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.
Ways To Show School Spirit Through Your Business
It is my opinion that every local business should show their school spirit for their local school. Even if the business owner did not go to that local high school and even if he or she didn’t have kids that attended the school, it is important to support the school. Schools are embedded within our respective communities and are extremely important. Afterall, they will be producing many of the future business owners right there in your community. So as business owners, we should support the schools as we can. Locals like to buy from business who support their local community. Here are a few ways to show your School Spirit for your local schools:
- Buy ads for the sports programs and yearbooks. These are typically fairly cheap and the money raised from these ads help buy new equipment for the students and athletes.
- Be a sponsoring business by purchasing mini footballs, thundersticks, or stadium seat cushions for the school booster club. By sponsoring, you get your logo printed on the products which can in turn be sold by the booster club or cheerleaders for fundraising. This allows the booster club to reap 100% profit on their sales of spirit items. It also gets your some great marketing exposure.
- Have sales corresponding with big school events such as football games, prom, homecoming, and other major events.
- Display football, basketball, baseball, soccer, and volleyball game schedules at your business location.
- Buy a banner space if available at sporting events to help support the team and give you more advertising exposure to the hundreds or thousands of fans.
Mini Footballs
Stadium Seat Cushions
Thunder Sticks
College Football Preseason Poll 2011
There are so many preseason college football polls out there from various sources and like any preseason polls they are all just speculation based on returning players, strength of schedule, coaches, injuries, and many other factories. Some of the polls have Alabama on top. Some have Oklahoma or LSU on top. I don’t put too much stock into preseason polls, but they do get me excited for the start of College football. It’s time to go ahead and get your football spirit items such as mini footballs, thundersticks, or stadium seat cushions. For you booster clubs out there, start gathering your sponsors to buy your spirit items so your booster club fundraising will be even more successful. Some of the most common sponsors include car dealerships, clinics, and all different kinds of small business.
Mini Footballs and Thunder Sticks
While it is summer and we are roasting here in the South, we are still thinking about the upcoming College football season? Who will be the top teams, Will my Mississippi State Bulldogs continue to improve, and Which games should I buy tickets for? These are just a few of the questions that run through my head. While College football is exciting, let’s not forget about the football going on in our own cities. High School football is a huge part of communities and these teams need a little more help when it comes to funding. That’s why the booster clubs are so important. If you ever find yourself sitting at a high school game and say to yourself, I can’t believe I’m about to pay $10.00 for this stadium seat cushion, just remember that your money for that overpriced cushion is helping the kids with uniforms, paying the coaches, field maintenance, training equipment, and travel to and from away games. Your purchases for any spirit items is actually a donation so be sure to freely donate to your favorite teams. In return, you won’t have to endure the hard aluminum bench on butt or you may get some fun spirit items such as thunder sticks or mini footballs or pom poms to help get your cheer on. Support your local team!
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