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Strategies for Winning Partnerships
87 Plays1 year ago
Fundraising is typically a constant need when it comes to youth sports, and the right partnership can significantly reduce that stress on facility managers. Explore the dynamic realm of sponsorships in youth and amateur sports facilities, as we delve into insightful conversations with industry expert Mark Dvoroznack, co-founder of Base Sports Group. By channeling his varied experiences with landing mutually beneficial partnerships, he created an organization that seeks to secure those for other youth sports organizations.
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Transcript
Introduction and Purpose
00:00:00
Speaker
On this episode of the Facility Playbook, I got to sit down with Mark Dvorsnack, one of the co-founders of Base Sports Group, who purely focuses on sponsorship and other metrics to maximize your facility to create the best partnership for a win-win-win. My favorite part about talking with Mark was essentially the ideas that go into creating a sponsorship that benefits not only your facility, but all of your parents and all of your families and all of your amateur players that are coming out to play.
00:00:24
Speaker
It's really important that you're tracking these metrics and understanding how this is valued when it comes to sponsorships and partnerships. I really hope you enjoy this episode with Mark and Bay Sports Group on the Facility Playbook.
00:00:40
Speaker
Do you own or manage a facility while you are in the right place? Welcome to the Facility Playbook. I'm Luke Wade, founder and CEO of Facility Ally, and this podcast is about helping facility managers and owners learn from pioneers and veterans in the industry who have built and managed successful sports facilities, entertainment venues, and clubs. Did you know that most of those facilities I just mentioned use between four and six different softwares to manage their memberships, lessons, leagues, camps, clinics, and more? Revolutionize your facility with Facility Ally's all-in-one system.
00:01:10
Speaker
Learn more at facilityallie.com.
Mark Dvorsnack's Journey
00:01:12
Speaker
And I'm really excited about the conversation we're going to have today on the Facility Playbook. I'd like to introduce Mark Dvorsnack, co-founder of Base Sports Group. Thanks a lot for joining us today. Thank you for having me. I'm really looking forward to this conversation and sharing some of our experiences and hopefully helping some of the listeners out there. Awesome. Well, before we jump in, can you tell me a little bit about your background and what led you to Base Sports Group?
00:01:38
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think that's a really, really good place to start. And I'll give you hopefully not too long winded of an answer here. But so my background really was pretty heavy on the baseball event operation side of things. So I was a collegiate athlete at West Virginia University, ended up working professionally with the Cleveland Indians, Cleveland Guardians now.
00:02:01
Speaker
and the Cleveland Browns as well. And then from there, I worked for a national governing body of baseball. So I worked for USA Baseball in Cary, North Carolina, and then transitioned that role into a company called Prep Baseball Report, where my specific role, we were actually managing and operating some of the largest, and again, this was baseball specific, but events and facilities across the country.
00:02:30
Speaker
very much so on a day-to-day basis. I was ingrained in facility operations, in event operations, and felt like I had a really good handle as far as what those budgets look like, right, like what some of the bandwidth issues are, but also had a really good understanding, at least an idea of
00:02:50
Speaker
We're managing and operating these facilities where we are getting hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions of individual athletes and their parents through our gates on an annual basis. And as a revenue minded individual, it was always
00:03:07
Speaker
How can we continue to capture revenue opportunities for our facility and for our company? So I ended up leaving Prep Baseball Report and starting Base Sports Group where we can help the exact facilities and events that I was working in capture some of those partnership dollars.
Foundation of Base Sports Group
00:03:29
Speaker
That's awesome. Sounds like you've been living and breathing this for quite a while. I have. And again, I think that's something that's really unique about us and something that separates us because everybody in this space and I was, again, I was in that seat. I was banging against the wall. We have kids and their parents
00:03:50
Speaker
as a captured audience and they're here for five hours a day for four or five days at a time, why are brands not throwing themselves at us? So I completely understand why, but really had to take a step back and get educated on that process in order to be able to understand how they can get involved in this process in an impactful way.
00:04:16
Speaker
That's awesome. So it sounds like you transitioned over. How long ago did you start Base Sports Group and what is it today? So our company is about two and a half years old now.
00:04:27
Speaker
really when we initially started the company, my business partner, she is, her name's Carrie Gampers, she is specifically, and her background was in sponsorships, data and analytics. So she was working for a company called Nielsen, who if you've ever watched, you know, the Super Bowl after the Super Bowl,
00:04:49
Speaker
11 million people have watched the Super Bowl. That was her company. She specifically was working in their consulting division on sponsorship valuations. So if one of her clients, Mercedes-Benz, wanted to know a value of slapping their logo on top of the Mercedes-Benz Dome in Atlanta, what was that value of that?
Importance of Data in Sponsorships
00:05:14
Speaker
So she was getting as granular as
00:05:17
Speaker
you know, which planes were flying over at what times of the day and who was sitting on the right side of the plane and it could actually see the building versus who was sitting on the left side.
00:05:26
Speaker
So our first 12 to 15 months was really putting together some interesting case studies and data and hard data on why this space is valuable. Again, I think that's really important because those of us who live within this space, it's valuable because all these parents are here, all of these kids are here, there's a brand affinity.
00:05:52
Speaker
You know, youth sports is such a good story. It's shaping the future of our country. It's shaping, you know, the communities that we live in. But from a brand perspective,
00:06:03
Speaker
I don't think maybe necessarily they totally understand that. So we felt it was really important to put some of that data and some of those metrics behind. Hey, this is a really good story, but hey, also there's a return for the brand here. So we spent the first 12 to 15 months building out a lot of those studies, working with brands like Papa John's, Frito-Lay, Dave and Busser's, I mean, you kind of name it. And now that we've been able to show those brands
00:06:32
Speaker
Hey, we can activate in this space in a great way. We've started to grow our company from the sales side, but also adding new clients from a facility standpoint as well.
