Attracting a grassroots sponsor – why community values outweigh brand exposure
Helping the local community is the main reason why businesses would sponsor a grassroots football team, dispelling the belief that companies are driven by financial reward.
Helping the local community is the main reason for sponsors
This was revealed in a survey carried out by teamwear supplier Kitlocker asking 504 small businesses what would motivate them to sponsor an amateur or Sunday league club.
This result suggests that the best way for clubs to pitch sponsorship to businesses is not to talk about the financial reward, but the community benefits.
Toby Vernon, Partner at CPP, who have sponsored South Yorkshire team Ecclesall Rangers for the last four seasons agreed with these findings:
“For me, the main driver has never been based on any financial benefit and I suspect this goes for most businesses who sponsor grassroots football. I am driven by wanting to support youth football and the benefits this brings to local communities.”
This insight is invaluable for club managers who are constantly on the lookout for new or additional sponsors, especially as attracting sponsors can be one of the most time consuming, not to mention frustrating parts of the job.
Having a family connection to a team is also one of the main reasons for sponsorship. This was verified by Darren Large, manager of Tinsley FC. After receiving no success from approaching numerous local business, Darren realised that the answer to securing sponsorship was much closer to home:
“We are fortunate to have a fantastic parent group at the Club who have managed to secure sponsorship with their own network of contacts, and a number of whom are self-employed, which helps!”
Interestingly, the survey also highlighted that 10% of business owners don’t sponsor a team purely because they haven’t been asked. This is great news for clubs, as it highlights that there are a more potential sponsors out there just waiting to be approached.
Mike Kent, MD at Kitlocker believes that:
“Observing these insights will clearly put grassroots managers in a much better position to pitch to potential sponsors, reducing both the time and stress spent in securing funding.”
Written by Sportanddev.org
