How Much I Made Last Month Owning a 5th Division Kenyan Club | Road to the KPL S2 Ep 66

[00:00:00]18 months ago, I bought a 50% stake in a sixth division [music] Kenyan football club. In the months that followed, I traveled to Nairobi and began working with our staff on the ground to create a new era for the club, the beginning of a real push to climb the pyramid and become the first club to ever climb from the sixth tier to the Premier League. We hosted open trials with over 300 attendees, rented out a brand new clubhouse to [music] house and feed all of our players, and hired additional staff from a kitchen crew to our strength and conditioning coach. We dialed in our systems and began competing in a league that had just relegated us months prior. Now, with 14 new players on our roster, we began rolling through the league, going months at a time without seeing a single loss, and today, July 18th, [music] we officially secured third place on the table. But, the focus of this show [music] hasn't always been the football.

[00:00:52]It's been the finances. Cal United has had its fair share of financial ups and downs, from dead broke last fall to the richest club in Kenya to dead broke again, all in the span of just 6 months.

[00:01:04]We've received thousands of comments praising and criticizing the financial decisions around the club. But, through all the ups and downs, one thing never changed, [music] our books remain open.

[00:01:14]Every dollar in and out of the club is tracked to the penny, because it's your support that keeps our club alive. You donate your time and money [music] to watch this show, and we owe it to the fans to share exactly where that energy and funding is going. And in this episode, I'm covering all a massive spike in revenue, more budget cuts [music] across all areas of the club, and a KPFC 10 for 10 explosion that produced one of the most interesting financial months of 2026. [music] You're now watching Road to the Kenyan Premier League.

[00:01:46]>> [music] >> What's up, everyone? My name is Hayes Can't Jersey Bird founder and your host of Road to the Canyon Premier League back with another massive, massive financial update, this time for the month of June. Before we get into it, if [music] you want to support the club, there are three main ways to do so.

[00:02:12]First up is the Lions Den, [music] our official club Discord, where we host watch-alongs, interact with players, and discuss [music] unreleased news weeks before it hits the public. It really is a great community. If you haven't checked it out already, give it a shot.

[00:02:25]It is also a crucial way of how we support this club as you will see later in the video. Second is the KPFC 10 [music] for 10 deal. If your club is looking for new kits and apparel, go to jerseybird.com, tap start a project on our homepage, and we [music] will pair you with a Jersey Bird designer who will create some awesome kits just like the ones you see in our videos. Tell us you came from this Road to the Canyon Premier League show and you will get 10% off your order and [music] 10% donated directly to the club with a mention in next month's financial report. And if you just want a simple way to support the club, visit callpridefc.paperform.co [music] to donate or become a sponsor.

[00:02:59]It only takes a minute. As always, we really do appreciate all the support. I [music] will link all of these in the description below. Thank you and back to the video. Let's jump right into a segment a lot of you, I'm sure, have been waiting for, [music] our June budget cuts. Back in May, our main budget cut was dropping our streaming cost from $500 to $180 [music] by bringing almost all of it in house, but I also mentioned [music] that we were actively making more budget cuts and you would see them in the June report. So, here they are. Here's what we've been working [music] on. First up, the downtown office, one of the most controversial purchases of 2026. [music] We have officially moved out of our downtown office, which will save us $562 a month in rent. Now that it's gone, I will explain [music] its full purpose, or at least its intended purpose. We had and still have plans of launching an academy within [music] the next year, and the office was going to be a necessary headquarters for administration work. Think sign-ups, [music] a place for parents to visit and meet staff. Without going too much into the boring detail, an office in our neighborhood of Kawa West just wouldn't be able to serve this purpose of the academy [music] we were trying to build, and we really did need a downtown location for our [music] office.

[00:04:14]However, without revealing too much, we have since explored other options, potentially [music] collaboration opportunities, and ways around this obstacle that have allowed us to keep our [music] plans of launching an academy, but also drop the office completely off of our books. So, we get the best of both worlds. [music] The academy dream stays alive, and $562 of rent each month just got deleted from our balance sheet. Next up, a big one, personnel. We cut our total employment [music] from 33 staff down to 26 staff, consolidating several roles and only maintaining our essential club functions. This move alone resulted in $840 in savings every month. Next, food.

[00:04:55]We found a decent amount of waste happening with our food and nutrition supply chain. We were spending $1,560 to feed the men's team and $535 to feed the eight lionesses who live in the lionesses clubhouse, which totaled up to 269,000 shillings, or just [music] under $2,100.

[00:05:14]Instead of trying to cut back on both budgets, we simply began inviting the eight lionesses to come eat with the men's team they live walking distance away, so it was easy, and we were able to maintain our $1,560 men's food budget, but also feed all eight lionesses with it as well, removing almost all of the waste from our food spend. [music] So, that means the $535 in lionesses food expense has been completely removed, [music] but they're still receiving the same amount of meals each month. More efficiency, same nutrition. And lastly, >> [music] >> game day bonuses. Previously, every single player and the entire technical bench would get 650 [music] shillings for a win or an away match draw on both the men and women [music] side. Every single staff member, despite truly being a key part of these wins, has voluntarily given up their bonus, which now [music] means that only players are getting bonuses from now on.