00:06:44
Speaker
That's so cool. And I'm so glad I found you guys, because honestly, I've been, you know, in 11 years, you know, I started Casey crew, we have 20,000 adults that play every single year. And to your point, I know it's valuable, we know it's valuable, right? But convincing these other brands how valuable and why the price like is something that's been a guessing game for my 11 years. So I can't wait to dive into that a little bit further. So what types of like facilities and programs are your ideal clients for sponsorship? And you also do advertising rights as well?
00:07:13
Speaker
Definitely, an ideal client to us, and again, our clients vary, right? As you know very well, every single indoor facility, outdoor facility, any event is gonna be completely different, right? Obviously, an easy number is total foot traffic numbers, right? That's something that's important, but quite honestly, before we add any partner, we are really looking for the quality of
00:07:40
Speaker
the venue, but also the individuals that are operating that venue. That's an extremely important piece to us. As soon as we provide a partnership with a brand and a facility, our ultimate goal at that point is the renewal. We need to make sure that that brand is having a great opportunity. Again, we're big believers in the more brands that can get involved in this space, the better it can be for everybody.
00:08:10
Speaker
But I also do believe that brands have dipped their toe in this space previously. And I think, and we'll get into this, I'm sure, but I think a lot of
00:08:22
Speaker
facility operators, when brands kind of dip their toes in, viewed it as an advertising opportunity versus a true partnership opportunity. And quite honestly, that just doesn't provide a great experience for the brand or the company that's partnering. So we're really trying to change that narrative as well. And so that's extremely important when we're working with these different partners that we're looking to work with.
00:08:49
Speaker
Yeah,
Building Mutual Partnerships
00:08:50
Speaker
no, that makes total sense and a lot to unpack there. And I totally relate to what you're saying. You're like, you got to have a good operator because if you sell a sponsorship and hand it to the operator and they fail on it, there's no renewal. You know, that's kind of kills that opportunity. And that actually happened to me when I first got started in the space. I had a sponsor I was going after that said, no, we tried Kansas City in that market and it failed. And I was like, well, that wasn't me. That was somebody else who just didn't know how to execute.
00:09:15
Speaker
and so it's been a challenge to your point like brands will try the space and i think everybody operates the same right and so it's been a challenge i love that's part of your key metric of like how good is the operator because we're not going to sell a sponsorship to someone who can execute on it and it's really important to do that and then the other thing you mentioned was partnerships like uh you know for years i was selling individual like
00:09:35
Speaker
sponsor this league on this night or this event on this weekend and you know that truly is like a a one and done advertising they look at it like what do we get from that one thing and probably most likely not very much right and once we transition into and i love your thoughts on this once we transition to the year-long partnerships where we're ingraining you into our community where you're on our website
00:09:54
Speaker
You're at things two to three nights a week. You're at all of our events. You're in our emails. You're everywhere. The opportunities grew and people saw more impact over long periods of time because of that. So is that typically how you guys are doing it? Is the big partnerships to your point of like, we're looking for a partnership, not just a one-off advertising opportunity?
00:10:11
Speaker
Definitely. Yeah, 100% and they vary. And it's funny that you went through that experience because I think that's common in a lot of ways, but it's kind of why we wanted to layer in that data and just making sure that we do have those good partnerships because it is extremely valuable. And to kind of just take another step there based on your comments of true partnerships, right? I think
00:10:36
Speaker
Maybe some people are wondering, what does that mean? What's the difference between a partnership and advertising? Advertising is somebody gives you some money and you slap a logo on your website and hang up a banner in your facility.
00:10:52
Speaker
Are they going to get some return based on eyeballs that see that? Yes. But if we want to drive up some of the numbers and we want to create impactful and renewing relationships and partnerships, it still might be the logo on the website. It still might be the banner. But if you're partnering with a local pizza company, we'll just use an example. And you host 100 birthday parties a year.
00:11:16
Speaker
as a good partner, those parents that are ordering pizzas, it would be great if they ordered from the pizza company that's actually helping support the facility that you're in. I mean, those are simple examples, but really that goes a long way in actually building some of these packages and partnerships for these brands who, again, some of them are Fortune 500 and massive companies, but a lot of them might be local mom and pop shops who,
00:11:43
Speaker
you know, every dollar that they earn
Engaging Brand Collaborations
00:11:45
Speaker
is, you know, they're trying to be cognizant of it. And, you know, you want to be a good partner and take care of their money as well. Yeah. So what are some of the biggest challenges you feel like you've helped these facilities with?
00:11:57
Speaker
I think some of the biggest... I mean, there's a couple, right? I think some of the biggest challenges are for a lot of people being realistic as far as what their value is and what they provide. Again, that value can always continue to increase based on the deeper the partnership.
00:12:19
Speaker
inlays. But also the biggest problem that I think facilities deal with that we're able to help with are our bandwidth issues, right? Again, when I was running, you know, these baseball complexes, if I would bring a potential partner on site, and then, you know, we would have a leak in the concession stand, or, you know, some kid turned his ankle, rounding first, going to second,
00:12:45
Speaker
Like our, that's where our priority was. Um, you know, so we always had a bandwidth issue as far as, you know, actually being able to, to work these partnerships start to finish. Um, but then also from a valuation standpoint, right? Hey, we're getting a ton of people through here. What is that worth? Um, you know, I think a lot of people will say it's worth whatever the brand will pay for it. Um, which, which there's some truth there.
