By Andy Rebhun, President Wisconsin Club Tennis, President Wisconsin Club Sports Council

What is a sponsorship? While there are several different definitions it can be best put by dictionary.com. “A sponsorship is when a person, firm, organization, finances and buys the time to advertise a product.”

Organizations spend millions of dollars each year to provide sponsorship and or market their product on a local, national, and international level. The sponsorship I will be discussing in this article doesn’t refer to the 2.6 million dollars Budweiser spent on their 30 second commercial in the super bowl last year. Nor is it the multi-million dollar Adidas or Nike contracts that the majority of colleges and universities have across the country. I will be discussing the sponsorship for your club tennis teams.

Club tennis while it has grown across the country will not generate the type of revenue brought by big market sports such as football and basketball. Hence, one cannot expect that the marketing dollars you will receive from companies will be anywhere near for tennis what it is for large revenue generating sports. There is no right or wrong way to approach companies but there are several strategies that have been successful for my club tennis team whether it lead to team, tournament, or philanthropic sponsorship.

A logo on a jersey, a banner in your tennis facility, a link on your webpage, discounts at local eateries, and incentives for your team to purchase from a certain retailer can all be coined under the phrase sponsorship.

Get a company to donate food for an event: My team has been really successful in acquiring many companies to donate food for several events that we run throughout the year. Many companies are going to be interested in how they can benefit from providing your organization with free food. Here’s how… many teams have incoming freshman as well as returning players that may have not had food from that certain restaurant. Restaurants see this as an opportunity to advertise; “create a partnership” with your club team. By providing the team with a free welcome meeting meal you are essentially letting them tap into the college market (providing a service for them). At the same time I will offer a company the chance to advertise within my organization, on our website, on our t-shirts, or at our tennis center throughout the year. In addition the companies who we partner with tend to receive a lot more business from the players on my team because of their generosity. This creates a great relationship as with some companies in the Madison area: Chipotle, Chin’s, Domino’s, and Jimmy John’s that will last a long time.

Philanthropy Donations: Philanthropy donations are sometimes really easy to come by since most major corporations have a certain dollar value allocated for each fiscal year. One must keep in mind to prepare early. Most people are aware that companies receive numerous requests for donations. In order to receive a donation it is essential that you put your request in early and have a well thought out plan to how you will utilize the donation.

Financial Contributions: This is often the most difficult type of contribution for a company. My club team has established different sponsorship levels for companies that if they give x amount of dollars they will receive certain incentives. Let me elaborate.

$250= copper level sponsorship: sponsors a practice (noted in email to team) as well as banner during practice for that certain company (you do not provide the banner).

$500= bronze level sponsorship: sponsors a practice, get recognition on www.uwtennisclub.com website

$750= silver level sponsorship: sponsors a practice, get recognition on www.uwtennisclub.com website, gets 5 team t-shirts, ability to come in to talk to team for a 30 minute advertising session

$1,000= gold level sponsorship: sponsors a practice, get recognition on www.uwtennisclub.com website, gets 10 team t-shirts, logo on back of t-shirt, team will listen to 30 minute advertising session

It is essential to establish your team for tax deductible status. It is very hard for these businesses to make a donation on their own if they are not receiving a tax deduction for it. Similarly, you can offer this sort of package to parents with donations. Most club sports departments should be able to assist you in attaining tax deductible status.

Tournament Sponsorship: The Badger Classic was a great example of advanced scheduling and preparation resulting in tournament sponsorship. It took 6 months of planning for the Badger Classic and in the process we were able to get every meal of the tournament sponsored. For one thing many bread, bagel, and bakery places need to get rid of day old products. If you go into their store several months in advance and request a certain day to pick up food it becomes a viable option for them to donate to a worthy cause. Most of these places will donate the food at no cost provided you give them a good explanation for what you are using it for. Hence feeding 300 people at a tournament of college students who have flown in across the country to participate was good enough. Again, for places like Domino’s, Jimmy Johns, Flat Top, and Chin’s that have multiple locations you need to emphasize how a tournament like the Badger Classic is going to benefit them. Start by laying the groundwork. There are x number of college students coming in to participate in a tournament. You are essentially giving them the opportunity to have free advertising by giving away their product for free. In return they will appear on all tournament related material, receive recognition in newspaper write ups, hang up a banner for them throughout the tournament, as well as distribute coupons. The Badger Classic in the end had sponsorships from: Chin’s, Chipotle, Domino’s Pizza, Einstein’s Bagels, Flat Top Grill, Ian’s Pizza, Jimmy John’s, Panera Bread Company, Quinton’s Bar and Deli. Make sure when you get places to sponsor your tournament you write a follow up thank you letter as well as provide them with pictures of the tournament in progress as well as their food being consumed.

If anyone has any questions or needs help getting sponsors please feel free to contact me at rebhun@wisc.edu

Best of luck with your sponsorship endeavors.