A few questions about sponsorship?

[Magoo]

Hi all
The following are a few questions that i have no answers for.
1/How could tournaments be better funded?
2/If (better)sponsorship is obtained,How can it be maintained for longer than one tournament?
3/Is there any sort of Tax Benefit in sponsorship?
4/Probably my most important question is How could our game be pitched to any potential sponsor as a worthwhile endeavour?
May be some of the sponsored bowlers could give some answers?I.e How they marketed themselves to their respective sponsors?
Till next time
Tryhard

 

[James Mc]

Here are my thoughts.

What would be good is a national sponsor/tour. Try to wrap up TV coverage, maybe SBS or 10. They both cover many different types of sports, even obscure ones. Look what they did with lifesaving. Who would have though thousands of people would sit around and watch that.
Next you need something for the sponsor. How about an advertising or marketing commitment from every bowl in the counrty, with the sponsor offering exclusive deals to league bowls etc. Now that would give the sponsor a fair base of people to work with. A couple of suggestions is either Telco's or Internet providers, both struggle to maintain a customer base and could potentially tie up the whole bowling fraternity if the deal was good enough.

Over to you.

 

[RobbieB]

The problem with sponsorship is that unless the sponsor has ties with bowling and is basically helping because of that, there has to be a return for their $$$. Bowling is not a big spectator sport in this country, and even the bigger tournaments tend to have a low profile even among the majority of bowlers.
OTOH, take a company like AMF - over 40 centres, with a throughput of thousands of people a week. Or Goldpin, or the Wide Bay circuit centres. With the support of a chain of centres, would it be possible to get say 12 sponsors at 10-20K each, and showcase their products across a chain of centres, with particular emphasis on a different sponsor each month? Tie-ins with people like Hungry Jack's for example could benefit both the sponsor and the centre. Some centres run a house newsletter - more exposure for a potential sponsor.
No-one is going to cough up cash for a event that only fifty people will hear about or attend. Someone is likely to pay for a month's intensive advertising in a chain of centres that will put 100,000 people through in that month.
More money in the tounaments will attract more entries, and with a decent sponsorship the centres will be able to charge a rate that lets them run a tournament without losing money. This all relies on the centres being willing to provide some advertising space and working with a sponsor on joint promotions, of course, but surely a healthy tournament scene has to help the sport somewhere along the line?
12 sponsors at $5000 each is ten grand in prize fund for 6 tournaments.
Just some ideas, anyway.

 

[Graham]

That's what it is all about .. sponsors want to see a return on their $$ investment, whether it be a huge or small investment. As my friend Jason said in another post - times are tough - and that goes for businesses as well as individuals. They all have to watch the pennies, and unless we can get some help from either inside the bowling world or some outside help with the marketing etc of our tournaments to these sponsors we are going to struggle.

In my opinion, each of the Super Six need to be promoted locally as a big thing. This will more than likely result in increasing the patronage at the tournaments. A way to help this - as has been mentioned previously - is the ProAms. Now obviously this needs to be promoted extensively in the host city for a few weeks prior to the events - someone needs to take the bull by the horns and start organising these things - ensuring that they are promoted. I'm sure that there is at least one person in each of the Super Six stops that is willing to get involved and lend a hand .. let's stop all the talk of maybe and should we - if people think this ProAm idea is a good idea - I will personally see to it that it works-one way or another.

The increased patronage from these ProAms and in turn the actual tournament, will give us the chance to sell our product to the potential sponsors. Sponsors want exposure - we need to give sponsors that.

Sure all the talk is about "We need TV" - well TV costs $$ and unfortunately at this stage it appears it isnt going to happen. But - if we can work on the local scene first - increase awareness and patronage locally - then start working on the big picture then maybe it might just work.

 

[milkman]

One idea I have thought of is possibly getting a junior development type program where the Super 6 tournaments are to be held, like immediately before or after the tournament itself.

Its fine trying to organise stuff for what we have right now, but at the same time, lets try to show the awareness of juniors of the level of competition avilable to adults in Australia.

How many times do you see these wonderful talented juniors coming thru the ranks, then they hit 18 and suddenly they disappear.

I wouldnt mind organising the ones in Victoria (SPC and Australian Open), but would anyone else be willing to do the ones in other states?

And maybe some of the respected bowlers in Australia would be willing to come down and lend a hand to these bowlers?

Anyone interested?

 

[Magoo]

Thanks to the people who replied,but my questions still have not been answered.
Just bumping this up to the front page again.
Tryhard

 

[steve_jones]

Gerald,

The question of sponsorship and related support of events is a long one. However, to simplify - Brunswick, like any other company, looks for return on investment in such things. We evaluate the worth of a particular tournament [let us use tournament support for this example] based on a long history of experience in such events. By return I mean public exposure, the "status" of the tournament, the standard of the event and the host centre, the likely entry numbers and quality of entrants - we evaluate a variety of issues before we support or not - issues that are not too much of a mystery I should think.

On the other hand there are other issues that influence and impact on our support in one form or another that are less tangible. These relate to the nature of our business in a particular country, the standing of bowling in a particular country, the support [or not] of other sponsors, organisers and the local bowling federation also play a role. Finally Gerald, the most critical factor of all, is the overall level of business [bowling equipment sales globally - this has by far the biggest impact on what we can do or not do, given that global bowling market sales establish the funds available for tournament support.

Let me give one simple example of what I mean. In the late 1980's the number of bowling lanes in China numbered less than 100. This is not bowling centres - the actual lane count was under 100 - 24 lanes were actually in the basement of the Liddo Hotel [I think it is now the Holiday Inn] in Beijing. So from this account you can see how thinly spread bowling lanes were across this vast country.

By the end of the 20th century there were more than 20,000 lanes in China - clearly the ten years of growth in that market was massive. Brunswick enjoyed a 60% plus market share of all new equipment sales into China during most of the 90's. Not surprisingly the funds available for tournament support around the world were significant during this period. Now however, where we see the world bowling market in a massive slump - the available funds are small and are spent very clinically - this is simply a commercial reality impacting on the bowling community around the world.

Trust this helps you in some way.

Regards

Steve Jones
Brunswick International Limited

 

[Magoo]

Thanks for the reply steve.
Yes it has helped answer a few of my queries.
Till next time
Tryhard