00:13:13
Speaker
But I think what we really try to do is create fair partnerships as well. We would always prefer a 10-year partnership that outgrows a short-term partnership because the brand doesn't feel like they're getting the correct value out of it. Sure. So when you say, yeah, obviously you want a longer partnership, do you typically start with a shorter one, test the waters and grow from there?
00:13:36
Speaker
It depends on the level of the partnership, if it's a naming rights partnership, and there's a lot of different assets that need to be activated. Those are typically starting at five years, but we like to extend those as far as we can with options on the backend.
00:13:56
Speaker
Just because of the idea of some fragmentation in this space and I think some hesitancy of brands getting into the space, there are times where we will take some of those shorter opportunities to prove the partnership out. But typically we do like to build in some automatic renewals or automatic upsells into that just to
00:14:20
Speaker
you know, again, make sure that that partnership is being built upon versus, you know, some, some one and done partnerships. Sure. That makes a ton of sense. So do you specifically work with youth facilities? Um, do you do adult facilities? What is kind of your metric, um, when working with, uh, facilities? So we, base sports group focuses specifically on what we call youth and amateur sports facilities. Um, so we do not dip our toe into the collegiate space.
00:14:48
Speaker
We do not tip our toe into the professional space. With our background and experience in this space, we focus solely on this youth and amateur sports space. So a lot of the facilities that we work with, and I'm sure that you see as well, will have youth activities throughout the day and on the weekends and sometimes adult leagues in the evenings. So it's not only 5U to 18U. We definitely have different adult leagues that are participating in those.
00:15:18
Speaker
which is exciting because that brings in a lot of different categories of brands that can activate in the space as well. That's awesome. So when you have a new facility, so say a facility comes up, can you walk me through what it looks like onboarding? What are some of the details, metrics you may need from me that it takes to essentially get me to pitch me to a sponsorship? Definitely. No, that's a great question.
00:15:45
Speaker
Once we secure a partnership, that onboarding is actually, it's fairly intensive. There's just a lot of questions. Again, one, we'll do our diligence as well just to make sure that we're partnering with good groups of individuals and facility operators. But then really it starts to become an asset breakdown and a category breakdown of what's available. So when I say asset breakdown,
00:16:12
Speaker
what is actually, what does the facility look like and what is available to sell against, right? How many TVs do you have inside? If somebody wants to slap their logo on the outside of the building, are you okay with that? Right? Like, so just what is the facility in general and what is available to sell against, right? Like some individuals are, hey, I would rather have one partner that comes in at a large number versus have
00:16:39
Speaker
you know, the quote unquote like NASCAR looking facilities that has like a bunch of different partners. So a lot of those conversations are transactional and back and forth. But then also, hey, what different categories can we work with, right? A great example is we have a chewing gum company that we work with who is trying to get
00:17:06
Speaker
chewing gum into the mouths of these young kids and to their parents who are going to purchase them. But we also work with a lot of facility operators that have turf fields that say, hey, we don't want somebody handing gum out at our turf facilities. So there's a lot of detailed questions maybe that people don't think about that we need to know so that when these opportunities come, like we're
00:17:36
Speaker
You know, we have more of a targeted approach when we're looking at some of those different sponsors or partners versus this is the shotgun approach and you know, we'll see what hits. That's funny. There's actually, yeah, there's a sign like right over here that says no chewing gum. So it's like knowing who your target customer is probably really important too. And I have to ask, it's not big league chew, is it? Is that still around?
00:17:59
Speaker
That is still around. We have worked with them in the past, but that is not the current partner that we're working with. That's what I grew up on. I don't know if it was good, but that's what everybody had. It's still good. Somebody with a baseball background, it's still good. Awesome. I'm glad that you brought up a brand. What are some of the ways that you've helped from your website? You've got Chicken & Pickle, Dave & Buster's, Army. What are some of the ways you've helped these brands specifically?
00:18:27
Speaker
Something that we talk about really every day and with brands, I think everybody initially goes to what is the ROI,
Strategies for Successful Collaborations
00:18:36
Speaker
right? What am I going to, what's my return on investment? So Brand, hey, if I give you X amount of dollars, what's my return going to be? Right. We really focus on what we call ROO, so return on objectives. So when we're in conversations with the brands, the biggest questions that we speak with them on,
00:18:56
Speaker
are what is their objective, right? The chewing gum company, they want to get as many pieces of chewing gum into the mouths of these young athletes and these parents as possible. That is their goal. We have a partnership with a hydration company called Prime Hydration. Their biggest thing was liquid to lips, right? So how can we get as many Prime bottles into the hands of these athletes as we possibly could?
00:19:24
Speaker
But then again, we've worked with the Papa Johns of the world who, you know, they don't need brand awareness. People know who Papa Johns is, but when athletes are coming in for this weekend's tournament, and that's the same for David Busters, that's the same for any amusement parks, whatever, they want to see ticket sales, right? So when people are coming in for these events, how are we driving that traffic during their downtime into those specific areas?
00:19:53
Speaker
We're really looking at the ROO from an objective standpoint for those brands. And then we'll work with the facility or event partners to make sure that we're hitting on those objectives. That's awesome. So I didn't really thought about that. So Dave and Buster's maybe sponsors a facility that's nearby in an effort to when those kids and families are done before, after their games, while they're in for the weekends, come to Dave and Buster's. I'm assuming they probably...
