14 Aug 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.

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. Thundersticks – Thunder sticks are noisemakers which consist of two inflatable sticks whichare 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.
4. 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.
5. Stadium Horns – The best way you can help your football team to make a lot of noise forthem,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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. 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.