Expert: Jessica Sparks - 6/29/2006

Question
IS there any tricks to get in to getting sponsored. And we want to know how to go about it, where to go and what would we have to do in return for the sponsorship.  

Answer
Tricks? Be organized. Have a team resume or portfolio to give to a possible sponsor, and it does not have to be expensive but should look neat and professional.

Have a list of what you would do for the sponsor. A lot of teams just ask for sponsorship without being ready to give something back to the sponsors.  Always ask a sponsor, "What would you like our team to do for you as part of a sponsorship package?"

Because thousands of teams are asking for sponsorship, when starting out it is good to start locally.  Check with relatives who have businesses.  Local businesses sponsor other sports teams like softball, bowling, soccer, etc., so they should be interested in sponsoring a paintball team.  They usually want their name and phone number or web site on the uniforms. They might ask for players to help them with an open house, or to come to promotional days and be there in uniform to talk about paintball. Some might ask the team to put up a banner for them at paintball play days at the field.  

The local fields and pro shops usually all sponsor some teams.  Ask what they are looking for.  They may need clean up crews, referees, people to take flyers around to local businesses, help in the rental gear clean up after play days, people to build new forts, etc., on the fields, help with putting on big games, etc.

Once you get a sponsor it becomes easier to get more sponsors.

A banner is good to have, with your team name and then one by one add your sponsors.  It is ok to start with an inexpensive banner with only your team name, and then ask the sponsor to help buy a new banner with the sponsor's logo and name etc. on the banner. Then you have two banners and they both are ok to use.

It is helpful if the sponsoring company has paintball players on their payroll or relatives who play paintball.

Consider having a coach and a manager for the team. They can help with getting sponsorship.  A business manager would be a third good person to have on board.

Choose a team name with care.  Not many busineeses want to be associated with a team that has a rude, offensive, druggie-related, etc. name.  Same for the team logo - it should be professional.  Some publications will not run pictures of rude logos or stickers and the team loses their chance to get into the publication.

It is good to give back something to paintball.  Volunteer to referee at charity games or give free clinics to new players.  Look for other opportunities to get publicity and help the community such as volunteering to clean up trash somewhere or help with a Toys for Tots paintball event.

Everything you do to help paintball's image makes your team more valuable to a sponsor.  The sport looks good, you look good, the sponsor looks good.

When a team gets up to the semi-pro or pro levels, or close to there, the team usually has sponsors and moves into a different type of relationship with sponsors than when it is a new team at the local level just starting out.

The team's reputation matters a lot.  A team that argues, whines, cheats, gets into disputes, shoots hot a lot, gets penalized, bounces checks, does not pay its bills, breaks its commitments, etc. -- those teams and their players get a bad reputation and sponsors will find out about it.  

There are some articles about sponsorship on the Action Pursuit Games magazine web site. Here is one link to an article there:

http://www.actionpursuitgames.com/content/view/137/85/

You can use the "search" function to look for more articles on the APG site.

Good luck to you all on getting sponsored, and thank you for helping keep paintball safe.