Innova CFR

[Bruce Brakel]

I'm thinking about CFR for 2006.  It is a program and you have to be in the program to order the discs.  

The purpose of the CFR would be to add cash and prizes to the IOS Finals so it could be a B/B tier.

Do our players and members want CFR for $25 a disc?  This would be cash only, no brass.  The discs will probably include the Champion Wraith, Starfire and TL next year.  

Harold Duvall thinks I should set up the program so that CFR buying "sponsors" get special recognition and special privileges that don't really cost us anything.  I'm thinking we could
1) Do early payouts for sponsors only, and on lower day when we don't really do early payouts we could have a helper doing early CTPs for players who are out of the prizes.
2) Try to start sponsors on the closer holes for the morning round
3) List and thank our sponsors on the blank back of the scorecard
4) Have a standard cash discount for sponsors [$2 off any item priced over $6, no limit] and not otherwise offer cash discounts
These are ideas.  I'm open to other ideas.  I'm open to being closed to any of these ideas.

[Jon Brakel]

I would buy one just to support the B-tier for the finale.

I'm just throwing this idea out there to see what people think...

We could offer "no money down" pre-registration for sponsors. They would be able to pay on the day of an event with a guranteed spot without having to do Paypal or send a check to Brett.

[Bruce Brakel]

I would buy at least one also.  If it found a place in my bag, I'd ask for another for Father's Day.  

I like the idea of no money down pre-reg for sponsors.  They could just post on the pre-reg thread and they'd be in, provided they checked in by 9:15 or whenever.

We could do "lay-away" for sponsors only.  

I think a lot of our players never even knew about lay-away or early payouts.  

[drdye]

I like the idea of having CFR discs at the IOS events.

But, I am confused about these sponsors???  Does the IOS have any sponsers right now??  I tried to look and find info on some but came up empty.  I dont see a place you list any sponsors for the IOS...Or are you talking about a CTP disc type sponsor?  Where whoever gave a disc or DVD(like marshal street) as use for a CTP.

Does that mean there will be more vendors besides the club and Bruces crew??  I like the idea of having more vendors too.

Maybe Bruce you could elaborate on this "Do our players and members want CFR for $25 a disc? This would be cash only, no brass."  Is this for players or sponsors??

I do think #3, and #4 are a must if you have sponsors at any event!!!  #4 I think could be standard or some sort of discount for playing the event.

I think you really need to thank your sponsors in public over and over again, signs, banners, fliers, scorecards, on tees any place you can put it!!!  Why would anyone want to sponsor any event if it doesnt help their business in some way shape or form, by putting their name everywhere at least a few people will be interested in whatever they have.  Then, the sponsors donation will come back to them in the form of sales....this will not work if you dont know who the sponsors are of course

[mirth]

In this case, sponsors are considered anyone who purchases a CFR disc

[Jon Brakel]

We don't actually have any sponsors yet.    The Rockford leg had the Rockford Visitors and Convention people. We thanked them, they were on the score card, they had a banner and their name on the tent, they had a table setup in the tent and then we thanked them at the end.

The sponsors that we are talking about now would be anyone who bought a CFR from the IOS in 2006 if we get in the CFR program next year.

[Bruce Brakel]

Addressing Dr. Dye, we have some sponsorship for the final event from Rockenbach Chevrolet, but not enough to B-tier it on the pro side.

The amateurs currently are our main "sponsors."  Their entry fees pay for everything but the pro payout and pro PDGA fees, including amateur payouts that are usually 125% to 150% of their entry fees, after counting it all up the way the PDGA does.  

We are not looking to partner with any more vendors.  Currently Discontinuum participates on the vendor side when they bring a volunteer to work Discontinuum merch.  Between Discontinuum and the merch I bring, we have merch covered better than most tournaments do.  

None of Jon, Brett and Bruce are good at the local community business begging aspect of sponsorship raising.  If anyone thinks they might be, we'll pay you a commission.  

On topic the CFR program exists to raise sponsorship $10 or $15 at a time from the masses of players who play your events and think that a CFR disc, and recognition for being a tournament sponsor, are worth $25.  Mr. Duvall says that the CFR program works best if you make it clear that these are not just expensive, magic discs, but an opportunity to support a tournament you want to support.  He also thinks the CFR program works best if the sponsors [the people who buy the CFR discs] get continual recognition and perks that cost nothing.  

If we were to do a 50 disc CFR program in 2006 we could easily raise the $250 added we would need to advertise a pro-side B-tier plus enough more to add about $400 in prizes on the Amateur side, assuming we sold the CFR discs.  In order to add cash to the pros we have to collect cash when we sell them.  

One really cool, and less than well known, CFR perk is that Innova has monthly drawings for CFR sponsors who fill out the CFR sponsor form and submit it.  [Or maybe the vendor has to submit it.]  Anyway, the biggest perk is a drawing for an invitation to USDGC.  

[CEValkyrie]

So far we've been unsuccessful getting any sponsors except Rockenbach. The Marshall Street DVD's were given to any TD that requested them on the PDGA Board.

I am working on sponsorship for next year. I'm waiting to hear back from a major disc golf company. We've exchanged a few e-mails. We'll see what happens.

Illinois does not have a good network of disc golf resources like WI. Those have been built up over time & they support each others events with money & merchandise. We hope we can build up to that. It's not easy to do. There used to be A-Tiers in IL & WI. There are none now. That just shows it's not easy to do.  

[Bruce Brakel]

Illinois does not have a good network of disc golf resources like WI. Those have been built up over time & they support each others events with money & merchandise. We hope we can build up to that. It's not easy to do. There used to be A-Tiers in IL & WI. There are none now. That just shows it's not easy to do.

Supporting each other's events is a net zero anyway.  If I give three other tournaments $100 each, and they each give me $100, I could have just kept my money for my tournament and been in the same place.  That is smoke and mirrors sponsorship, but it seems to be a popular concept in disc golf.  

[SERG]

The purpose of the CFR would be to add cash and prizes to the IOS Finals so it could be a B/B tier.

What are the IOS Finals?

[Bruce Brakel]

The Fairfield Fairwell was our finals last year and will be this year.  It is the last event where we give out overall trophies.  It is not carved in stone that it has to be at Fairfield but maybe it is stained into the woodwork.