Professional football club RBC Roosendaal was declared bankrupt twelve years ago and had to start all over again in the basement of amateur football. After another promotion, the team now plays in the first division, but that is not enough for many club people. For example, commercial man Hans van der Ende wants to return to professional football and brings in sponsor after sponsor.
RBC has a fanatical core of supporters and volunteers who still cherish the former professional club. After bitter times, they ensure that Roosendaal pride is still on the football map. Hans van der Ende is one of those fanatics. He takes care of commercial matters and rakes in the money.
“I call myself a professional volunteer,” he says. “I don’t get any compensation for it and I do it purely out of club love to help RBC. We want to rebuild the club with a number of people and that is going crazy commercially.”
“The expansion of the sponsor base has brought RBC tons.”
Hans van der Ende, for example, ensured that the sponsor base grew from thirty lenders to two hundred in 2.5 years. He once started at RBC and worked for years as a commercial manager in professional football. So he knows how to handle things.
Van der Ende was the first to breathe new life into the business club. After the bankruptcy of RBC in 2011, that was completely at a loss. “Businesses in Roosendaal no longer had a platform to come together,” says Van der Ende. “They missed that. For business, but certainly also the fun of a competition with a beer and some peanuts. I gave that back to them and that brings our ambitions together nicely. We are going very fast and we are proud of that.”
“Returning to professional football is a wish of more people.”
It is of course important for RBC that more money comes in. “Amounts are not that exciting, but I can say that we raised tons,” continues RBC’s commercial man. “Financially there are now more options and that already resulted in the championship and promotion to the first division last season. With a new trainer and all the reinforcements we have made, we hope to push through this season.”
Ultimately, that should lead to his big dream. “My wish is that we will eventually return to professional football,” says Hans. “We still have many and big steps to take, but I think this should eventually work out. Then we are talking about eight years or more. However, I do not exclude anything and I think that more people at RBC have that dream.”
“We want to strengthen the bond with the old fans and enthuse the new ones.”
Until then, Hans van der Ende will continue to make noise around his club RBC. For example, on September 13, he will hold a special competition. The first team then plays against the ‘Team of the millennium’, consisting of the selection that, under the leadership of trainer Robert Maaskant, was promoted to the premier league with RBC in 2000.
“We want to bring back the feeling of the past,” concludes Hans van der Ende. From the year when 10,000 people were jumping and drinking at the promotion. So hopefully the fans from back then buy a ticket and bring their kids. Because we want to strengthen the bond with the old fans and make new fans enthusiastic. And then pack it up!”