To get sponsors for a cricket club, start with local businesses whose customers already play at or follow the club, offer packages built around visibility they can see and measure, and make your approach before the season starts. To keep them, report back during the season with real numbers and content that features them. Clubs that treat sponsorship as a partnership rather than a one-off ask find that renewals take care of themselves.
Who is most likely to sponsor a cricket club?
The best prospects are rarely the biggest names. They are the businesses that already have a reason to care about the club and its members. Start with the people closest to you:
- Businesses owned or run by members, players and parents
- Players’ employers, who often like to support staff interests
- Local trades, estate agents, accountants, solicitors and car dealers who want to reach families in the area
- Pubs, restaurants, gyms and physiotherapists who benefit directly from a sporting, sociable audience
Go through the membership list before you think about cold approaches. A warm introduction from someone the business owner already knows is worth more than any number of emails.
What do sponsors actually want in return?
Most local sponsors are buying three things: visibility, association with a respected community club, and a sense that their money made a difference. Shirt logos and boundary boards still matter, but on their own they are hard to value. What makes a package easy to say yes to is visibility the sponsor can see for themselves.
That is why digital assets now carry so much weight. A sponsor named on the player of the match graphic every week, tagged in matchday posts and featured in a short video reaches far more people than a board that only spectators at the ground ever see. It also lasts all year, not just on match days.
How to build sponsorship packages that sell
Clear tiers make the decision simple. Most cricket clubs can offer some version of the following:
- Headline or shirt sponsor: the biggest commitment, with the most prominent placement on kit, the website and every matchday graphic
- Player sponsorship: an affordable entry point that individuals and small businesses love, with a dedicated announcement post and a mention whenever that player performs
- Matchday sponsor: one fixture, with hospitality, a sponsored post and recognition on the day
- Boards and digital-only packages: boundary boards, website logos and regular social media features
Price each tier by what you can genuinely deliver, and list the deliverables in plain terms: how many posts, which graphics, which events. Then put it all in a short sponsorship pack with your audience numbers, good photography and comments from existing sponsors. A pack that looks professional tells a business the club will look after their brand.
When and how to pitch
Timing matters more than most clubs realise. Approach new sponsors in the autumn and winter, before businesses set their budgets and well before the first fixture. Have renewal conversations at the end of the season, while the year’s results are fresh.
Pitch in person where you can, tailor the conversation to what that business wants to achieve, and leave the pack behind. Follow up within a week with a clear next step. A specific offer, such as a named player sponsorship for the season, is far easier to agree to than a general request for support.
How to keep sponsors renewing
Renewals are won during the season, not at the end of it. Deliver everything you promised, then a little more. Announce each new sponsor properly, feature them in matchday content, invite them to presentation evenings and say thank you publicly.
Most importantly, report back. A short mid-season and end-of-season summary showing the posts that featured them, the reach those posts achieved and photos of their brand in use turns a cost into a visible return. When you ask for the renewal with that report in hand, the conversation is about the next season rather than whether to continue.
This is exactly what happened at Oxford Cricket Club. As its social media audience grew, the stronger presence helped the club secure both player and headline sponsorship over the course of a year.
Frequently asked questions
It depends on the reach and visibility you can offer. Price each package from what you can deliver, from an affordable player sponsorship up to a headline package, and be ready to show your audience numbers so the price feels justified.
Start in the autumn and winter, before businesses set budgets and before the season begins. Renewal conversations work best at the end of the season, when the results are fresh.
Your audience and reach figures, clear packages with their deliverables, strong photography, comments from current sponsors and a simple way to get in touch. Keep it short enough to read in a few minutes.
For many local businesses it is now one of the main reasons to sponsor. Social media visibility is measurable, reaches beyond the ground and keeps working all year.
Make sponsorship easier to win
Sponsorship follows visibility. The clubs that win and keep sponsors are the ones that look professional, post consistently and can show a business exactly what it received. ETDC Digital Media helps clubs build that visibility through social media management for sports clubs and full service sports marketing, including sponsor activation. For more on the link between content and commercial income, read from followers to sponsors.
Further reading: what every club should post on matchday, and how to make the graphics, and how Oxford Cricket Club grew to almost 900,000 views in a season. To see how we work with a league, read the Home Counties Premier Cricket League case study.
