Discount scheme for local businesses - would it work in Bath?

Lewes FC, a community-owned club, charges £30 a year for membership. One of the membership perks is the "Support and Save" scheme, whereby members get discounts at about 50-60 local businesses:

http://www.lewesfc.com/support-and-save/

This idea has floated around a bit within the Bid team but no-one's really taken hold of it. Would be interested to know (especially from small business owners) whether you think this is worth pursuing in Bath as part of the Bid? Or is it something you'd leave until after the bid was completed.

If there is anyone out there who has good links and contacts with local businesses who might be able to take the lead on this, that would be great as well. I suppose we'd be looking mostly at independents, i.e. places where we could go right to the owner and they could make a decision, rather than chains. Maybe local trading associations would be a good first port of call - small business owners will know better than me!

My personal view is that it's a good idea, but falls into the 'nice to have' category.

The Bid team and club have bigger fish to fry right now, and need to be having different discussions with businesses than them joining a discount scheme. Unless it was somehow wrapped up in businesses buying shares, though it would still only work after the Bid succeeded in those circumstances anyway

Yes I would wrap it into businesses buying shares - business who buy shares would have the option of joining the scheme, with the idea being that it would immediately start driving new customers to them through bid-related promotions, mentions in the programme etc.

For smaller businesses, this might be more attractive than the current business investment scheme which only really offers discounts to Bath City matches - there's no clear sense in which it would actually drive new business.

To claim a discount you'd just need a printout of your Microgenius share pledge receipt - we wouldn't have to wait for the bid to conclude.