A Look At How One H.S. Is Looking At Increasing Corporate Sponsorships

MLive.com, Sarah Wojcik

http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2012/06/fenton_high_school_proposes_po.html

FENTON, MI — Fans at Fenton school sporting events could be looking at more corporate ads in the future.

Fenton Area Schools is considering a policy that would boost their corporate sponsorship of high school athletics by offering a wider variety of advertising packages.

“In this economic climate, we’re struggling to involve more of our local businesses with the corporate sponsorship program we had set up initially,” said Mike Bakker, Fenton’s athletic director.

For the past three years, the program has had two paying sponsors: Vic Canever Chevrolet and Raymond James and Associates.

A third sponsor — McLaren Health Care — receives advertising in exchange for supplying a portion of Fenton’s athletic trainer’s salary.

The district currently receives $6,000 a year in advertising but is looking to at least double that with an expanded sponsorship program.

“I would love to see us get to the point where were bring in $12-15,000 over the next few years on a yearly basis,” he said. “I don’t think that’s out of question after talking to other local sports departments, but we have to get the word out there and it takes time to build that.”

Money raised from sponsorships goes to the entire athletic department to help fix and replace equipment, lighting and uniforms.

Fenton has offered a sponsorship program for the past four or five years, but it was top-heavy and advertisers felt they weren’t getting enough bang for their buck, Bakker said.

The proposed restructuring, based on other successful models in the community, such as Linden, Lake Fenton and Hartland, would offer an array of different sized packages to sponsors.

Utilizing advertising to generate revenue for school districts is a blossoming business.

In the Holly Area School District, sports teams are allowed to gather their own corporate sponsors to raise funds for themselves.

“The reason behind this individual concept is that teams have different perks to offer sponsors,” said Deb VanKuiken, Holly’s athletic director. “For instance, a baseball team may hang a sign on their field fencing and read announcements at games while the ski team hangs a banner on their warming tent and the soccer team places advertisements in programs.”

Three other Genesee Country school districts have signed on with a Troy-based company — Alternative Revenue Development, LLC — that uses advertising to raise money for schools.

“Before it was either go big or not at all,” Bakker said. “We’re also willing to talk with (advertisers) and negotiate.”

Advertisers can display banners in the gym, the football stadium or the fence. They can also display banners in their businesses and receive printed ads in the school’s athletic programs.

The booster program is also willing to be flexible in negotiating trades in return for advertising rights, such as donated equipment or lighting.

Another new installment, if the board approves the proposal, would be an advertising position responsible for the management of the sponsors.

Bakker said they are looking at paying the advertising representative 10 percent of all the sales they make, which would be self-sufficient and not draw from the school’s budget.

“We have community members who were supportive of athletics in the past with experience in marketing and advertising we’d love to tap into,” Bakker said.

Just two people currently run the Fenton athletics department.

“I love the idea of getting somebody who this is their specialty,” said board member Nora Kryza. “I think that’ll make it much more successful than trying to spread that little bit of peanut butter on the bread.”

With the revamped packages, the all-sports booster program would offer color banners for the first time; previously, the banners were black with white writing.

Bakker said the lack of color logos discouraged some advertisers.

Another new sticking point would be scoreboard advertisements.

“I wanted to stay away (from corporate advertising) for as long as possible because I wanted to keep it about the kids, but it’s also a revenue that I don’t know that we can ignore,” Bakker said.

Board member Lynn Hopper questioned whether the advertisements would be sponsorships or endorsements. Bakker assured him they are sponsorships.

“The good news is that corporate sponsorship fees directly impact each program and thereby student athletes,” VanKuiken said.