
Donations v Relations: Is grassroots football selling itself short to sponsors?
With tours, tournaments and friendlies it doesn’t feel like the football season has a start and finish anymore but a sure sign that we’re just a few weeks away from the start of the grassroots season is my Twitter feed filling up with clubs making vain appeals to find kit sponsors.
I’m in the same boat. The kit for my u7s team is sorted (big thanks to Total Teamwear for their support) and we’ve some generous offers from parents in the pipeline too. But to date, I’ve been engaging in a fruitless attempt to find an external sponsor for some much needed rain jackets and beanie hats as they brave the south Wales elements for their first proper season of grassroots football. (this is the one and only hint, hint)
Maybe because I’m closely involved and can see the benefits, I’ve simply assumed that businesses would be queuing up with sponsorship offers to be part of our footballing community.
After all, who wouldn’t want to have their brand associated with a product that is growing year on year, is accessible to all, encourages healthy, active lifestyles and builds team spirit and camaraderie among young people.
As someone who works in communications, I can see the offer is a good one; the brand exposure is strong and consistent and you’ll not find a stronger sense of loyalty to a club than the one that exists in the grassroots football community. What’s clear though is that for many, there is a clear disconnect between what clubs and businesses see as the actual core purpose of sports sponsorship.
Ultimately grassroots clubs rely on sponsorship – usually an altruistic gesture from a parent or coach’s business – to keep the costs of kit, pitch hire and equipment as low as possible so that the financial burden isn’t passed onto parents. It’s seen as a ‘donation’ to keep the game affordable for all. While that’s undoubtedly a worthy cause, we’re often guilty of just taking the money and walking away and I can’t help feeling that we’re selling our own product short.
Businesses rightly should demand more from their sponsorship than just a philanthropic gesture – it’s an investment in a relationship that should be of mutual benefit to both club and sponsor. I have no doubt that many businesses see the clear benefits of being associated with the core values of grassroots sport such as fair play and togetherness but rarely get the opportunity to develop this relationship once the cheque has been handed over.
If we’re to make a better deal of the grassroots clubs offer then we need to work harder for our sponsors. Brand exposure on kits and hoardings is obviously important but only came third in Kitlocker’s survey of why companies sponsor grassroots sports clubs. Top of the list was the chance of helping their community (second was because their child plays for the team!)
Businesses know that their sponsorship is unlikely in the short term to bring a return on investment so we need to do more to support the wider benefits. Key to this is building the community relationship so that sponsors become an integral part of the footballing network and can benefit from the trust and goodwill that comes from their investment.
With this in place, the sponsor has their own opportunities for engagement and to build their company narrative on values of trust, teamwork, loyalty and giving something back to their community.
Clubs can take simple steps to achieve this – providing sponsors with regular updates (that aren’t always asking for donations) and can be shared across their business, photo opportunities, framed shirts, regular thanks and mentions, tickets to fundraising events, interactions and mentions on social media. The grassroots football community is loyal and close knit. If sponsors become part of this, they will recognise the opportunities for a return on their investment.
So should we be successful in our search for sponsors, they’ll not just get a tokenistic thanks on presentation day, but the chance to be part of the team’s journey for as long as it’s of mutual benefit. Of course, we’ll be promoting the brand on our kit and will be blunt enough to tell people that ‘these are our sponsors, say thanks by buying their stuff’, but together we’ll build a proper relationship so they can see the impact of their investment and have the chance to engage and interact with our community in way that no other business can.
We’ve a great offer and I don’t think we’re making the most it. Fingers crossed we can turn that around into a win-win partnership.
