Ideas on gaining sponsorships for my league?

F

fathomblue

Rusty Shackleford
Silver Member
I just completed my first year of play in the APPA (Arkansas Pool Player Association). I had a BLAST. It's really helped me gain confidence in my game, meet tons of new people and just have lots of fun.

So, for the upcoming season, I've joined the Board of Directors. After talking with the league President, our biggest concern is getting sponsorship money for next season, of course.

Has anyone here attempted this? If I could just get 5-6 pool related companies to pitch in say....$500 each, that's probably more than was donated last year. You would think it wouldn't be that big of a deal, but I'm guessing it's not that easy of a task.

We had about 250 players in the league last year and anticipate some good growth for the upcoming season. The President has mentioned several new possible satellites that may join, as we start to fill in gaps throughout the state.

I'm definitely not coming here asking for money, just ideas. Does anyone here do it for their league?

There's not much in the way of pool related companies in Arkansas, so I'm looking for anything across the U.S. I'm sure we could put out brochures, catalogs, banners, whatever the companies needed.......at tournaments to promote their business in exchange for small sponsorships.

Looking forward to any ideas or constructive criticism.
 
fathomblue said:
I just completed my first year of play in the APPA (Arkansas Pool Player Association). I had a BLAST. It's really helped me gain confidence in my game, meet tons of new people and just have lots of fun.

So, for the upcoming season, I've joined the Board of Directors. After talking with the league President, our biggest concern is getting sponsorship money for next season, of course.

Has anyone here attempted this? If I could just get 5-6 pool related companies to pitch in say....$500 each, that's probably more than was donated last year. You would think it wouldn't be that big of a deal, but I'm guessing it's not that easy of a task.

We had about 250 players in the league last year and anticipate some good growth for the upcoming season. The President has mentioned several new possible satellites that may join, as we start to fill in gaps throughout the state.

I'm definitely not coming here asking for money, just ideas. Does anyone here do it for their league?

There's not much in the way of pool related companies in Arkansas, so I'm looking for anything across the U.S. I'm sure we could put out brochures, catalogs, banners, whatever the companies needed.......at tournaments to promote their business in exchange for small sponsorships.

Looking forward to any ideas or constructive criticism.
Click to expand...

i dont think you will have much luck getting pool related companies to donate the kind of money you are looking for.

we have a money league team here in town that charges a team fee of 100.00 for the session. then you have a weelky fee of 35.00 for each team. i forgot to say this is a traveling league, we travel to most of the bars and pool halls around here.

the 100.00 team fee is paid by the team sponser which is your home bar. the bars and pool halls readily pay the 100.00 because they easily recoup a lot more than that by getting teams in their place of bussiness every week. the pool hall i play out of sponsors 2 teams. several bars sponsor more than one team. heck one bar sponsers 4 teams.

there are 22 teams in our tue night league. so thats 2200.00 for the league not counting the 35.00 per team weekly fee.

last session we got 300.00 for placing 9th in the league and won an additional 900.00 for placing 4th in the playoffs.

you could go that route with the individual bars around there telling them they will generate a lot more sales from the players.

get with me if you would like more details about this league.
 
I appreciate your input, Lorider.

Our problem is that most of the counties in Arkansas, at least where our satellites happen to be.....are dry. These are mainly just pool halls. No beer. No liquor. Just pool. So, there's not really much in the way of extra income besides table time. There's a couple of nice locations, but most of these are small, simple places that operate on a shoestring budget.

I think we have 2 locations out of the 9 that serve alcohol.

I honestly don't know if the league charges the satellites a yearly membership fee or not to boost the league fund.

As it stands right now, every player has a $13 yearly membership fee. We have 1 sponsor that puts up close to $1000 for the year. After that, it's pretty much just the league's 20% cut of what's left over after deduction of the green fees for each tournament.

As in, the usual tournament has this breakdown:

$13 entry fee.

$3 of which goes to the satellite as the "green fee". That leaves $10.

20% of that remaining $10 = $2. That 2 bucks goes into the league fund for the state finals tournaments.

That leaves $8 for the night's tournament pot.

So, no one is getting rich by playing pool here. And that's not the point anyway. But, of course, if we had more sponsor money, the pots get bigger. The pots get bigger, more people come out to play. The more people come out to play.....the pot gets bigger again. But, we all know this.

According to the "old-timers", this league has waxed and waned thru the years since it started in the early 80's. Right now, it seems to be starting on an upswing.

I'm just trying to figure out ways to push us to the next level. I'd love to see us have 400 members with at least 15 satellites. There's a decent chance we could have close to that many of both with the addition of the proposed satellites for next season.