00:20:17
Speaker
So they typically will probably give out like a coupon or something that's redeemable that that's how they're kind of tracking that information. Exactly. Sometimes it's a coupon. Sometimes it's, you know, they'll have a table on site and then we'll traffic. You know, we can kind of traffic some some of their numbers on there as well to see how impactful that relationship is. But again, that's that's a great partnership. That can be a year round partnership where even as a partnership,
00:20:46
Speaker
you know, you could take your staff out to, you know, a company party and because they're a partner of yours, maybe you're thinking of hosting in that Dave and Buster's first and foremost. So, you know, really those impactful, you know, ways to work together, I think is really cool and really important.
00:21:03
Speaker
Yeah, I love, I love hearing you say that because I feel like you're validating things I've made up in the past that work for us now. And when I started Casey crew, one of the things I came up with it was a bar of the week, right? So if you're playing in a softball league, you're playing every week for six weeks. Well, most leagues I played in was like, Hey, here's the bar you can go to every week when you're done after your game or before and after.
00:21:22
Speaker
And I just thought, well, man, that's kind of lame. What if my team doesn't want to go week two, week three? We've been to the same bar every week. So the idea was, let's come up with a different bar every week that the teams can go to and get specials. And then I incentivized it by creating what we call the double bonus program, where if you win your softball game, the umpires put the scores in, it calculates the winner, it emails the entire team who won a coupon. They walk in the bar, they get a free round of nachos just for winning their game.
00:21:45
Speaker
And so now all the bars, when I came up with it, I was begging bars to be a part of it. And now all the bars pay us to be a part of that. And then the second piece of that is we actually sell now like beer sponsors or liquor sponsors to be on special at the bar when we drive people in. So win, win, win for everybody. But it sounds like that's very similar to what you're doing with like David Busters of like coupon to redeem, like get them to come in after beforehand.
Challenges in Securing Sponsorships
00:22:06
Speaker
Exactly. And I love, I totally love your mindset on that, right? Like you created a program and understood
00:22:13
Speaker
you know, what the needs and wants were. And then you basically had this creative way to get, to get everybody involved in, in a partnership, um, versus, Hey, we have the softball league, like you should throw some money at us and we'll slap a logo. Like when everybody like comes in the door that they can see, it's like, okay, there's some validity to that. Um, obviously, you know, marketing is what it is, but you really created something that was impactful for the community that impacted the event that was being hosted.
00:22:41
Speaker
impacted the facility that is hosting the event and also impacted these local restaurants who I'm sure sincerely appreciate the foot traffic.
00:22:51
Speaker
Yeah, during the week, when they're slower, it's definitely a big game changer, and we've been able to charge more and more money as we've delivered more and more people. But to that point, you said, I used to throw their logo on every shirt, right? And one of the things I put on there was like, my dad's promotional products company, another company, a friend of mine just is like, hey, let's throw them on there. And in five years, no one called off of a t-shirt.
00:23:13
Speaker
we realized that that wasn't, like you said, right? Putting a banner up, doing something on your website. Sure, that's advertising, but is it impactful and does it actually deliver? You know, most likely that person's not coming back if they're paying for that and they don't get any results from it. So we ended up stripping those all off and tried to figure out what actually drives metrics and gives them what they want. And a lot of times it's exactly what you said, right? And, you know, doing the sampling, we do a lot of sampling. We did a lot of that during COVID where it was like Gatorade or every new seltzer that came out wanted people to drink it, right? So we did a lot of that.
00:23:43
Speaker
And I think it's really important to figure out what is the sponsor want and what can the facility deliver on. So you have any cool stories like that? I know you mentioned David Busters, but what's one of your favorite sponsorship partnerships that you've come up with that you've seen at Bay Sports Group? Well, that's a good, anything that we do with the US Army is always, that's obviously always a fun one, right? They're looking for the next generation of leaders and anytime that
00:24:11
Speaker
They can connect with great youth and amateur athletes. It's always fun seeing the push-up contest or the pull-up contest. I think everybody has their competitive genes in them, but it's also really special seeing some veterans whose young kids are participating in the events to be able to speak with some of the recruiters and just about some of their different experiences.
00:24:39
Speaker
I think those are always some pretty cool ones. We also work with a company called Gel Blaster, which the way I describe it is it's a combination of a Nerf gun and a Squirt gun, but it's a really fun activity for a lot of the kids that show up on site. Again, little brothers or sisters during their downtime,
00:25:08
Speaker
you know, being able to just have something to do, right? So those are always a ton of fun. And another one that comes to mind is, you know, we did a partnership with the WNBA at a large women's basketball tournament as well. So just kind of connecting some of those professional groups with these youth athletes who, again, eventually are the future of some of these professional sports leagues. I think
00:25:34
Speaker
That's a really cool way once we can connect those groups as well. Yeah, that's awesome. I was in the Army and my veterans, so I love to hear that story. Happy Veterans Day. Thank you for your service.
00:25:45
Speaker
Thank you. Yeah, I love, I love hearing that. And you know, that's funny too, because when I first got into what I do, I never thought about the military as like a potential sponsor, right? But it's, we actually have a Coast Guard as one of our sponsors for KC crew. And so it's so interesting to think about that. And I do some work with the VFW actually. And they're now using eSports as a way recruiting veterans and connecting veterans. And I know the Army and Navy and all of them do that too. So that's really cool. I love to hear you guys are working with them.
