Traditionally, school districts have declined to sell corporate sponsorships on campus, on busses or at events.  There are some exceptions such as scoreboard advertising, center field fence or football sidelines, but in general stadium naming rights, signage and other sponsorship opportunities are left vacant.

The pressure on school districts to find new and creative funding avenues for sports, music and arts is opening doors long believed to be closed, locked and without a key.  Read CA: Sacramento, On-campus advertising finding new supporters and TX: Humble, Dealership buys stadium naming rights. 

Web2ition sees this as an exciting trend and a future opportunity for our Sportzine Publishers.  Over time, we anticipate tripling the fundraising impact we can have on participating booster clubs and increasing the income potential for the publishers as well. 

The pace with which school districts open the potential of corporate sponsorships will vary by region and school district, however, it seems likely that within five years, the funding crisis will be so dire, school districts will have no choice but to entertain corporate sponsorships.  Of course, as school sports programs are pushed outside the school sanctioning as club sports, those programs will be open to corporate sponsorships immediately, however, they do not own or control the facilities and so the big ticket sponsorship opportunities will always belong to the school districts.

As Sportzine Publishers develop their relationships with school booster clubs, ADs and district administrators and as their relationships with local and regional corporations expand, they will be trusted partners on both sides of the table and the appropriate marketing representative to either take a sponsorship proposal from a company to the school districts, or to promote a sponsorship opportunity by a school district to appropriate corporate candidates.

Being an early partner to schools and booster clubs puts our Sportzine Publishers in a position to establish their credentials and credibility while school districts are getting used to the idea of corporate sponsorships.  Having relationships in the business community lets our publishers open doors quickly with the time is right.

The Game is Changing... slowly over time...  And Sportzine Publishers will be ready when the time is right.