CITY are urging fans to join Italian legend Gianluca Vialli and make the club's 'Upgrade the Parade' campaign a success.

The drive to raise money to pay for a new video scoreboard and much-needed changes to the dressing rooms will be unveiled at Valley Parade tonight by Vialli.

City are the latest club to link up with crowd-funding specialists Tifosy, who generate cash through a series of prize auctions.

A similar scheme with League Two club Portsmouth hit £270,000, well above their target, to splash out on academy training facilities. Tifosy are also currently working with City's League One rivals Oldham.

City director of operations James Mason said: "You can safely say the early signs of crowd-funding in football are good.

"It's innovative but I certainly think it's here to stay and we are deadly serious about it. It's an income stream we hadn't dipped into before.

"The unique selling point of our club is our fanbase and I'm sure everyone will get behind this from day one."

Former Chelsea star Vialli, now a TV football presenter in Italy, is the co-founder of Tifosy and will explain to City fans how the eight-week campaign works.

It will include a number of "once in a lifetime" rewards that supporters can buy or bid for through regular prize auctions.

Mason said: "Gianluca Vialli has a reputation as quite a philanthropic businessman and we convinced him to help launch the campaign.

"He is serious about it working and so are we. I would urge as many fans as possible to come down to learn about it and get excited by it."

The scoreboard suggestion came from supporters' groups after a series of meetings with the club. They will also be asked where any surplus money should be spent once the campaign is over.

Mason said: "We don't have in our operating budget the sums of money that would pay for an all-singing, all-dancing LED scoreboard – but that's what the fans want.

"Every club in the Football League will have one at some point in the next five years.

"We could finance it ourselves and get a second-rate one or get the very latest that will pay for itself immediately and then generate an income stream going forward."

The changing-room improvements are to meet new Football League criteria. City are one of several clubs given a year's dispensation to have them up to standard for the start of next season.

They will increase the size of the away dressing room and reconfigure the home one to allow space for new equipment. They must also provide a room for female officials and facilities for the disabled.

Mason said: "We are not forcing anyone to contribute. It's optional and, unlike other fund-raising projects, the contributor has a choice of reward that they could not otherwise obtain.

"They receive a return on their contribution and these rewards are all provided by the club and specific to City fans.

"Had we not tried this approach, we would still have found the money for the changing rooms. But any help with funds means we can allocate a better budget to the manager for next season.

"With the scoreboard, it's something we would all like to see but as a business we could not afford it without running a campaign like this."

Fans are asked to arrive by 7pm in the main banqueting suites. Admission is free but donations towards the fund are welcomed.