Sponsorship Opportunities
USTSF: HOW CAN YOU HELP?
Recommendation: Support
USTSF Community Involvement/Sport Development Programs or Sponsor USTSF
and Team USA!!
[The USTSF is a non-profit
501c(3)
public charity]
The U.S.
National Table Soccer Federation is actively seeking varied levels of
sponsorships, donations, and/or other related support, both in its
efforts to promote table soccer (a.k.a. “foosball”) throughout the USA
and in support of the U.S. National Table Soccer Team as they compete in
the upcoming
International Table Soccer Federation (ITSF) World Championships Finals
in Europe.
For example, in an effort to
increase grass roots promotions, increase visibility of the sport, and give back
to the community, the USTSF has commenced
fundraising to establish and/or build a number of development programs.
These include:
-
Tables for
Troops -- USTSF has commenced to send tables to forward deployed troops
in Iraq and Afghanistan in an effort to boost morale and
relieve tensions in a highly stressful environment. Our first table has
already been shipped to Iraq, with troops having pledged to further
donate the table to a local orphanage upon any future redeployment.
-
Tables for
Kids -- USTSF has already initiated the donation of used/excess tables
of any brand/model to youth centers, such as the Boys
and Girls Club of America. USTSF hope to significantly expand on this
program in an effort to bring the game to children -- the future of our
sport -- nationwide.
-
Wounded
Warriors -- Building on one of the unique origins of the popularity of
foosball -- it's use as a therapeutic tool in hand-eye
coordination/rehabilitation for those recovering from injuries -- USTSF is
working with local contacts in the Washington, DC area to donate
tables and run fun tournaments (with promo/merchandise give-aways) and pro
demos at Walter Reed Hospital's rec center.
-
Team USA/U.S.
National Teams -- A requirement of recognition as a sport by the IOC and
USOC, the USTSF must ensure qualification and/or
selection of players to represent the United States in international
competition. To be held
in early 2009 (for the 2008 season), the ITSF World
Finals is the culmination of a 60+ tournament World Tour, including five
World Series Class tournaments. Organizers (the
International Table Soccer Federation [ITSF] and the
Italian Table Soccer Federation) have significantly leveraged media
coverage in connection with the FIFA World Cup of Soccer and other
international events, resulting in a huge upsurge in table soccer
publicity and tournament & league participation worldwide. Now
is the time to ride this growing wave of excitement!!!
This is the
ITSF World Championship Finals, a "best of the best in all the world"
playoff (see
ITSF's promo video) for which the USA continuously qualifies the most players of any
country and in which the USA dominated last year in the Women's events.
The event's web press release garnered over 1,000,000
views/"impressions" and was picked up by over 1,000 media outlets and
further included European-wide television sports-news coverage and a
page 2 article in the New York Times. Sponsors of the U.S. National
(World Cup) Team gain 15-20 times the exposure as they would if they
sponsored and individual player (the total number of the combined men's
and women's teams w/coaches could be as high as 20 people). And with the
World Cup being a team event, your business logo would be on all 20
shirts, you could be advertised on the USTSF website and mentioned in
all USTSF worldwide press release distributions as an "Official Sponsor
of the U.S. National Team." All funds received go to the team as a
whole, not any one specific player. Also, there are no exclusive
sponsors (meaning multiple logos will be on every shirt); unless a
single sponsor wants to not only cover shirts, warm-ups and airfares for
the entire team. Last, there is one other main advantage to sponsoring
the team, and that is that donations to the team are made to USTSF --
USTSF is a 501(3)c Non-Profit tax-exempt public charity which for some
sponsors may be a greater deduction/more advantageous as a tax write-off
than simply as a marketing expense. Add in the incredible talent of the
entire team (sure to make the USA the center of attention for the 50+
media organizations expected to attend) and as you can see, USTSF
provides a lot more benefits (public exposure) to the sponsor/donor than
simply "give us money and we'll wear your logo on our shirts." Besides
all that, how often can a company sponsor an entire Team USA/National
Team (from any sport) for so little? It's a tremendous value.
The USTSF
provides several opportunities for players in the ITSF categories of
Open Doubles, Women's Doubles, Women's Singles, Junior Doubles, Junior
Singles, Senior Doubles and Senior Singles to earn U.S. National
Champion titles and thus the right to compete in the ITSF World
Championships. (By competing in ITSF/USTSF sanctioned events held
throughout the USA, players have several other means to qualify to
compete at ITSF Worlds as well.) In an effort to provide greater
opportunity to certain classes of players that do not necessarily win
enough money in their respective categories to pay for trips
internationally (primarily juniors and women), the USTSF is actively
fundraising to ensure that these players are sponsored for the airfare
portion of their trips (typically about $1,000 per player). For juniors,
a parent/chaperone is also required (also about $1,000). This offsets
about 50% of the total cost to compete internationally for players in
these classes, with the players matching the rest out of pocket or via
their own sponsor/parent/etc., and thereby significantly improves the
chances that the USA will be able to field teams internationally as
required by IOC and USOC.
All of the above are
examples of programs for which USTSF must seek sponsors/donors and volunteers in order to
fully realize their contributions to the community and to the future of the
sport.
USTSF: WHAT WE CAN DO FOR YOU!!
The USTSF
can provide you or your business with the opportunity to take advantage
of the rapid growth of this sport, from the local grass roots, youth
center, dorm and sports bar level all the way up through international
tournament competition. More importantly, this is an opportunity that
provides your business with excellent media exposure in return
for your marketing investment – exposure that reaches far beyond the
local softball or bowling team sponsorship of providing logo’d shirts in
exchange for a tax deduction. Sponsorships and/or donations to the
USTSF, in addition to supporting Team USA, provide the following
benefits:
Please
see our latest
Corporate Sponsorship Opportunities document (Word
version) for the current list of benefits and sponsorship levels.
As you can
see, each level entitles the sponsor/donor to various levels of benefits
– sponsorship exposure from our professional press release distribution
alone is worth more than the Gold Sponsorship level (our last three
press releases had more than 550,000 hits/views and were "picked up" by
over 1,500 media outlets worldwide). And remember, events such as the
ITSF World Championships Finals are international athletic competitions
and players competing from the USA are "Team USA" -- a team
entirely composed of proven champions representing the United States in
competition against the champions from some 20-30 other countries. As
such, sponsor/donors will in fact receive both local and
long-term, widespread international media exposure as well!!
To become a sponsor
at any level, please contact the
USTSF directly, or to make a donation now to USTSF and our community
involvement/sport development programs, please click on the "Make a
Donation" button below.
USTSF is a non-profit
501c(3) public charity organization staffed by volunteers. We would
appreciate any financial help to aid in covering our operating expenses
and so we can achieve our goals. Help support the USTSF by donating
(via your credit card or checking account/through Paypal):
Alternately, donations
can be mailed to:
USTSF, (Attn: Larry Davis)
P.O. Box 14455
Washington, DC 20044
The USTSF is grateful to the following corporations,
foundations, businesses, community groups and individuals for their generous
contributions:
