March Madness is Just Around the Corner
The long anticipated time for College basketball fans is just a short 2 months away – March Madness. 64 total teams are chosen to participate. Will your favorite team make the cut? Which teams will get top seeds? Who will make it to the Sweet 16? Who will advance to the Final 4? Who will be the National Champions? Will Syracuse be able to keep their #1 ranking? Or will Kentucky bounce back from their one loss at Indiana? These are all the hot topic questions being asked now. Who knows how it will all turn out, but I know it’s a lot of fun following College Basketball. There are lots of surprises, upsets, and let downs.
Along with all the excitement with College Basketball, the excitement with high school basketball is also high. The high energy from basketball fans is great for the players, so it’s important to keep the fans excited and engaged. Basketball spirit items are a huge part of keeping the fans loud and rowdy. Below are two spirit items that have withstood the test of time and are more popular than ever with basketball fans.
Mini Basketballs
Mini basketballs are an excellent low cost spirit item for basketball teams, whether college, high school, or middle school. These are commonly thrown out into the crowd by the cheerleaders after big scores, lead changes, during lull moments with the crowd, during time-outs and during halftime. The idea of the fans being able to possibly catch one of the thrown mini basketballs create an excitement like you wouldn’t believe. The mini basketballs, of course, would have the team mascot and team name printed on the balls. These can also be sold in the team spirit store for those unlucky fans who don’t catch a free ball. It’s also very easy to obtain business sponsors to pay for the balls as long as their logo is printed on the opposite side of the balls.
Thundersticks
Thundersticks are another hugely popular spirit item used at basketball games. These are inflatable sticks which are about 2 feet long that you bang together. They are sold in pairs because two are needed to make the noise. When combined with hundreds or thousands of fans banging these noisemakers together, the noise level is enough to rattle any competitor. The thunder sticks have a huge imprint area to print your team mascot. Here again, you can get a business sponsor and have plenty of room to print their logo and information on the thundersticks. These are typically one of the hottest products sold by booster clubs at basketballs games.
There are many more options to choose from when talking about basketball spirit items and these options above only represent two of the hundreds of spirit items available. The important thing to remember is to make sure your team has spirit items to help keep the crowd’s energy high and help keep the players excited and playing at their peak. They are also great products to help with fundraising for your team to cover new uniforms and equipment.
Promote Your Business With Mini Basketballs
With the start of college basketball upon us, there are many questions in the air. Who are the best teams? What players will boast the best stats? Who will win what rivalries? Who will make the NCAA Tournament? Who will win the National Championship? Many of these are questions have dynamic answers which continually change throughout the season. College and high school basketball alike provide a lot of excitement; therefore, businesses should be quick to take advantage of this excitement. One way is to agree to sponsor your local high school teams, booster clubs, or cheerleading squad. Your sponsorship not only is a write for tax purposes for your business, but it tremendously helps your local community and shows that your business cares for your community. This provides immeasurable appeal to your clients and potential clients. A common form of sponsorship is to have mini basketballs printed with not only your business logo, but also with your local team mascot and team name. A great way to make your business imprint stand out is to include a coupon code on the imprint copy. This is a great call to action and it also allows you to track the results of your marketing dollars. There are many other basketball spirit items that businesses can help purchase with sponsorship other than mini basketballs. Some include foam fingers, thundersticks, and basketball schedule magnets. Whatever spirit items that your sponsorship money goes toward, you are helping your community and promoting your business at the same time. It benefits both parties.
Basketball Schedule Magnets
Mini Basketballs
Thundersticks
Top 3 Stadium Noisemakers For Football Games
Everyone knows that cheering for your football team helps to motivate the team and get their adrenaline going. Teams will play better with more cheering from their fans. It’s unfortunate some some stadiums have ordinances banning stadium noisemakers, so make sure and check for any know ordinances from your school. I’ve put together a list of the most common and best noisemakers to use for your football games.
Thundersticks - These are the best selling noisemakers. These are inflatable sticks that you bang together to
Thunder Sticks
make a booming noise. The sticks are on average around 2 feet long. There are several different manufacturers, but they all have a comparable noise level. For this article, I am referring to thunder sticks printed in the U.S.A.
THUNDER STICK PROS:
- They have a huge imprint area so you can really get a lot of ad space in if you are selling sponsorship opportunities to businesses. Imprint area is 15″ W x 3 3/8″ H.
- They are reusable.
