Don’t Leave Money on the Table: The Secret to Retaining Club Sponsors

Landing a major sponsor for your sports club is a great feeling. The cheque clears, the logo goes on the sleeve of the jersey, and the committee breathes a sigh of relief. Job done, right?

Wrong.

Taking a sponsor’s money and slapping their logo on a shirt is the quickest way to ensure they never sponsor your club again. Grassroots clubs are notoriously bad at missing the “low-hanging fruit” when it comes to sponsorship, leaving thousands of dollars on the table year after year.

The Activation Disconnect

Recently, a major national brand sponsored a prominent semi-pro football club. The brand had a new product they wanted to promote to the club’s demographic. But instead of the club proactively organising an activation day to hand out samples and drive sales, the sponsor had to reach out to an external media contractor just to get some traction.

Why? Because the club’s leaders were too busy “doing the doing” of running the football season to actually deliver value to the business that had just written them a cheque. Talk about the urgency of operations getting in the way of the importance of governance and strategy! 

Sponsorship is Not a Donation

Local businesses do not sponsor your club out of the goodness of their hearts. They are buying marketing access to your members. If you don’t provide a return on investment (ROI), they will spend their marketing budget elsewhere next year.

To stop the churn-and-burn of club sponsors, you need to be proactive:

• Activate the Sponsorship: Give them a reason to be at the club. Set up a marquee for them on a busy Saturday morning. Let them hand out samples, collect emails, or offer exclusive discounts to your members.
• Evaluate and Report: At the end of the season, don’t just send them an invoice for next year. Sit down with them and show them the value you delivered. “We put your brand in front of 400 local families every week, and our membership card data shows 50 of our members used your discount code this year.”
• Give Them a Reason to Stay: If you deliver an incredible, seamless experience the first year, they won’t even question renewing for year two.

Your club is sitting on a goldmine of local community engagement. Start treating your sponsors like business partners, and watch your commercial revenue soar.

Need help packaging, pricing and activating your club’s sponsorships? CPR Group can train your committee to build commercial partnerships that last. Reach out to our team today to get started.