Sponsors for your club: how to get them
Where to find sponsors, what to offer them and how to place their logos so the jersey stays clean.
Sponsors can fund a good part of your kit, and at many grassroots clubs they cover it entirely. The key is to stop asking for favours and frame it as an exchange of value: they gain visibility, you cut the cost.
Where to look
Start with the neighbourhood: bars, hardware shops, garages, dental clinics, estate agents, accountancy firms, bakeries. Local businesses value appearing every weekend in front of neighbours who are, quite literally, their potential customers.
Then look closer to home: the businesses of players' relatives. It's the route with the highest success rate, because a bond already exists. Ask in the team group whether any parent runs a business or works at a company that sponsors local causes.
And don't rule out the usual suspects: if the club already had sponsors in past seasons, renewing is ten times easier than recruiting.
What to offer them
Lay out your offer so it's clear there's something tangible in return:
- Logo on the jersey (chest, back or sleeves, depending on the contribution).
- A mention on the club's social media, with a team photo.
- A banner at the ground or presence at events and tournaments.
- Appearing in the public club directory alongside the crest — optional, requested when completing your order.
Put together a one-page dossier
Nothing sophisticated needed, but it should look serious. A single sheet with:
- Number of players and teams at the club.
- Matches per season and approximate attendance.
- Social media followers and post reach.
- The sponsorship options with their price.
A business that sees numbers decides faster than one being asked for "a little help". And it lets you justify why the chest costs more than the sleeve.
How much to ask for
There's no universal rule here, but there is a useful reference: work out what the kit costs and split it up. If kitting out the team costs around 700-900 €, two or three businesses contributing between 200 and 300 € each cover the bulk of it. For the business it's an affordable figure; for the club, it sorts the season.
How to place the logos without ruining the jersey
To stop the jersey looking like a racing car, order the sponsors by hierarchy:
- Main: chest (centre) or upper back. It's the most visible and the one that pays the most.
- Secondary: sleeves, side or below the number, smaller.
Two practical rules: never place a logo right against an edge or over a seam, and make sure the back sponsor doesn't compete with the number, which has to be readable from the stands.
In our customiser you can place several logos, front and back, drag them into place and see them exactly as they'll come out before production. And we don't charge per logo: you can add as many as you need — something worth checking with any other supplier.
Keep it consistent
Always use logos in good quality and with a transparent background (PNG or, better, vector). A pixelated sponsor, or one with a white box around it, looks worse than having none at all, and it's the kind of detail a business notices when it sees the team photo.
Always ask the sponsor themselves for the logo rather than pulling it from their website or a photo: they'll give you the good version.
Think about renewal from day one
A sponsorship that renews every season is worth far more than one you have to hunt down from scratch every August. To get them to renew:
- Send them photos of the team wearing their logo. It's the emotional receipt for their investment.
- Tag them on social media throughout the season, not just the day they pay.
- If the club appears in a public directory with its sponsors, show it to them.
And if you still fall short
Combine: sponsors + a Team Store so each family pays their share + basic shorts instead of sublimated. With those three levers, the cost the club takes on can end up close to zero. We go into it in affordable kits without losing quality and give you the exact figures in how much it costs to kit out a team.
