Million $$ advice for college teams

[chicohockey]

This is for all of those college teams out there constantly complaining about school funding, not being able to find sponsorships, and those in support of going ncaa rather than remaining club.

There is one very big advantage that club sports have over any other university athletics and that is the ability to get corporate sponsorships. This is impossible to accomplish with only a single inline hockey team. However, it is quite easy when you follow a very simple task (we have just done this and have proven it works) which is the million $ advice for today:

Every college team out there needs to go to their club sports department and organize a Sports Club Advisory Council. This council should have two representatives from every club sports team (we have eleven teams to offer 22 members). Make attendance by teams on this council mandatory and in my case the representatives receive 3 units as a PHED class. This council becomes your power.

What then occurs is that the council now decides as an organized body: 1) how university funding will be allocated 2) what group-wide events can be planned and implemented 3)and they make the major decision surrounding club sports (not the university). The major advantage for the group is power. The power of 11 teams collectively coming forward to university officials and city organizations is profound compared to a single team. And the million $$'s? Those who help organize this council and get it going will soon find how much more attention you will get from national corporate sponsors who all would love to have their name associated with an entire college club sports department. Believe me, it is absolutely amazing! (This is the reason why I hate the idea of going ncaa. This sport needs money more than anything. Club sports are allowed to receive corpoate sponsoships and in turn will receive much more assistance than ncaa would ever provide.)

To give you all an example of what my council accomplished in only two meetings:
Organized club sports portfolio and sent to major sponsors (one has offered $130,000).
Organized XMAS holiday fundraiser doing gift wrap at local mall (revenue projected @ $30,000).
Received rights to utilize university trainers for club sport teams along with athletics.
The cycling team got volunteers from the other club sports team to hold major race in town.
Received exclusive sponsorships from local business for media ads, screenprinting ads, and gym memberships.
Received approval to add facilities for each team in the new recreation development. (that means a rink for the team on campus)

That is all for today..

-Travis Burkhardt

[poptart]

Thanks for the advice, but Im sure it is a lot more work than it sounds...did you find many companies willing to help out...And was the university helpful and stood behind you on this project or did it take alot of convincing?...thanks again..

[MBurke]

Travis,

Although I am sure most of your fundraising ideas CAN and WILL work, I do have some counter points I'd like to make and a couple suggestions of my own. First, a little background on myself:

I played for several years in the Empire Snipers organization, where almost everything was handed to us. For the most part, tournament entry fees, travel expenses, and equipment were covered, with minimal cost to the players. Then I came to Wilkes University last year, where I couldn't believe how far I had come to the opposite end of the spectrum in the funding department. To give you an idea, when we went to Student Government to request club funds for two new hockey nets (approximately $140), they asked WHY WE COULDN'T MAKE THEM OURSELVES!! This type of attitude toward many clubs in general, especially at smaller schools, will be a roadblock for a long time.

Last year. Wilkes entered the ECRHA and the CRHL Mid-Atlantic Region in Division I, and this year I've taken on the role of league webmaster (www.ecrha.net - quick plug!) and chief information officer.

First of all, it IS possible to raise funds with a single inline hockey team. Sure, maybe $130,000.00 is farfetched, but I believe most clubs in the country operate with a budget of under 10,000.00 for the year. Last year, Wilkes Roller Hockey got $200.00 from the school for funding. After that, players paid out of pocket, and we had candy sales, which raised a profit of about $1,000.00. This year, we've gotten serious about making a name for ourselves, and proactively seeking ways to raise funds. Unfortunately, our school has many restrictions:

No club may have a sponsorship of any kind from a business. . .yep, no business can donate money to us except private citizens, alumni, and the like.

No club may raise funds using "raffles" or other "games of chance". . . this is a great, easy way to raise money, and we can't do it.

I'm sure that many of these restrictions are in place in other places across the country. How can a club make an Advisory Committee for club sports when they're the only club sport on campus? The school will not fund us, and they won't give us any channels by which to raise funds, so where should we go from here?

Most ice hockey teams I know of charge upwards of $500 per player to play for a season. . in this light, roller hockey isn't all that expensive. I'm not saying your ideas won't work, Travis, and in the case of most major colleges it may be in their best interest to STAY a club sport. In smaller schools such as Wilkes, however (we have a total of 1,600 undergraduate students), I don't think we can ever evolve without an established national governing body stepping in. Honestly, I hate the NCAA as much as everyone else who is against merging with them in the future. Unfortunately, though, many schools will never consider us a "sport" and give us our due until we are sanctioned.