00:26:12
Speaker
What are some of the challenges, say I'm a facility and I want sponsorship, I believe I have what you need. What is something maybe I should get prepared or things I need to think about before I come and approach you? I think it's having as much data and information that you can have. I think that's going to be extremely important and having actual numbers.
00:26:38
Speaker
These brands are getting much more sophisticated about their budgets and what they can spend on certain returns. Having a great example of how many people are coming through the gates, having an understanding of the individuals that are coming through their gates, whether that's demographics or consumer preferences.
00:27:02
Speaker
We do a lot of that. It's actually a requirement of all of our partners is that we're putting surveys in market, depends on the market, but certain cadences throughout the year. That way we can see really who our consumer is and what their wants are. I think a lot of times, and I was guilty of this as well, but it was, hey, we have baseball parents and here's the way that they all think, right?
00:27:32
Speaker
And that was just kind of the mindset. And until we started to actually listen to our consumers about what their different wants were, we were able to take that and say, hey, these parents on site really want to know about college loans or about cell phones that they can get their kid or save credit cards.
00:27:55
Speaker
Not something I would have thought of, but then immediately we can go to Chase Bank and say, hey, we saw you have this new youth credit card. Our consumers are actually, here's the proof in the pudding that they're looking for this information. So I think that's an important piece. Again, we sell very heavily off of that data, just so we can show the brands really what they're getting out of it versus the good story, which is
00:28:22
Speaker
I think it's important, right? Because our sellers sell on that, but having something else to back it up, I think is really important. So just knowing those numbers inside and out. Yeah, that's great information. I think breaking down the metrics a little bit more, again, I'm using you as a validation for me.
00:28:39
Speaker
I'm curious, you know, and I've learned through years and years of sponsors being like, well, what about this? What about that, right? So we break down our demographics into, I would say like three or four ways, right? So we're always looking at age demographics. We're always looking at like zip code locations, date of birth,
Brand Partnership Dynamics
00:28:54
Speaker
right? How old are they? And then sometimes gender. Are there anything outside of that that you typically look at for your metrics and your demographics? Those are the good starting points, right? Age, gender,
00:29:06
Speaker
Like you said, zip codes so you can grab like household incomes, right? Like college education, et cetera. Um, cause again, a lot of brands will say, we're looking for, you know, female athletes of this age, right? So just being able to be like, we have them and here's how I know. Um, but then also again, through some of those surveys that we put into market,
00:29:29
Speaker
just understanding a little depth as far as who that actual consumer is, I think is extremely important. But I think it's also important from the standpoint of being able to track those partnerships. We'll send out a survey at the beginning of the year and say, again, this is our data team.
00:29:53
Speaker
She's probably going to give me a call and say that I butchered this. We have surveys on different cadences because when we bring in brands at different times, we want to be able to show them brand awareness through those surveys. At the beginning of the year, nobody knew who Prime Hydration was. All of a sudden, they're our pouring rights partner at the facility. They've handed out 50,000 bottles throughout the year at our facility.
00:30:23
Speaker
When we do a survey at the end of the year, the brand awareness for Prime is the number one or number two or number three brand that parents are excited about and that they recognize with the facility. So some of those things that we calculate and we put together these brand reports together are extremely impactful for that brand, but also when we go to
00:30:49
Speaker
you know, the next company, the Bank of America and say, hey, this is where Prime started and here's where they finished, right? Then there's actually some hard data behind why that partnership is extremely valuable. That's really cool. You brought up the pouring rights.
00:31:06
Speaker
Can you talk a little bit about the difference of, you know, sometimes essentially brands will pay us to give us product to hand out, right? You said sampling liquid to lips, but a lot of times I've seen facilities, you know, where they get paid to exclusively carry that sports drink, but that means they didn't have to go out and buy, right? So sometimes there's buyback programs. So can you touch a little bit about on like the differences of those and maybe which one you prefer? So honestly, which one I prefer would be both in the same breath, right?
00:31:36
Speaker
Obviously, Coke, Pepsi, those are the two big players in the space from a corporate perspective. They are smart companies, right? And for the last 10, 15, whatever years, they have a pretty standardized agreement for all these facilities where they get in and they kind of lock their teeth in. And again, I was in the same shoes where we signed a deal with Coke because
00:32:04
Speaker
They gave us a discounted rate and they gave us some coolers that we can utilize, but they are also getting a lot of marketing value from that. So I think from a product standpoint, there should be an allotted product for staff or for special activations throughout the year. Obviously those discounted rates and distribution should be at a fair number. Again, a lot of it's going to be on how much product you're moving as well.
00:32:33
Speaker
Um, you know, they, they do have to make a return on some of their marketing dollars as well. But I think something that from a pouring rights perspective, we're really teaching a lot of people are the different categories to, to carve out. Um, you kind of have your, you know, your pouring rights. So, you know, your sodas, your caffeinated beverages, then you have a coffee and tea category. And then you have more of like an isotonic category, which is our, the Gatorade power AIDS primes of the world.
00:33:02
Speaker
I think what a lot of people don't recognize is if they signed a partnership with Pepsi and then a company like Prime comes around with a decent dollar figure to partner in that space, they are locked out. And Pepsi has the agreement and realistically they're not going to change. In some situations they will. I think they're understanding that they want to be partners in this space as well, but I just think understanding those agreements inside and out
00:33:32
Speaker
that they were very well written because of the size of those companies. But again, I think everybody needs to realize you're moving their product and in some cases at a very high
Valuation of Partnerships
00:33:45
Speaker
clip. So understanding your value there as well.
