Adventures in Sports Team Sponsorship

A couple of months ago I mentioned that my company (me in tax-minimizing form) is the primary sponsor for London Seaward FC, an independent women's football (soccer) club playing in Tier 4 of the English Women's National League. Seaward sit sixth out of eleven teams, but they have games in hand and could easily finish in the top three. Only the league winner gets promoted to Tier 3 and, to be honest, the unbeaten frontrunners Hashtag?United would have to go on an unlikely losing streak to miss out.

After crashing out of a cup competition the week before, Seaward beat the second-place team Norwich City 3-0 last Sunday. Those of you who are familiar with English football likely know of Norwich, Queens Park Rangers, and Wimbledon, all of which have teams in Division 1 South East with Seaward. The difference in resources between the big clubs and the others is striking. As an example, the graphic below compares the total enterprise value of Norwich's sponsor, car manufacturer Lotus, and my company Technology and Society.

I admit that "less than 2 billion pounds" is doing a lot of work here, but I'm sure you get the point.

The lesson for me is that a relatively small investment can make a huge difference in your chosen community if you can find an organization that will use it effectively.

I doubt that I've made more than a few thousand dollars back from this marketing expense, but as an investment it has been invaluable. Seaward went an entire season without major sponsors, which meant they were practicing in parks with rented lights and scraping by on personal sponsorships. Now they can afford pitch rental two nights a week, proper transport for away matches outside of central London, and the little bits and bobs that make life easier.

As a one-person "C" corporation (allowed in Oregon but not many other states), I control and live in my corporate culture. If your organization doesn't have visible community outreach of this sort, see if you can identify opportunities for them to support sport, theater, and the allied arts in your area. It's been immensely fulfilling for me and I'm sure it will be for you too.