[00:06:06]And on top of that, the house staff managed to shave 3,500 shillings [music] off of the house supply budget, like shampoo, soap, paper towels, trash bags, the essentials, cutting [music] even more fat from the total budget. So, let's add up all of our savings initiatives from the past 3 months.

[00:06:22]First, livestreams, [music] the savings vary based on how many games we play, but in a month with, let's say, three streams, we would save $861.

[00:06:31]Downtown office, $562.

[00:06:33]Salaries, $840. Food, $535.

[00:06:37]And bonuses, again, this one varies on how much we win and lose, but on average, it would be around $120 in savings [music] in a month. And lastly, home supplies, $27 in savings. So, in total, we've cut about $2,945 [music] or 380,000 shillings from our monthly expenses.

[00:06:55][music] And we are still trying to go leaner, but I am really happy with the progress so far after our $24,000 expense bill in April, which was a real wake-up call for the entire club. And we have since made some great progress.

[00:07:10]>> [music] >> But, we can't celebrate too early. Let's get into what we actually spent last month in June. Starting off with our overhead expenses, we have [music] the usual salaries, now down to $4,313.

[00:07:21]Men's clubhouse rent, $546.

[00:07:24]Women's clubhouse rent, $273.

[00:07:26]We do have a new small expense, our training grounds, the [music] committee prison, is now under new leadership, and they have begun charging local teams to use [music] the pitch that we train on, but we were able to work out a deal where we keep training there daily for $39 [music] a month. Internet, $23.

[00:07:43]Garbage collection, $2. Drinking water and utility water combining for $93.60.

[00:07:47][music] And our entertainment subscriptions are $35.30.

[00:07:52]Moving into our merchandise inventory expenses for the month, I did not buy a lot of inventory in June. That's why a lot of things are sold out. We were extremely short on cash Jersey Bird as a company [music] and obviously the club is running at a deficit as well. So, inventory is [music] hard to buy at times due to cash flow constraints. But, I was able to stock $840 worth of 2026 home shirts and $935 of our first-ever KPFC apparel t-shirt drop, which sold out in less than a day.

[00:08:22][music] So, thank you to all the people who bought those this month. They didn't come out until July, so you won't see them [music] profits in this report, but we will be doing a big restock of those soon. However, our biggest expense was a different type of expense and a much overdue one. If you saw season [music] 2 episode 22, I covered the signing of superstar Luis Muniki. I'm sure all of you are familiar with that name by now, but his contract had two key stipulations. [music] Since he was voluntarily dropping down from second-tier club Ruriru Hotstars and giving up [music] access to a motorbike, a sizable salary, and better win bonuses, we offered his [music] mother full-time employment at the club and we also offered him access to his own Power Pride club motorbike. This was back in January and the only problem was we had no motorbike for him to use. But, finally last month we got the funds together [music] and we bought a used motorbike for the club, one that Luis would have 24/7 access to so he [music] can work to support his family. It cost us $897, but of course [music] it was well deserved and a promise we made to Luis.

[00:09:27]He has given everything to [music] this club from clutch game-saving last-minute goals to 40-yard bombs. He has been on a generational run that has everybody in Kenya on [music] notice. The bike belongs to the club, but it's available to Louis as long as he's here. So, it's a win-win for both sides. And that really was the only major variable expense of the month. There is a big drop-off [music] after that line item.

[00:09:50]The next most expensive item was our scouting trip to the Kakuma refugee camp where our satellite club, Kakuma Pride, has been coming together in [music] the past few months. We sent a few key staff members up north to scout and select the top talents from the [music] camp as we are planning to assemble a Kakuma Pride team for a huge friendly on July 28th in Nairobi. [music] It'll be Kakuma Pride versus Kariobangi Pride with a lot of contract implications [music] on the line. It will be a match that will impact who is and who isn't going to be on the squad next season. So, we've been doing some prep work for that and [music] it came with $573.30 worth of travel and accommodation expenses. Next up, we have our June stream costs. [music] We only paid for two streams in the month of June, so stream costs were only [music] $312.

[00:10:39]Before we get into revenue, I will rapid-fire through some other June expenses. $490 paid out across four men's [music] match bonuses. $304 paid out across three women's match bonuses.

[00:10:51][music] $125 on a plexiglass sign for staging during Pauline Njoroge's visit.

[00:10:56]Medical supplies, $492. A $59 car battery for team manager [music] Zach's car, which has really been beat up by the Kawangware West roads and is one of our key transport vehicles. And $548 [music] in various game day expenses across all three of our teams, the Alphas, Lionesses, and [music] Apogos. But in total, our variable expenses for the month of June totaled up to 907,819 shillings or $7,080.99, which when combined with our $6,692.40 [music] of overhead expenses, we spent a total of $13,773.39 in the month of June, a 10% increase from our May spend, but May had $0 in merchandise inventory spend. So, if you look purely at club spending, June was actually $1,060.78 less than May, which of course is the trend [music] we want to see. Here is the full expense list, pause if you want to read it. Now, let's get into the fun part of the video, our six different revenue streams. First up, we have our donation page, clubpridefc.paperform.co, [music] which had a huge boost in June with a total of $965.15 [music] donated throughout the month, a 27.3% month-over-month increase. Huge shout out to Levi Stern for the $500 donation and awesome message, and to Garrett Byford for the $150 donation as well. We also had three other $100 anonymous donations and several other smaller donations throughout the month.