00:33:51
Speaker
Yeah, I think a lot of times in the bar space, entertainment space, right? The pickleball bars, all these new entertainment concepts popping up. It's enticing, right? Some of these beer distributors will come along and be like, we'll pay for your entire draft line. Coke will pay for your entire Coke line, your entire soda setup and everything. And as a facility, it's like, oh, that's cool. I don't have to pay for any of that. But you're also signing exclusivity that you can't carry anything outside of it.
00:34:15
Speaker
Um, you know, I think it's a great thing to do from a startup, you know, new facility concept, but it's important to know, like you said, what that you're signing and making sure that you're not locking out future opportunities. Totally. Totally. And again, for some facilities, like having an exclusive pouring rights partner is, it's a lot easier, right? And there's a consistency standpoint where you can focus on the business and not necessarily on, you know, what, what's pouring out of your, your draft list. But, um,
00:34:45
Speaker
But also understanding that those clamps are there for a long time. If you can create yourself some flexibility in the case that there's a different partner down the road that you want to be able to have that flexibility. But again, there's nothing like some of the part we do, we still do partnerships with Coke or Pepsi that are can be exclusive, right? Because I think they do do a good job. Distributors do a really good job.
00:35:11
Speaker
from an efficiency standpoint, instead of going to Costco or BJs on a weekend, you know, makes a lot of sense. So I don't want to, I just want to make sure it doesn't come off like those are like tough partnerships. It's just being knowledgeable about, you know, really what you're signing into. Exactly. Like I said, I think it's, you know, I opened a facility in St. Louis and we did that. We worked with a distributor, we worked with Coke, we, you know, to do all those things. But again, to your point, it's make sure you're aware of what that does and what that may limit you to.
00:35:40
Speaker
Overall, I agree. I think it's a positive thing in the right scenario, especially for a new venue. But again, it's just being aware of what that may limit you to is definitely important. What are some of the mistakes? What do you think the biggest mistake that a facility makes right now? Say they're not working with you and they've got sponsorships coming in or they're going after sponsorships. What do you think one of the biggest mistakes they're making is? I think there's two critical mistakes that are made constantly that we're constantly just battling.
00:36:09
Speaker
One of that is evaluation as far as like what they're worth. And then again, just back to our original conversation of a partnership versus advertising. I think that is just so critical. If a brand comes in and spends, we'll just use arbitration numbers. If they spend $50,000 and their return on what they view on their investment is $30,000, like they're not gonna come back, right?
00:36:39
Speaker
Like that's just like a pretty simple equation. Um, so just trying to be fair and understanding, um, you know, because it's hard for a lot of people, right? Like a lot of us, you know, work for 10, 20, 30 years in the same facility, building it, understand like the sweat equity that has gone into those places. Um, but you know, your foot traffic numbers and the demographics of the people are, are going to tell a story to the brands.
00:37:07
Speaker
So I think there needs to be an honest conversation as far as what the true value is of those partnerships.
Adapting to Brand Strategy Changes
00:37:16
Speaker
And some people undervalue them. So just making sure it's fair for both parties. And then the concept of partnerships versus advertising I think is just a key piece that we all need to continue to drive into our brains because
00:37:33
Speaker
Again, the more partnerships that you can drive into your facilities that have success, the more success that your neighbor's going to have and their neighbor's going to have. Then as a whole community, the more revenue that we can continue to drive in our space. I don't want to say it's selfish, but the second you ruin a partnership, and we've dealt with that in a lot of areas with some really, really big brands where it's like, why are you not investing into this space? It's what we have.
00:38:02
Speaker
Um, and with our experience there, we're not coming back. Um, so I think it's really important to understand, you know, fair partnerships as well for the entire community of facilities across the country. Yeah. No, I, I love that. And I, there's like four things there, if I can remember all of them, uh, for that I want to unpack. And I think to your point, you know, it's really important to deliver a good partnership. And I think thinking about that is.
00:38:28
Speaker
What's a win-win-win? And this is something I always say is like, yeah, your sponsorship is a win to my facility and it's a win to you. But if it's not a win to my customers and my people, then they may not come back or they may not enjoy it as well. So I've got to think about it that way. And to your point, that's a partnership, right? It's not just a sale. That's not just an advertising. That's a true partnership. So if you can think about it that way, to your point, what do our people want? And then go out and find the groups that would fit that is a great way to do it. And surveys are another thing you already mentioned.
00:38:55
Speaker
The other thing, you know, I would mention is sometimes it's out of a facilities control. Like we've definitely had sponsorships that we knocked out of the park. And sometimes those sponsors won't come back because they're like, oh, we feel like we did great here. We want to try something new somewhere else, right? In this similar market, but maybe outside. I'd love your thoughts on that because we've had several sponsors that did tell us, you know, it was a huge win, huge success. We want to try something else, but we'll be back. You know, have you seen that? And maybe you have a tip or trick on how to get them to not go and to stick with you.
00:39:25
Speaker
I think I would have to learn a little bit more background about that partnership and what it looks like. But again, as brands evolve, depending on who their CMO is or their lead of marketing, some of that ideology potentially changes with some of the ideas. And it might just be that the space that they were operating in didn't work out. So again, I think I would need to unpack that
00:39:55
Speaker
a little bit more because again, from a brand perspective, because we're working for both sides and we're always putting together that reporting to help with those renewals. So that even if they were trying to try something else or we're trying to, unless they were looking in another market, it's usually, I don't know, we don't really see brands shift too much based on successful numbers.