- They are inexpensive ($1.65 and under/pair)
- They are extremely loud, especially in combination with hundreds of other pairs.
- Quick 5-7 working day production with option for a 2 day rush.
- Easy to inflate and deflate with an air valve similar to a beach ball or a pool raft.
- Stores flat when deflated to keep for your next game.
- Printed in the U.S.A. by American workers.
- Limited item colors for the reusable type, 8 colors to choose from – Pink, Black, Red, White, Blue, Green, Orange, and Yellow
- That’s all I can think of.
Root-N-Toot Stadium Horns
- They don’t use compressed air, so the horn never runs out (unless you run out of breath).
- Includes a breakaway lanyard to safely store around your neck for quick access.
- Inexpensive ($2.60 and under).
- Super loud horn.
- Compact size – only 3″ H x 2 1/4″ W.
- Lightweight – only 2 ounces.
- Made of hard plastic so they are very durable.
- Quick 5-7 working day production with option for a 2 day rush.
- Printed in the U.S.A. by American workers
- Limited Colors – Red, Yellow, Orange, Green, White, and Blue.
- If there are others, I can’t think of any.
Hand Clappers
- Ready to use right out of the box.
- Loud, especially in conjunction with other clappers.
- Cheap pricing ($1.08 and under).
- Lightweight – only slightly over 1 ounce.
- Quick 5-7 working day production with option for a 1 or 3 day rush.
- Printed in the U.S.A. by American workers
- Made of plastic, so eventually it can break with repeated use or vigorous clapping.
- Limited Colors – Athletic Gold, Black, Blue, Green, Orange, Red, White, or Yellow.
Top 10 Spirit Items for Booster Club Fundraising
It’s no secret that school budgets are getting cut every year. One of the first things to get cut are the athletic programs. In fact, many schools have opted to completely do away with sports, which is a horrible idea. Sports programs act as a binding agent to help keep school spirit alive. Without football, basketball, baseball, volleyball, and soccer teams, why would the students have a reason to have school pride? With the start of the football season upon us, here are some of the top spirit items purchased by booster clubs for fundraising for their football program.
- Stadium Seat Cushions – These are huge money makers for football teams. Everyone has experience that cold, hard metal bleacher seat for a four hour game. It’s even worse if the seat is wet. This is why fans will gladly fork over between $5-$10 for a stadium seat cushion. What’s better is that you can get multiple local businesses to sponsor and actually pay for the cushions and then the booster club can sell them for 100% profit. Stadium seat cushions can easily hold up to 16 sponsors and still allowing for the school info to be printed on the front of the seat cushions.
- Stadium Blankets – Blankets for the stadium are a great asset once we get into the winter months. Football season is one that begins hot and ends up bitter cold, so fans will buy a blanket if they don’t come to the game dressed properly. Because blankets can be used at other times besides the football game, the value is much higher. The fleece blankets are soft and warm and loved by fans. The great feature about stadium blankets is that they roll up neatly and can be secured with the Velcro straps with a convenient handle for carrying.
- Thundersticks – Thunder sticks are noisemakers which consist of two inflatable sticks which
are approximately 2 feet long that you bang together to make a loud boom. They are a fun spirit items that fans love to use to make noise. These spirit items spread like a virus once others see them being used and fans will flock to the booster club booth to buy these. These like the stadium seat cushions have a large imprint area to have business sponsor logos to pay for them. Then they easily sell for $2-$3 per pair allowing for 100% profit for the club. We have many schools order an initial or of 100-200 pair and report back saying they sold out before the first half was over. Thundersticks are definitely one of the fan favorites. - Mini Footballs – Mini footballs are most popularly thrown out into the crowd by the cheerleaders after the team scores a touchdown. Typically the footballs have a business sponsor logo on one side with the school mascot printed on the other side and are a donation to the team from that business. However, what happens is that kids in the crowd will catch the mini footballs and their brother or friend doesn’t catch one and they want one too, so they have to buy them. This is why it’s a great idea to also sell these at the booster club booth. They would typically sell for around $2.00, which is great if you have a local business sponsor printed on the footballs, since that, too, would equate to 100% profit.
