An idea struck me well watching a strongman contest on ESPN.  In the 56# WOB contest, they used an upright that had what looked like a three foot wide and the length of crossbar long piece of aluminium diamond plating hanging from the cross bar.  I think this was designed so misses would bang the metal, dissipating some of the energy causing the weight to land on the mat under the crossbar rather than denting the ground. This plating had an unexpected advantage for me, in that it made seeing the weight as it approached the cross bar easier. 

I filed this idea away: I could make a sleeve out of cheap fabric to hang from the crossbar making it easier for the audience to see the weight. 

Recently, I have been working on a sponsorship package to try and drum more sponsorship money for the athletic events. This naturally lead to an idea of creating a 12" wide vinyl sleeve that would slide over the crossbar. 

This would serve two purposes:
1. Enhance audience experience by making it easier to see the implement as it approaches the cross bar.
2.  This would give me space for advertising

Downsides:
1. Make crossbar heavier
2. Sail in the wind which may interfere in throwing and make uprights unstable.

I do not see any rules against this.  Do AD have any thoughts of whether this is a good idea? 

Daryl,

For reason you mention, I may only use the crossbar sign on the WOB uprights (I have improvements in the works to make them more stable.)  
A few more things to consider before giving up on this idea:  
*  If one uses an over-sized U clamp that easily slips over the upright stock and ties the bottom of sign material to upright, then one would have a move able way of holding the bottom of cloth/vinyl from blowing out and interfering with the throws. 
* A few holes cut in the material to let the air out of the sails and I might have something.  
* Or only fly sign on the crossbar on calm days; substituting some form of fixed standards on the ground for windy days.

The crossbar and uprights are just to good of a billboard not to try getting some sponsorship money out of them.  Perhaps the reason why many have not used them is that uprights will become unstable in the wind with flags or the crossbar sign.  Seeing those pictures of Scott Runnels uprights in St. Louis looking mighty nice with the flying flags should convince anyone to think these ideas over. 

IDEA 2: Sponsoring the caber by selling advertising space on the cabers.

So how to do it without painting them?

* Vinyl sleeve with logo/ sign that slips over the top end.  Make it about 6' long and 1 to 1.5 feet wide.  Couple eyelets on the end for a draw string to tie it tight and prevent it slipping off. 
* This would then be movable to the cabers used for the various classes -- or sell sponsorship for each class.

I have a brother who owns a tent/expo company and has vinyl welding machine so I hope to talk him into making me demo from some scrapes or trashed tent top and see if this idea will work.

* Use contact paper with signs or letters on the side of the caber. The QC game did the contact paper thing in our first few years but lost the sponsor.

Can any AD see a downside to this one?  I don't see it changing much of the characteristics of the caber.  

If anybody has any experience with any of these or any other crazy ideas to get more sponsorships money in, feel free to jump in

Mark "McSanta" McVey

Mark,

This is our 2nd year with the KC games and obtaining sponsors.  Last year Kevin and I devised different amounts or levels of sponsorship strictly for athletics.  Beginning levels are business names/logos on backs of tshirts, then onto letting them hang their company banners in our area.  For even more money we would paint their name/logo on end of caber (Famous Daves barbecue was our first one).  For even more they get a 1/2 to whole page add in the games program.  We also give each sponsor a games shirt and a whole handful of gate passes (kind of dependent upon level of sponsorship) to hand out to their friends and family. 

Last year we had 10 sponsors (started with 0) and this year we are going to have to shrink their logos to get them all the backs of the shirts!  We are very near our goal to have the whole athletics budget covered with all small amounts.  We lost our huge beer sponsor right after we took over so had to start from scratch.

Hope this helps, it has worked good for us.  Also, very important to have them publicly announced at various times of day.  We use Jerry VanDyke from Colorado and I write it all down for him and then remind him several times a day to do 'commercials'.  The sponsors love it and have had customers comment that they are visible at the game.  We got all our 2005 sponsors back for this year.

Lori

Lori,

Whats this about shrinking down the ads. I think there was plenty of room left on mine and Daryl's shirts to handle any ads you might have left over!!!

Terry Lawson

Terry,

So funny!  I never thought about that!  But it is nice to think about having so many we don't know what to do with them all.  We are also really excited about that we have booked 'The Elders' for Friday night and lots of beer to go with them!

Lori

ALL great ideas!!!!     I like th concept of something that can be taken from caber to caber....????

This year I got 2 new sponsors and I am making event signs IE) Weight for Distance..  and having that sposors info go on the sign so that it is right infromt of the crowd all day and the sponsor can easily see it as well..

Brian Dixon from Utah has made some great thrower decals, that are an image of a thrower maiking the throw so I can juts add the name of the event, some color behind the decal and the event info....

I will let you know how this goes...

Hey Guys,

I am trying to get sponsors for our Highland Games and was wondering about the different types of levels and the amount of money for each. Could ya'll give me some ideas on what you use for your games. E-mail me at mailto:jon-jon@att.net - jon-jon@att.net if you don't mind. This is our first year trying to do this and I don't want to go overboard with what we ask for in the way of money and I don't want to give away the farm in perks for the sponsors. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Mark,

Now I am no A.D., However I have something you should think about with your upright for WOB.Now yes the wind would kill you if you used vinel but if you did use the metal you could just put logo stickers on it that way if the company no longer wanted to sponcer you you could just peel off the sticker also you'll get more names in less space just a thought.....