Promoting the sport!

[hpfencing]

How do people in your area promote the sport of fencing. IN Amarillo Texas we are still in the grass roots movement of getting fencing going. What does your club do? Does it work? Any ideas would be great. Thanks in advance

[Black Jeebus]

Well we have a team foil tournament coming up here in my town. We are having it in like the second largest hotel in town. It is going to be in such a public place that we should expose a lot of people to the sport. Also we advertise in like a things to do section of the paper.

[Phoenix]

I heard a good one before. Put in the newspaper scores of tournaments so people will know that there is a fencing club nearby and maybe check it out.

[laughingduelist]

Is driving away potential fencers through hideous mismanagement an option?

[telkanuru]

A bit bitter, there?

I think it would do wonders for the sport if costs went down a bit. Basketball/baseball/soccer are all relatively low-budget affairs to take up.

[Schiavona]

Hockey's much more expensive.

My club has done lots of things over the years; demos up the wahzoo, articles in the paper(watch out for these, you can get screwed over!), public service anoucements(PSA), flyers as well as the other ideas mentioned in this thread. None has worked as well as our website. It helps that our club's name incorporates our city's name, so if some one does a search on sport fencing in our city-our club pops right up!

[BOliver]

Here are some things that I've tried (and seen tried) in the past:

1. get a sponsor. Car dealers are good sources of some high profile advertising. Have the finals in the dealer's show room, and make it a black-tie affair. Give the dealer all the pr stuff you can dig up - Olympians and National team members in the competition, etc. Note that sponsorship doesn't always mean money. Just a place to hold the finals, or some technical gizmo, like a computer system to run the comp or huge flat-panel to display the results go a long way to making a competition a hit.

2. Get the city to sponsor the finals. Have them in the civic auditorium or whatever. The city pr hacks can garner loads of press

3. get local businesses to sponsor something. individual strips, days of the competition, local fencers, etc. Have them donate prizes, or trophies. Be sure to find some good way to advertise their businesses.

4. Get the local public access TV station to help put together a promotional spot. All public access TV stations have the facilities to do this, and local universities often have the technical personnel to pull it off.

5. Sell tickets, especially to the finals. Don't be afraid to charge a decent price. Free stuff is usually worth what you pay....

6. Make the competition accessible to spectators. Use large names for the DE bouts. Be sure everyone knows who is fencing, and where. Put big numbers or other identifying marks on the stirps. Have an overhead projector keep everyone updated on the progress of the competition. Have score keepers use flip charts to post the score of bouts, while the bout is going on...

7. Whatever you do, start early. A year isn't too much notice for many of these ideas.

[jBirch]

Bill,

Great advice. For anyone from the North though, just remember that you can't do any of these as money raising in Canada: the feds take all the money and redistribute. Focus on freebies and you'll do alright.

Take it easy.

[fluidfencer]

The original question related to promotion, although sponsorship is important as well. On the subject of sponsorships... we have found that getting CASH is difficult, but in-kind products or services is more likely. To be honest, we have changed our opinion on sponsorship to some degree. The time you spend running around trying to get sponsors might be better spent on promotion (see how I went full circle :-)

Maybe it's the CPA in me, but getting a student to start fencing can mean from $40-140 per month, or $480 to $1,680 per year with basically no additional overhead. Do you have any idea how hard it can be to get that much sponsor cash... and that is just ONE student. If you understand the financial details of operating your club, you can make better decisions, considering that nearly every club has a limited amount of the most important resource of all... time.

We have been presenting demos, getting newspaper articles, holding local camps, getting little TV spots, volunteering for local festivals, putting up flyers, etc. for five years now. When we do a demo at a local school now and ask who has heard of fencing, the recognition is approaching 50% is the areas with the best demographics. That is powerful. This week we added 8 new students. Our retention is decent, so those students (kids and adults) will have a BIG impact on the club financially. Retention is something that many don't take serious enough.

Of course, demos and other promotion require time during the day, and some people don't have that option. In fact, the demos are much better with two people. I worked at from home much of the last five years, so doing demos with one of our coaches was a big advantage. Every club has their own advantages I guess.

Originally Posted by hpfencing

How do people in your area promote the sport of fencing. IN Amarillo Texas we are still in the grass roots movement of getting fencing going. What does your club do? Does it work? Any ideas would be great. Thanks in advance

[Phoenix]

our club gives out demos to people and they can come and watch fencers have 5 touch bouts and ask questions. It's a great way to show people the sport and your club ^_^.

[Craig]

Originally Posted by fluidfencer

Maybe it's the CPA in me, but getting a student to start fencing can mean from $40-140 per month, or $480 to $1,680 per year with basically no additional overhead. Do you have any idea how hard it can be to get that much sponsor cash... and that is just ONE student. If you understand the financial details of operating your club, you can make better decisions, considering that nearly every club has a limited amount of the most important resource of all... time.

You mean you want to run the club as a business? Shame on you!