[00:12:30]Seriously, thank you guys for all the support, it really does [music] go a long way. Moving into our top five for the month, we have the KPFC 10 for 10 deal. This is the deal [music] where if your club works with the Jersey Bird, you get 10% off your order and 10% donated to the club. [music] We had a record-breaking eight teams come from this show and place an order with us in the month of June. I'll show off all the kits we made for them really quickly.

[00:12:53]Huge thank you to everyone who got involved, Helvetica Esports, Samba FC, FC Blood and Fire, the New York [music] Asian Film Festival, Palm City SC, Sta Te Partner, Tempelhof Schöneberg, Amici Soccer Club, and Braga Soccer Club.

[00:13:09]Thank you guys for placing orders last month. The total of all eight orders was $11,609.70, which resulted in a $1,160.97 donation to the club. That is up from zero in May, another massive [music] increase. Next up, we have the Lions Den, the club Discord server, which currently sits at 303 standard subs and 206 plus subs, which after Stripe fees adds up to $1,578.02, a 4.4% [music] month-over-month decrease. Getting into our top three revenue sources, we have our biggest increase across all new revenue streams.

[00:13:47]TikTok [music] has surged back into relevancy, amassing an incredible $1,935.66 [music] in creator payouts. As promised, I locked back in on short-form content, dropping 13 [music] minute plus long videos in the month of June, including a 6 million view season recap video that somehow wasn't even [music] our highest paying video. TikTok can be a little bit funny like that, but overall, TikTok paid us very well in the month of June, a 384.7% [music] month-over-month increase. We love to see that jump. Coming in at number two, we have YouTube. I posted six long-form videos and we streamed three times in the month of June, and in total, the show brought in $3,800.31 in ad revenue. Here is the overview with our top five paying content pieces. Here is the revenue broken down by source, and here is the revenue broken down by content type. We had 92.4% [music] of our revenue come from videos, while 7.3% came from our live streams. So, overall, our 3,800 in revenue was a 12.8% YouTube month-over-month increase.

[00:14:55]And last, but definitely not least, we have jersey and merch sales, which topped the charts for the month of June, generating $4,101.86 [music] in revenue for the club. We had two hoodies and six preseason cup t-shirts [music] sell in June. Remember, the PPFC apparel tees did not go live until July, but we had a total of 86 jerseys across our new 2026 home kit, our old home kit, our old keeper kit, and our training kits sell [music] in June, which resulted in a 65.6% month-over-month increase. Big shout out to everyone who bought something. We have a lot more merch coming throughout the summer, so stay tuned for that. But, this really did give us a massive [music] boost last month. So, was Kaw Pride profitable in the month of June?

[00:15:41]With $13,773.39 in expenses [music] and $13,541.97 in revenue, no, we were not profitable with [music] a total loss of $231.42 in the month of June, bringing our [music] bank balance to negative $4,082.44.

[00:16:02]Now, if you've been watching [music] the show lately, you'll know that that number is actually not so bad when you look at the numbers [music] over the season. Pause if you want to review our bank balance and expense levels by month. First off, the best part, in my opinion, [music] is it's a 57.7% increase in revenue month-over-month, and while it wasn't enough to turn a profit, it was enough to reduce our losses from over $4,000 in May [music] to just a couple hundred in June. Myself and the rest of the staff do plan to return the club to profitability in season 3, but I am happy with the way our club handled this second half of the season. Not only on the pitch, but mainly financially, we were able to right the ship, and for the first time in a very long time, sustainability is now within our grasp. So, there you have it. The Kaw Pride June 2026 [music] financial report. Definitely an interesting one, but before I close out the video, a few football updates. As you might have seen, the season officially ended [music] on Saturday, July 18th. We closed it out with a 1-0 win over Victors Faith [music] Church, securing a third-place finish on the table with a final record of 18 wins, seven draws, and seven [music] losses.

[00:17:10]There is no playoff, only first-place West Life will automatically promote, but securing third over Kamongo off a [music] goal differential was crucial because it puts us one step closer to a promotion via league restructuring or clubs in higher [music] leagues dropping out. It's still very, very unlikely for us to go up, but if we had finished fourth, I [music] probably wouldn't even be explaining this right now because at that point it would be almost statistically impossible to go up. I am headed back to Kenya for the [music] first time since last October this week to check in with the club and begin planning for next season and to film some awesome content around [music] the Kakamega Pride Kakamega Pride match. So, stay tuned for that. If you like the show, drop a like, drop a sub, comment where in the world you are tuning in from. And as always, you can catch new episodes of Road to the Kenyan Premier League every Wednesday and Friday at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Thank you all for the support and I'll see you in the next one.