Mon 5 Jan 2009
With all the foreboding news on the economy its a good time to take a look across your budget for ways to save and get more from the money you spend.
Here are six easy ways to make your budgets last a little longer and get more for your money:
1. Buy products with sponsor flexibility: When you are buying props for contests and promotions, resist the urge (or fight your sponsor’s wishes) to add the sponsor logo to your actual props. For example, we get a lot of requests to have the sponsor logo added to the Human Hamster Balls. Its costly to do so and if you change sponsors or the sponsorship partnership ends you are left with a costly process to remove or replace a logo. A great way around this is to use creative signage pieces in your contests. In this example, you can have the Human Hamster race around signage in lieu of racing in spheres with signage on them. Signage is much less expensive to change out and often much more effective.
2. Be more careful with costumes: Mascot costumes can be a large investment. Often teams or performers take short cuts in caring for costumes, particularly with teams without a full-time performer. Take extra care with costumes, for example do not pack up wet/worn costumes after a game or performance, rather allow costumes to properly air dry. This can extend the life of your costumes and keep them becoming smelly and full of bacteria. Taking the time to regularly wash and air-dry costumes, hands, feet and heads will mean having to replace parts less frequently….which can mean a huge savings. Spending $3,000 on a costume every 3 years instead of every 2 year is a savings of $500 every year (according to my math).
3. Add elements with revenue possibilities: Concourse games can be a significant revenue stream for your team. For example, games like Spin the Wheel or Plinko can be used on your concourse. Fans pay a dollar to play and can win team related prizes. In these games (on The Store on Gameops.com) you can customize what prices you award. Keep the average cost per prize under $1 and you have a revenue stream in the making. In-game contests like Chuck-a-Puck can also be a huge revenue stream for teams, both from fan buy-in and sponsorship opportunities.
4. 8 week shipping options: Many premium items like inflatable noisemakers and hats have extended shipping times options that can save you significant money. Products made in China can be shipped for a faction using ocean shipping compared to air shipment. Planning ahead can mean the difference between getting a great price on 8-10 week delivery or having to pay for air freight. Ask your TEAMmate Sales Staff for details when requesting information on any product.
5. Color down: You can often save a quick 5-20% on imprinting costs when you use fewer colors. For example, a white t-shirt with 4 color imprint might cost $1.95, and the same shirt with 2 colors could be $1.55. Better designs using fewer colors can be created by creatively shading with the same color palette,using all one color for sponsor logos, or made more interesting with current design ideas or fonts. Ask your TEAMmate Sales Staff for details when requesting information on any imprinted product.
6. Ask about the next price break: Most imprinted products cost less as you order more. It may sound counter-intuitive to buy more than you need, but sometimes the overall cost for a product can actually be less when you buy more. So if you need 100 t-shirt for a Kids Club, ask what the next price break is… for example if 100 shirts are $2.00 each, and a price break at 120 brings the cost per shirt to $1.70 you would be foolish not to move up to 120 shirts (since you would be spending just $4 more dollars to get 20 more shirts). Our TEAMmate Sales Staff is trained to inform you of the next price break options.
Now is also a good time to collect a couple additional bids when you are shopping for promotions and premiums. Our TEAMmate Sales Staff has been sharpening their pencils to help teams save and we welcome the chance to offer you our best pricing on your next project.
–Cudo
A number of the Jesse White Tumblers, beginning as young as 6 years old, are residents of Chicago’s Cabrini Green and Henry Horner housing developments. Other members of the team are residents from 10 communities within the Chicago metropolitan area. Jesse White, founder and coach, created the team in 1959 to provide a recreational, athletic, educational and cultural enrichment experience for the team members. This is a juvenile delinquency prevention program that is designed to help youngsters grow tall and straight. The members are required to abide by Jesse White’s strict rules, which include staying in school, maintaining a “C” average in academic coursework and staying away from gangs and drugs. Since the team’s inception, over 10,000 young men and women have benefited from the program. Jesse White’s key to success is “tough love.” He serves as coach, teacher, friend, mentor, confident and surrogate father to the members.
That’s a nice figure to have at the tip of your tongue when you are working with partners and sponsors on adding a 
During a selected timeout of the 1st or 2nd quarter, the LA Lakers features a video scoreboard text feature that asks arena fans to participate in a virtual burger eating contest by texting in their seating level to 525377. As texts are received from the designated seating levels (i.e. the upper or lower levels), a bite is taken from that level’s designated burger, which is featured on the video screens on the center scoreboard. The first level to eat their entire burger wins a bounce back text message with a special offer from the Carl’s Jr. restaurant chain. Throughout the duration of the promotion, Carl’s Jr. receives branding on the center scoreboard LED screens. (
The Las Vegas Wranglers are hosting Blagojevich night on January 30th, with a couple fun twists that has already caught the eye of Chicago media (and probably federal prosecutors).
