Ryde Rowing Club Annual Regatta. Event Sponsorship.

SATURDAY, 13th MAY, 2017.

Members will appreciate that in these difficult financial times funding Ryde Rowing Clubs Annual Regatta - which costs around £3,500 to stage - of which only around £1,000 comes from entry fees and program sales - is quite a challenge. Over the years we have been very fortunate to receive the support of members who have local businesses or connections with local businesses - who have agreed to sponsor an event at the regatta in exchange for an advert in the program, publicity over the PA system during the Regatta and visual displays in the Clubhouse.

I would like to take this opportunity, on behalf of the Club, to thank those who have supported us in the past and who continue to do so - some have already committed to support the 2017 event - but also I would like to ask if there are any other members who may be in a position to support the Regatta - or know someone or a business that might be be prepared to do so. Shown below are details of the opportunities for event sponsorship at the 2017 Club Regatta - which takes place on Saturday, 13th May, Please let me know if you or anyone/business might be interested - and if you/they need a more formal approach - let me have a name and address and I will send this to them. There are two Regatta sponsorship opportunities shown below - "Event Sponsorship" and "Small Ads".

Ryde Rowing Club Annual Regatta - Sponsorship.

SATURDAY 13th May, 2017.

Event Sponsorship.

Since 1972 the two main Isle of Wight Rowing Clubs, Ryde and Shanklin have hosted Hants. & Dorset Amateur Rowing Association Championship Regattas. These two events, staged over a weekend between mid May and mid June each year, bring around fifteen visiting mainland Rowing Clubs from all along the Southcoast and occasionally inland - some 800 competitors and supporters - to the Island. As this is a weekend event most of our visitors stay over for the full weekend bringing a useful boost to early season trade for many Island businesses and the events provide a free sporting spectacle for Islanders and Visitors alike and generates useful publicity for the Island.

The success of the two events has on three occasions led to the Island being awarded the prestigious Southcoast Rowing Championships Regatta which the Ryde and Shanklin Clubs have organised jointly on behalf of the Hants. & Dorset Amateur Rowing Association. The Island Regatta weekend is one ofthe most popular in the South of England - regularly attracting over one hundred entries to each event - and with the growth in the sport this popularity is expected to continue to grow.

Coastal rowing remains one of the few truly amateur sports still in operation with no payments or expenses paid to competitors, officials or coaches and no cash prizes awarded.

As I am sure you will appreciate the cost of running the Regatta increases each year putting an ever increasing financial strain on the organisers. In spite of this the Ryde Club is proud of its record of running one of the most successful and best organised Regattas in the Hants. & Dorset area.

The income generated by the regatta is limited as the entry fees are fixed by the governing body and it is not possible to charge a fee to spectators as you can with many sports. Since 1980 we have been able to offset some of the costs thanks to the generosity of our sponsors.

Once again it is our intention to sell advertising space in our Regatta programme to local businesses who are known for their support of local Clubs and who hopefully gain from the competitors and spectators who will be visiting the Island. In addition to the advertising space we will link advertisers to an event or cost of the Regatta and give them additional publicity over the P.A. system during the Regatta. We will also be prepared to display any publicity material made available at the Clubhouse and to circulate additional advertising material when the programmes are distributed.

The programme cover and any inside pages on which the adverts are displayed are, in the majority of cases, professionally printed.

It is our hope that sponsors will be willing to contribute around £50 for a quarter page advert and £100 for a half page. While we appreciate that this is probably not commercially viable we hope that the knowledge that you would be supporting a local Club and event will persuade you to take a place in our Programme.

Ryde R. C. Regatta - Small Ads.

Ryde Rowing Clubs Annual Regatta - part of the Hants & Dorset ARA Championship Regatta Programme - in addition to the main event sponsorship, is giving an opportunity to members and friends of the Cub , who have their own businesses to take out a “Small Ad” in the Regatta programme.

Around 800 attend the Regatta to compete and watch - including many local residents and many of the Club Members.

These adverts will be in a simple format (no pictures or complex fonts and limited graphics - see examples from last year’s programme below) - they will have a maximum of around twenty words and will be about 2” x 1” in size and located in the inside pages of the programme. In addition an advertiser will receive some publicity over the Regatta PA system during the Regatta - and have a mention on the Regatta’s interactive display in the Clubhouse and enlarged versions of their advert on display in the Clubhouse In exchange we are hoping that advertisers would be prepared to contribute £25 to the Regatta Funds.

With our thanks for your consideration.

Regards - and best wishes for Christmas and the New Year.

Steve Bull.

Steve Bull.

Regatta Secretary.