00:40:20
Speaker
So they were probably just blowing smoke up my... I don't know. They could have been. But at the same time, that's why, again, why we exist. From a facility standpoint, it's a bandwidth thing of staying on top of those conversations with the brands.
00:40:40
Speaker
they might be getting acquired and moving their offices to another location. They may have a new chief of marketing coming in who says, hey, we think the future is in this demographic, so we're moving a lot of our budgeted numbers to this direction.
00:40:59
Speaker
Every business is different the way that they're growing. Again, we're trying to change the narrative of, hey, brands should be shifting their money from the professional or the collegiate space into this youth and amateur sports space.
00:41:14
Speaker
the St. Louis Cardinals in a couple years when they don't return a brand because they're partnering with your facility, they're going to be asking the same question. From a sales perspective and understanding who sits in that seat and what the company's objectives are and even the company's mission statements are,
00:41:33
Speaker
You know, there's there's tons of different reasons why they might move but if it's successful, you know We hopefully like that. They're doubling down in that area And that was something we you know this year is what kind of the first time that we had a couple brands that actually Succeeded or we metrics of success that they gave us were hit and exceeded and they changed some of them were like your point
00:41:55
Speaker
was a changing of the guard,
Market Trends and Opportunities
00:41:56
Speaker
right? One of the person that we were working at got promoted and it was somebody else and it would just took them too long to figure it out. So they just, you know, didn't come back this year, but now we're talking about next year. So, but I've seen, and I'd love your thoughts on this. Have you seen a difference in the market this year? I feel like just the state of the economy in the world, we've seen a lot of people holding checks closer to their chest and not spending like they used to. I'd love to hear it from someone who sees it every day.
00:42:20
Speaker
I think we're seeing a change in and obviously markets kind of go up and down and spending habits constantly changed based on what's going on in the economy and in the world. I do believe though that brands are starting to understand more the focus on the value of youth in amateur sports. I think for
00:42:44
Speaker
a lot of reasons potentially they can be getting priced out in a lot of ways of the professional and the collegiate space. So I just think there's a massive opportunity. Again, I think even if brands are spending less, I think you've probably heard over the last couple of years of
00:43:01
Speaker
A lot of the first thing to get cut was marketing budgets. I actually think that is a massive opportunity for this space. An opportunity with facilities across the country and these youth and amateur facilities are going to come at a lower price tag.
00:43:20
Speaker
than they are at some of these professional sports venues. But something that we're proving is even at that lower price tag, you know, that reach and that impact is is sizable. So I think even as if marketing budgets are getting cut the way some people are saying over the last couple of years, I think that's actually an advantage for this space that we all need as a community to continue to target. So, yeah, no, I appreciate that. And
00:43:49
Speaker
It makes a lot of sense, you know, as the market changes, as things change, people look to spend their dollars in other places, trying to catch that new wave right before it becomes too expensive. In your opinion, you know, obviously, a facility, you'd love to work with you, but say, you know, not everybody's your ideal client, we don't fit the
Local Partnerships and Community Connections
00:44:07
Speaker
metrics. What is like the best way for a facility, you know, maybe outside your demographic, or even inside your perfect ideal client, to reach out and find these opportunities?
00:44:18
Speaker
That's a great question. And again, we have other resources within our country to help gather some of these surveys and some of these metrics where if people do not understand how to put those in market or how to put together some of those reports together, we do as a company have some of those resources. I think that's a great thing to do. But I also, I'm a believer that facilities and event operators
00:44:46
Speaker
If you continue to focus on the product within the facility, that a lot of those local and regionalized partners are going to want to be a part of it. Again, I think that wave is coming. I think where people struggle at times is when they think they have, not that they think they have an awesome product, but they put a lot of the focus on some of these sponsorship or like marketing dollars when
00:45:13
Speaker
That should be viewed somewhat as a luxury, right? You kind of have to focus on the core business because as long as those are really good events, then just buy osmosis, if you will. That'll kind of free up some more time to be able to service some of those opportunities. But the second the stuff within the walls kind of starts to fall apart because you're spending more time on some of these partnership opportunities, then I think that's when
00:45:41
Speaker
You know, some of them are going to fall apart, but building those relationships within your community. Again, a lot of, um, some events are bringing in groups nationally. So like a company like us that can reach groups across the country, I think is important, but building those relationships and partnerships locally, right? Like with the local banks, with the local insurance agencies, with the local restaurants, with some of the attractment tracks, attractions.
00:46:08
Speaker
Those are great opportunities for partners that, right? Like from a community basis can be simple, but can make a ton of sense as you kind of alluded to earlier to the win-win-wins. So obviously you're investing in your facility, but also investing in the community as well that you're in. I love that advice. Kind of start small, start local, and then once you've got all that information, look elsewhere and come to a group like you. But so to break it down,
00:46:37
Speaker
Get your metrics. Make sure you're collecting the data, the demographics, everything about that you need in your facility. And then start knocking on doors. Maybe you already have people that are members of your facility or their kids play there that are part of a company that may be the ideal sponsor for you. And start there, take them to metrics, work out a deal with them. That's a win-win-win. And then once you knock it out of the park, check out Base Sports Group. Yeah, yeah. No, exactly. No, but I think that's, again, super important. A lot of times, again, with birthday parties or
00:47:07
Speaker
even like staff lunches, if you're ordering local and that those people see you consistently, you can build that into a relationship and that turns into a conversation and that turns into, hey, we should have a partnership here because we can send our traffic to your stores and you could spend your marketing dollars on people who are actually visiting your restaurants versus trying to take a blind blast on social media or some of these other channels.