- Stadium Horns – The best way you can help your football team to make a lot of noise for
them,including while their opponent is on offense. If you are loud enough, you can mess up the communication for the competitor. In addition, making lots of noise helps to excite your team and give them an adrenaline rush and play better. Stadium horns are great spirit items to accomplish this. They are compact, easy to use, and extremely loud. These also are great sellers in school booster club stores. The horns pictured have a break-away lanyard attached to them so they can rest around your neck for easy reach when you need the horn and the break-away lanyard feature makes it safer to put around your neck. - Pom Poms – Poms are one of the classic spirit items for cheering on your team. The are many different options of pom poms including a long handle, ring tab handle, Klicker handle (makes noise), and a fatter handle. In addition you can choose up to 4 different streamer colors as well as other options such as glitter added to the streamers. The handles can be imprinted with a business sponsor name or the school or team name. These easily sell for $1-$2 each in the school store. Since the price point is so low, you can easily expect to sell hundreds of pom poms per game.
- Foam Fingers – How could you have a football game without foam fingers? These have been around since around 1978 with the original #1 foam hand; however, now there are hundreds of different designs including paws, talons, mascot shapes, and many different finger shapes, including the controversial foam middle finger. It is very likely that no matter what your mascot may be, there is already a shape or design that will fit perfectly for your team. If not, you can easily get custom shapes available that will be completely unique just for your team.
- Megaphones – These are also classic spirit items used for yelling and amplifying your voice to cheer for your team and also to show your displeasure with a bad call. Megaphone are cheap to buy; therefore, the selling price to fans can be cheap which will allow for more sales.
- Stadium Cups – These are most commonly used in the concession stand when drinks are purchased so the fans have a souvenir cup to take home. These tend to stick around at the house for years afterwards, and I speak from experience. I have at least a dozen stadium cups from various events, restaurants, and sporting events. You can get stadium cups for around 50 cents and just bump the price of the soft drink up to cover the cup costs and make it easier to sell drinks since the fans are also getting a useful item to take home with them with the team mascot printed on it.
- Signature Footballs – These footballs are great to sell if you can work out autograph sessions at the end of football games, so the players can sign balls for the kids. These footballs have a white panel on the ball specifically for autographs. Kids love autographs from the team and these balls are just another item that can generate some revenue for your club.
There are many items available for fundraising which also generate team spirit with the fans. In order to be successful with your booster club, you must have a wide variety of spirit items available for purchase and get your local businesses involved. Local businesses are often very eager to sponsor their local teams and support their community. All you have to do is just ask them. Don’t let dwindling athletic budgets hurt your football team. With thriving school spirit stores, your team will be on it’s way to new uniforms and equipment in no time with the flow of money coming in from spirit items. Even small schools can sell a lot of merchandise, so don’t let size stop you from offering spirit items through a booster club store.
Save Money With Multi-Function Spirit Items
When selling spirit items to fans, it’s always easier to sell multi-function products. Fans will appreciate the item more and hopefully it will encourage them to cheer more for their team. And we all know the more cheering that a team’s fans do; the more energy and excitement the team will have.
One example of a multi-function spirit item would be Klicker Pom Poms. Not only can you shake them when you cheer, but they also make a clicking sound to help cheer on your favorite team.
Another great multi-function spirit item is the FanFan. It is a Banner, a fan, and a clapper. It starts off
flat like a banner, but when you fold at the scored lines, it can be a fan on those hot game days. Or, when folded like a fan, just slap it against the palm of your hand for a really loud noise. Banners are great for football games, especially for televised games since you are more likely to get the camera aimed at you and be on TV. Also, there’s not much louder than the clapping noise these spirit items make, especially when you get a few hundred or more clapping at the same time. The bonus of this product is the ability to fan yourself and help beat the heat, which is of particular importance for us Southeastern Conference fans.
Thunder Sticks
Thundersticks are another great spirit item to help make noise for your team. Thunder sticks are inflatble sticks made of vinyl that you bang together to make a loud boom. It is quite an experience to hear hundreds of pairs of thundersticks being banged together simultaneously. There are two different types, one that is re-suable and others that are not. The ones pictured to the left are re-usable and the best in my opinion. Not only are these spirit items a noisemaker, but you can also use them to beat people rooting for the opposite team. Just kidding, but they are fun to use to beat your friends. They are filled with nothing but air, so have some fun.
Spirit items are critical for any football, basketball, volleyball, soccer, hockey, or baseball team who wants active and cheering fans. Rowdy and cheering fans help to make the game day experience so much better, so be sure to have plenty of school spirit items available for the fans. Plus, spirit items are a great way to generate revenue for your booster club.
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