IT Director · Sample dossier
Approaching IT leadership inside a Premier League operations team
Example client: a fan engagement and stadium operations software company targeting IT Directors at Premier League football clubs.
Illustrative example. Names, company details, signals and guidance shown here are fictional content that mirrors the structure of a real Folklore dossier.
Anonymised Premier League club
Top-flight English football club – operations & technology
Amber – Strong fit, sensitive context- Contact
- Anonymised – IT Director
- Role
- IT Director (Operations & Matchday)
- Location
- North West England
Company snapshot
Ownership
Private
US-based parent group
Stadium
Owned
Capacity 55,000+
Match days
~28/season
Home Premier League + cup
Tech estate
Mid-cloud
2024 ops platform refresh
Headcount (IT)
~22 internal
+ 3 MSP partners
Reporting line
COO
Sits on senior ops board
Tenure
3 yrs in role
Joined from broadcast
Buying window
Pre-season
June–August lock-in
Key people
IT Director (target)
Owns the matchday data layer
Background in broadcast technology. Frames problems in availability and uptime, not "fan engagement". Quoted in SVG Europe on stadium connectivity and fan-app latency during matchday peaks.
COO
Senior commercial sponsor
Holds the budget. Not a first-touch recipient. Public stance on data-led commercial transformation is useful context for touch 2.
Head of Fan Experience
Owns the app & supporter platform
Adjacent stakeholder. Different function. Worth mentioning only if our message specifically addresses an app/platform overlap.
Succession assessment: No succession context. The conversation is about the operating stack, not the people running it.
The operation
Core services
Sector specialisms
Regional reach
Single stadium, north-west England. National training ground integration.
Technical credentials
PCI-DSS for ticketing. ISO 27001 for the operations stack. Partner of major league-level data providers.
Notable work
Refreshed stadium operations platform 2024. IT now owns the matchday data layer end-to-end – a structural change vs. the previous owner-side model.
Key signals
- SVG Europe interview: Quoted on stadium connectivity and the latency problem the data layer absorbs at matchday peaks.
- 2024 ops-platform refresh: Recent enough to be salient. IT now owns the matchday data layer – a meaningful shift in scope.
- Broadcast-tech background: Language to use is uptime, availability, capacity – not "fan engagement". Generic SaaS phrasing reads as misaligned.
- Pre-season buying window: Decisions for the upcoming season are made June–August. Outside that window, the room is closed.
Profile classification
Profile A – Active buyer with a clear language preference
Receptive to a specific, technical first message inside the pre-season window. Outside it, will read but not act.
Outreach hooks
1. SVG Europe quote
Their public articulation of the problem. The single best opener.
2. Data-layer ownership shift
A recent structural change. References that frame our conversation alongside it land well.
3. Two-other-PL-clubs
A concrete peer reference (anonymised) sits better than a feature pitch.
Strategy & talking points
Lead with the data layer
Don’t lead with the fan. Lead with the matchday data layer – that’s the language they reply in.
LinkedIn-led
IT leadership in this sector live on LinkedIn. Email is the closer. Reverse it for any other sector.
Pre-season window
If the message lands outside June–August, set the next-window expectation explicitly and bow out cleanly.
Avoid commercial framing
Anything that smells of "fan engagement uplift" reads as misaligned with their function and brief.
Suggested questions
- “In the SVG Europe piece you mentioned the latency the data layer absorbs at matchday peaks – has the 2024 platform shifted where that peak sits?”
- “Now that IT owns the matchday data layer end-to-end, where’s the boundary with the broadcast partners – capacity or commercial?”
- “How do you think about the difference between season-time stability and pre-season experimentation in the operations stack?”
Concerns & flags
⚠ Sensitive ownership
US-based parent group is press-sensitive. The message should never reference ownership or commercial strategy.
⚠ Buying window very narrow
Outside June–August the conversation is informational at best. Plan touch 2 with this in mind.
Touch 1 & 2 guidance
Messages aren’t drafted inside the dossier. Our strategic copywriters write every touchpoint from scratch using the research above; what follows is the light-touch direction we hand them.
Touch 1 – LinkedIn note built around the SVG Europe quote. Reference the data layer shift specifically. Two short paragraphs. Touch 2 – Email follow-up that names two peer PL clubs (anonymised), offers a 20-min conversation, no deck. Set the pre-season window explicitly if applicable.
Sources used by our research pipeline: Companies House · SVG Europe recording · league supplier directory · LinkedIn (target, COO, Head of Fan Experience) · Apollo · stadium ops trade press
Apply this to your pipeline