Scoring with the Fans

The roar of the crowd and feel-good moments in youth sports could be a winning combination for expanding your customer base to families.

Many area businesses are gaining exposure, thanks to their involvement in Little League, recreation department or school sports. The most obvious ways are to place the name of a business on the fence or scoreboard at a stadium, in a program or on a jersey.

“We have thousands of people that go through our stadiums and our gym and our baseball complex every season,” says Randy Zavada, director of institutional advancement for Bishop Verot Catholic High School, a private school in Fort Myers. “I think people that walk into our stadium that are Vikings [fans] … would much rather deal with someone who is supporting the school or a part of the community. If you can see that [business] on a sign, you’re more likely to patronize them.”

Youth sports can be an affordable option to the big business of collegiate- or pro-sports sponsorships. Supporting a youth team or annual event, or buying signage on the field, can cost from a couple of hundred to a couple of thousand dollars, on average.

Making a play for more business

Athletic departments, such as the one at Bishop Verot, rely heavily on sponsorships to operate, but the economy has decreased some businesses’ ability to give, Zavada says.

If you hope that sponsoring a sports program will score more business, there are two key things to determine before making your decision:

•What are the demographics of the school or league?

•How many people attend games?

“Let’s face it, a lot of people put signs on Little League and soccer clubs and high schools and middle schools just because they want to patronize the school or the organization that their kids are involved in,” Zavada says. “If they get somebody to do some business with, that’s an extra perk.”