00:47:37
Speaker
I think just building those relationships is key. I think, again, relationship is key as well because it's a partnership. The second you walk into a restaurant and say, hey, give me money because we're going to push traffic to you, I just don't think a lot of people are going to be receptive to that approach.
00:47:57
Speaker
Yeah, no, I totally agree. What I mentioned earlier about our Bar of the Week program, how I started that was going to lunch at a different restaurant a couple times a week, sitting at the bar, talking to the staff. Hey, do you guys ever sponsor, you know, adult programming? Like, you know, just having a conversation. And while I'm there eating lunch, spending money, they're more open to essentially introducing me to the manager, bringing them over to talk to me, whereas just walking in the door or sending an email, you know, doesn't get very far. And so that was definitely a way
00:48:23
Speaker
You know, I beat down the door, got them involved, and now our team actually goes and has lunch. And, you know, we'll go out and have drinks at some of these places that sponsor us just to show a face and show that we're supporting them as well. Perfect example, right? Like, that's awesome. And hopefully we can continue to see that more across the country because those are wins. So that's... Awesome. I love to hear that. I love your mindset on that. Thank you very much. Yeah, it's years and years of just trying to figure it out.
Reflections and Future of Base Sports Group
00:48:52
Speaker
Uh, but, uh, yeah. That's right. Yeah. Never got a free lunch, but, uh, now they pay us. So I essentially paid for itself, but, um, yeah, so I know you're pretty new and you guys just started, but if you started all over today, what would you do differently? I remember we, you know, I think.
00:49:13
Speaker
I don't think that we would change anything differently from an organizational standpoint, right? I think it was very, the way that we've been going about it methodically and putting, you know, some strong case studies together. The only thing I would have changed is I wish I would have started sooner. I just think there's such a great opportunity for brands to commit to this space, something that I personally and my co-founder, Carrie, think about on a daily basis. I think everybody knows.
00:49:43
Speaker
Sometimes when we're building these 15, 20, 10, $5 million facilities, whatever it is, the facility operators have to make sure that they're covering those expenses. But with that, sometimes the barrier of entry to some of our young athletes increases. I wish I would have started sooner to make sure brands continue to see the value of the space, but also the impact that they can have on
00:50:11
Speaker
you know, potentially helping lower some of that barriers and just creating more positive experiences for everybody involved, right? If there's a pizza party and there's pizza there, like just those kids are having a good time and they're going to want to come back. And I think that's a win for a lot of people because I do think that these facilities are massively impact on the future of our country and the future of our communities. So the more that we can continue to support them,
00:50:38
Speaker
Um, and sometimes the support is through, you know, dollars. Sometimes the support is through pizzas. And sometimes the support is through, you know, free dental checks throughout the year because of a dentist partner. Um, but I think these are really community centers. So if I were to change anything, I just would have started sooner. Um, cause I think we're really making an impact in some of these areas and hopefully continue to do that.
00:51:01
Speaker
Yeah, I wish you would have started sooner and helped me out a long time ago, so I
Role of Technology in Sponsorship Management
00:51:04
Speaker
wouldn't have to go through all this. Well, it's something you're doing a pretty good job, yeah. Well, thank you. Yeah, and I gotta ask also, you know, have you seen, or are there any ways you recommend using software, right? So we're Facility Ally, you know, I talked about the Bar of the Week program, the coupon, you know, we do a lot of that stuff through our software in which it makes it easier and more automated for facilities to essentially sell these sort of sponsorships and programs. Is there anything you've seen or something that a facility should maybe think about when, you know, getting a software when it relates to sponsorship?
00:51:32
Speaker
I think softwares can create more efficiencies in anything that you do. And the more efficiencies that you can create to save time, save bandwidth, and save honestly the energy of your staff members, I think that's a key piece of it. Again, I think we all understand what the days to days can look like inside of these facilities.
00:51:59
Speaker
And they're jam-packed and there's our bandwidth is being pulled in hundreds of different directions on a simply daily basis. So finding the right technology that can create and help with some of those efficiencies like your platform does. I think that's really a key piece because as you continue to free up more time, you can
00:52:21
Speaker
build more programming. You can build on that programming. You could focus more on these local and regionalized partnerships because of those efficiencies that you're creating. So I do think technology is an important piece of any equation of these individuals who are running these events or facilities. Cool. Bare minimum just collecting that demographic information that you need to go and sell the sponsorship for sure is something you want to consider. Totally, totally.
00:52:49
Speaker
Cool. Definitely. So what does the next three years look like for base sports group?
Future Goals and Conclusion
00:52:55
Speaker
We're going to continue to grow. We're going to continue to tell brands and
00:53:00
Speaker
prove out to brands the value that there is investing in youth, amateur sports, and these local community centers that are, again, shaping the future of this country. So we'll continue to drive dollars into this space, hopefully continue to be a market leader in that space, and just creating a bunch of those wins.
00:53:24
Speaker
There are so many wins of youth and amateur sports and the way people feel and the way that you can affect these communities. But again, proving out that there is a return there as well for the brands. I think that's something that we will continue to do. We will continue to do that in an impactful way. Hopefully in the next three years when we talk about it, every facility across the country is starting to maximize these partnerships.
00:53:53
Speaker
in a really positive way that, you know, just helps everybody out. Well, I love that. If you're out there and you're looking to automate your facility through memberships, leagues, lessons, camps, clinics, sponsorships, and more, check out facilityally.com. If you're looking for some help, check out Base Sports Group. And thank you so much for being on today. I really appreciate it. We'll see you next time on the Facility Playbook.