sponserships

[kgr624]

Just want to test the waters with this one. I am fairly new to the bass tournaments and last year I had a blast and did fairly well for my first full season. I was looking at my schedules this year and was wondering how do I cut the cost?? Do the gails and guys on this site have sponsers? and do businesses sponser you for just advertising or because you are good? Just some questions to throw out there. I am just wondering, may try to see if I can get some money flowing this year to help with fees.
Thanks, this site is the best thanks Dan!!!!

Ken

[blakstr1]

i'm sure there are a few out there that get $$, but the vast majority of sponsorships are in the form of products and the like...even at the professional level.  With that being said, however if your getting a discount on poroducts you already use, then in a way you are helping finance your tournament year.

[kgr624]

That is a good point you made. I have heard of guys who sell advertising on their boats for say $150.00 per year to have their logo on the boat.

[fishon1219]

You could be one of the worst fisherman on the trail and still get sponsors. It is not really about your fishing ability's it is more about promotion. You need to make your self marketable. If people like you and they think you will be able to help promote their business than they will help you. It probably wont be much help for the work you are going to have to do for them, but it is a labor of love.

Since we are on the topic there was an article in the latest Bassmaster magazine about what the top pros make in sponsorship dollars. This was a forbidden topic for a while, but the cat is out of the bag now. The highest paid person from sponsor money alone that was willing to talk was Skeet Reese. He was right at $600,000. he was higher on the scale than Ike or KVD who fell in at $500,000. Skeet has never one angler of the year or the classic. He is just marketable. Find out how to sell yourself and the sponsorships will come. 

[Cheetam]

Sponsorship = Work

Whomever sponsors you will most likely have conditions/terms that must be met to be considered "pro staff" or "sponsored" (I am referring to National/International companies, not local mom and pop businesses - that is an entirely different situation).  Conditions/terms could include:
- working fishing/boating shows as a representative,
- standing in the aisle at (insert store name here) talking to customers about products x, y, and z,
- required monthly/quarterly/yearly status reports,
- contacting (aka cold calling/visiting) stores to pitch product (must often be documented with who you spoke to, date, contact info, etc.),
- purchasing product at a discount (often tiered based on performance)
- posting about products on public fishing forums,
- putting stickers on your truck, boat, shirt, hat and underpants (ok...maybe not the underpants)....etc. etc. etc.

More times than not, you will NOT get entry fees or cash...most likely you will get a modest product disount to start.

[motocross269]

Bass fishing needs a site like we use for motocross racing and other so called extreme sports..www.sponsorhouse.com.  There are 100s of potential sponsors that use this site to select the athletes that they are going to back for the year...Monster energy, Fox Racing, Scott Goggles, Blur Optics,,,etc. etc. You just go to this site and create a Resume..and post it..Obviously the better you are at selling yourself and the better your race history the more sponsors you will pick up. This streamlines things for everybody..Once you are selected by a sponsor you sign a contract online and off you go.
Check it out...www.sponsorhouse.com...One of you computer gurus could probably cook something like this up.

[Cy]

Getting local sponsors to cover your tournament costs isn't all that difficult.  Last year I generated enough sponsor income to cover all my tournament cost, including gas and travel expenses.

I think the trick to getting sponsors is no different then selling anything else.  You are some what selling yourself but you are also selling advertising space.  Keep in mind that even if the company gets only one new customer, it has made the sponsorship expense worth it.  You need to leverage existing relationships, try and find sponsors that can benefit from you advertising for them.  I would start with non-fishing sponsors.  The goal is not get G-Loomis but to pay for your hobby.

Cy

[MBell]

Like everyone else said, most fishing sponsorship is basically a bad paying product rep job.  Don't know how or why some guys do it, I'd rather spend my time fishing. 
-Matt

[Jason Ammerman]

You said it Mbell. Most guys are selling them selves so they can wear a fancy shirt or put a sticker on there truck or boat. I have been at this a long time I have seen guys pay more for the clothing than what they save on product.
      Note to the guys wearing the scare shirts. anyone that has done this for a couple years knows what is going on. So you save $2000 or $3000.00 on a boat deal. Then you run all over the state doing shows and promotions for nothing by the time you figure in what you spend in gas and time you are on the losing end of the deal.
     One thing that I think would help guys out as far as sponsors, if The tournament groups would do some promotion for the guys that are doing well, Like BASS is doing the top name guys are getting more money from sponsors than ever before because of the exposure that they get on TV, The WEB, and In print. That is what sponsors want to see. Just telling them that you will put a sticker on your rig is not going to get you paid. I mean $1000.00 a year or more in cash.

Here is an idea for Dan (idea = more work) Have a angler profile section of the web site. sorry Dan but I think it is a good idea.

How about a site that just has angler profiles and articles about local guys. Let them push the products that they are sponsored by.

How many guys would like to see something like that.

My advise to anyone looking for a sponsor deal is, concentrate more on fishing, you will win more money than you will get out of your sponsorship deals.

[djkimmel]

Soon as I find someone to write it and someone to do the code... I've been asked about hosting resumes on here for anglers. I will probably do it, but my load is beyond full at the moment so it will probably be a next winter project. I'm looking for easy to maintain web software that doesn't have to be updated every few weeks to streamline it. I'm not a fast enough or good enough web programmer to do it myself in a timely manner.

If I had to do it and 50 anglers asked at once, I'd be making a lot of people unhappy.

Books have been written on getting sponsorship. There are tons of articles on the subject on the Internet (and I mean tons!). I would suggest reading the good articles on FLW Outdoors in their archive to start with. Pretty good little tutorial when you put them all together.

My starting advice is to go in thinking what they (the sponsor) need and what you can do for them, not what they can do for you. Before you do though, my next advice is to use this forum to ask questions, and do a little online research through the search engines - some of the articles have been written by successful pro's - to see what is realistically out there so you are not shocked when you find out some of the realities.

Next, what do you really want? Some entry fees from whomever each year and whomever next? A chance to be associated with a known company? Maybe show and seminar work because you actually like it? Maybe a longterm relationship with a great company?

Answers to these kinds of questions, along with your research should help you start to decide who and what you want to seek sponsorship opportunities from.