~Mike Burke
ECRHA Chief Information Officer - Webmaster
www.ecrha.net
Wilkes University Roller Hockey Club Treasurer
wilkesrh.sports-page.net

[chicohockey]

You are correct is assuming that it takes a lot of work to get this type of thing rolling and I do not assume that ALL teams out there have the abilities to coordinate such a council. I will give you an idea of my school's situation. We are a small town, under 100,000, the student population is around 14,000. We have 11 club teams which involves only about 5 different sports, but some with a mens and womens team counted individual from each other. Because we are small it only made snense to look for ways to have a so called "voice" and that meant pulling all of the resources available together. That is the reason to form a council and unite teams within your school rather than act alone. I am sure my school has the same population and involvement stats as many other schools around and that is why I offered some advice from my personal experience. Please do not assume that this is easy work. I listed the steps as simple as possible. I have worked on getting this together for over three years! Now that things are rolling, things are getting accomplished. Yes, much os it involved being at the right place at the right time. I know that I will not see the end results and will not get to fully enjoy the outcome of the work I have put into the team at this campus. That is why all of us are pioneers of the college inline hockey league. We have to look to our work as the benefit for the future players and teams. At least get some work started or at least planned for others to take over.

P.S. - When I came to the school and founded the team I was given $275 dollars, the next year $600, and this year $2300. None of that money was assumed available for the next season and was never assumed would increase from year to year. I had to promote, strategize, serve the community, put on events, be involved on school committees, and dedicate all spare time to making the money become available. The work is more than most full time students can deal with and that is why it is to a teams benefit to work with the resources available. Instead of letting a school tell you there is no money available (schools will NOT fund goal nets or any kind of equipment because they are not allowed to on policy), find out the policies and find ways to work with the school to help the team grow and become an asset to the school.

-Travis

[John_S_Osborne]

At Drexel, we do have a club sports council. We have approxiametely 19 club sports, and each month the presidents of each meet with the assistant athletic director to talk about mostly liability and insurance related concerns (first aid, trainers, travel policies, etc.).

Travis, I think your proposal is very interesting, as we as a club have tried on several occasions to find hockey industry sponsors, but it may be a whole lot easier to get a nice sponsor for the entire department of club sports. Any money we receive certainly goes a long way (review our university accounts, our membership, and our results as proof) and I think we could prove that to any prospective sponsor.

Thanks for the info!

---
John S. Osborne
Drexel University Roller Hockey Club

[PatriotsHockey]

Travis, thanks for posting that advice on collegiate roller hockey funding, it's very interesting. It would be great if people would post all the financial suggestions they could for college roller hockey clubs on this board. At George Mason University (27,000 students), the director of club sports seem to have something against ice and roller hockey (he tried to take away our funding!). We have to look to the Student Funding Board for financial support, and after I took over the club, we went from zero to $4,500 to $8,200 this year. Our 15-page proposal to the board was VERY detailed, with explainations very clearly stated. We basically asked for as much as we could, and the more we asked for, the more we got. We have also been successful in finding local sponsors around the GMU community, just any small contribution will help. Being active with local hockey rinks also helps greatly with reduced practice time costs and league fees.

Minh
VP of GMURHC
www.gmu.edu/org/rhc
[email protected]

[John_S_Osborne]

Wow! That's pretty good, Minh.

I think last season, we were one of the highest university-funded teams in the MAR with about $6000 coming from Drexel's Student Activity Fee Allocation Committee (SAFAC). This board basically gets together and goes through each student organization's proposal, from club sports to the newspaper, yearbook, and school radio, and decides how much funding each activity gets.

I thought we had a very detailed presentation as well. But, I guess SAFAC thought otherwise. We received a marginal increase in funding this year, so anything like the sponsorship stuff that Travis mentioned could really help.


---
John S. Osborne
Drexel University Roller Hockey Club

[macmill1]

At Michigan State we get roughly......zero dollars per year from the school. There are over 160 student organizations (not just sports) at MSU. We have club sports teams for just about everything you can think of.
We ran practices for all of the age divisions at the local rink (Apple SportsPlex) in exchange for free practice time. Fundraisers have been looked at, but most of the guys would just rather pay the money than spend time doing anything. We tried to do a 'Program' to hand out at games but most of the guys didn't want to sell the ads. It can generate a lot of money if done correctly though.
After fighting w/ the school trying to get any kind of money, we finally gave up. We took it upon ourselves to operate all aspects of the program. We ran an on-campus intramural roller hockey league, but the school took it over after the first year. We had a sponsorship with CCM, which helped a lot. They provided helmets, gloves, jerseys, and a good deal on skates. That contract has since expired, and we are now reviewing new offers from several major manufacturers (CCM included).
We are also reviewing proposals from corporate non-equipment sponsors for financing.
Our club sports director is fantastic. She always wants to help us, but she can't give us any $$, which is really what is needed. We (I to be exact) will also be starting the MSURHC Alumni Fund. Our program has been around long enough to have a decent number of alums that could contribute money, through the school, but directed to the roller hockey club.

It does suck that Title IX keeps a lot of mens programs at the club level where funding is non-existent.

Maybe football and basketball teams could auction off their booster-paid luxury SUV's once they are a year or two old and donate some $$ to the clubs. Just a thought.......

Alan MacMillan
MSU Alumni