Does Diamond, Olhausen, Brunswick, Valley, etc. offer any sort of sponsorship programs? Those are the consensus of tables that we have in the league. Just working off the top of my head here.

With a tight economy, you'd think pool would be more attractive for the average person. Sure, it's not as cheap as renting a movie or just plain sitting at home, but for a banger who could buy a serviceable cue for $100 or less......it's cheap entertainment after that. It's generally a huge badge of honor amongst men to be "a great pool player". But, for some reason, it feels as tho the "macho-ness" is wearing off the game. Thankfully there are more women playing the game today than I've ever seen.

I suppose that a combination of a "quick cash win" in poker and the lack of attention span really strikes at the heart of pool. You have to work to win at this game and you have to pay attention while you do it.

It's sad, really.

I take every opportunity I can to spark interest among today's youth when it comes to pool. I don't want the game to die.

I feel I'm getting off the path here, but I'm sure everyone here knows what I'm getting at.
 
I've been tasked in the past with getting "donations" for our yacht club. It ain't easy and you'll get more no's than yes's, ya gotta have a salesman mentality.
If there aren't pool related companies, try the pizza joints, or the sporting goods places or the local restaurants, or the hardware stores.

You have x number of captive people to pitch to each meet. Sell that to your potential sponsors. Tell them that this night will be your night, we will hand out flyers, give a spiel, let you give a spiel. We'll promote your business as a serious lover of pool in our neighborhood.

Good luck and don't take no for an answer without giving them another option:grin:
 
One thing

the Pool rooms do here is get sponsers and have signs put up hanging from the ceiling. All kinds of businesses advertise in the Pool rooms, construction companies, lawn maintenance, lawyers, plumbing, car sales, etc.. I think they charge about 100 for a year, but there are about 25-30 in each Pool room.
 
I'll be honest, it hadn't even crossed my mind to work on the local businesses that aren't part of the sport. I guess I have billiards on the brain.

Great idea, Thommy and Scott.
 
fathomblue said:
I just completed my first year of play in the APPA (Arkansas Pool Player Association). I had a BLAST. It's really helped me gain confidence in my game, meet tons of new people and just have lots of fun.

So, for the upcoming season, I've joined the Board of Directors. After talking with the league President, our biggest concern is getting sponsorship money for next season, of course.

Has anyone here attempted this? If I could just get 5-6 pool related companies to pitch in say....$500 each, that's probably more than was donated last year. You would think it wouldn't be that big of a deal, but I'm guessing it's not that easy of a task.

We had about 250 players in the league last year and anticipate some good growth for the upcoming season. The President has mentioned several new possible satellites that may join, as we start to fill in gaps throughout the state.

I'm definitely not coming here asking for money, just ideas. Does anyone here do it for their league?

There's not much in the way of pool related companies in Arkansas, so I'm looking for anything across the U.S. I'm sure we could put out brochures, catalogs, banners, whatever the companies needed.......at tournaments to promote their business in exchange for small sponsorships.

Looking forward to any ideas or constructive criticism.
Click to expand...

Try for beer distributors if you are in lots of bars. Also try to get your league operator to kick in a little something they usually own all of the tables and get those tasty quarters. I am not familiar with much league sponsor ship. Are you trying to raise money for the end of the season or something what will you do with the sponsor ship money and what will be done for the sponsor. I wish you luck.
 
Just remember that sponsored just means advertising, paid advertising. Local companies are always looking for inexpensive ways to advertise. The best way to get their attention is showing them the numbers from previous months or years of crowds within each event. They just want to know that they are getting the most bang for their buck. You might get more from a company thinks they will gets a lot of feedback, or if the owner is a fan. Good luck.
 
thommy said:
I've been tasked in the past with getting "donations" for our yacht club. It ain't easy and you'll get more no's than yes's, ya gotta have a salesman mentality.
If there aren't pool related companies, try the pizza joints, or the sporting goods places or the local restaurants, or the hardware stores.

You have x number of captive people to pitch to each meet. Sell that to your potential sponsors. Tell them that this night will be your night, we will hand out flyers, give a spiel, let you give a spiel. We'll promote your business as a serious lover of pool in our neighborhood.

Good luck and don't take no for an answer without giving them another option:grin:
Click to expand...



www.gofortheno.com

The book is about 65 pages or so.

Jeff Livingston
 

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Keep the ideas coming, all. Anything and everything is much appreciated.

The league President is wanting to sell some ad space on the new and improved website we'll be rolling out soon. That seems like an idea that could attract some folks.
 
Even your day job can throw in a few dollars here and there (let's say for league shirts with their logo on them). If they notice you're getting interest in the company they may want to increase their visibility by giving more for banners, etc. Just make sure you don't have any loose cannons on your team.
 
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