 100 members, a wheelchair league launches in the East Midlands. Drafts are roughed in, outcomes tags pre-applied.
10.00
Priya approves the anniversary piece, edits the women's promotion story to credit the county FA, holds the wheelchair league launch until the local authority partner confirms the quote.
11.30
Pitches out. Local weeklies for the anniversary, women's sport trades for the promotion, disability sport press and BBC regional for the wheelchair league. Each one tagged against the inclusion outcome the funder reports on.
13.00
Calls a county association whose clubs haven't submitted in a month. Pulls up their dashboard together - the development officer has nine stories in flight she hadn't thought were press-worthy. They draft two on the call.
14.30
Coverage from last week's pitches lands. Priya tags three pieces against the women and girls pathway. The investment evidence pack ticks up by itself.
15.45
Funder reporting. Sport England wants a quarterly update on the inclusion strand. Priya exports the cut - coverage, participants, outcomes - in three clicks.
16.50
Drafts the CEO's monthly note to the board. Two paragraphs of context around a dashboard view the board can click into themselves.
Get every club's story out of the group chat and into the paper.
A 30-minute demo, tailored to your organisation. No slideware. We'll use your real partner list and show you what week one would actually look like.
Book a demoOr read the 30-day plan before you commit.