Corporate Sponsorship

Lately I've found myself really interested in the business side of disc, like how companies like 5ultaimte are run, or what Skip is doing with cultimate, or what the budget for Potlatch looks like. Well, what's interested me the most has been team sponsorships. On some team websites you can find their sponsors, but I've always wondered why you can't find these sponsors on the team jerseys (like in Soccer). Interestingly, teams started having non-apparel company sponsorships more this year.

For years Furious has been sponsored by Gaia, while Sockeye and The Condors have been sponsored by Patagonia. Well, this year Sockeye also picked up a sponsorship (and logo) from Cliff Bar, while Riot has some local Seattle businesses (I think they might have for a few years now though). Anyway, other lesser known teams are also getting sponsorships. Shadrach, the second Seattle mixed team, has a Crocks sponsorship with the logo on the sleeve of their jersey, and Contra, a bay area open team, has a sponsorship from greenoptions.com with adds on both their shorts and their jerseys (in these last two cases, a company employee was a member of the team).

There is also a trend of getting tournaments sponsored by companies. Sandblast and Lei-out come to mind first. I think this can easily evolve into having banners around the showcase field, much like there are banners around soccer fields. I think this is more effective than advertising on jerseys, and that the larger "fun" tournaments will all be doing this within three years (I hear plans are being made to test the exposure companies would gain from these sorts of banners through tournament dvds and such).

Does this all add up to ultimate now being considered a legit sport? No. Does it help? Yes. But what it really means is that ultimate is big enough to have its players be a legitimate marketing target. These jersey adds won't be seen by most of the general public, and they aren't reaching out to spectators, instead their main target is the opposing teams' players. Because other ultimate players are the only possible targets (at this point), I think it'll be a while before you see a Pirelli add across the front of a Chain jersey. Instead, we'll probably see more teams with adds from companies that think ultimate players would be interested in their products. If I were leading a team, I'd look into getting sponsorships from camping/backpacking companies (cross over market?), energy bar companies, and sports drinks.

I guess the final question this raises is, is advertising and sponsorship good for the sport? I think the answer is yes. First, and financial burden that can be taken off of the players is a plus. And second, having corporate sponsors for the larger established teams and tournaments could lead to the UPA being able to spend less of its own money on naties, and more on events attended by your average player (sectionals, league). Anyway, I think sponsorship is a good thing, but I don't think it will cause ultimate to become any less of a niche (it'll just be a growing niche with some corporate sponsors).