Ticketmaster are anti-competition, their reputation over here couldn’t get much worse than it is now unless they start selling crack or smuggling people
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After reading through reasons why not to let XYZ company sponsor an event, Im more inclined to say let it rip with whoever. Better to yoyo with friends under a crummy banner than to not meet up at all.
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I have mixed feelings about contests in general, but I can appreciate the fact that lots of players are motivated by seeing freestyles.
Keep contests pure, you can’t buy anything better than the state, national, and world contests that exist now with traditional sponsors.
OK, my serious take:
I think any sponsor that is not a yo-yo related; will necessarily be problematic. Why? Any organization that is willing to pony up money for public-relation based sponsorship will, by definition, be a sponsor that brings baggage along with it. That is because yo-yo is such a niche market. You will not get corporate sponsors willing to use their marketing budget on such a small market event. Only the desperate will be willing to pony-up money with no obvious business interest.
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Convince them that they need to compete with the Team Losi Cherry Bomb
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I do have a legitimate in with a sports book firm from my hedge fund days that would honestly look at covering the entire venue cost as trivial drop in the bucket and easy PR. I don’t think I’ll pursue it after getting the above feedback but because gambling is such a hot topic and a thing that is being lobbied for hard in my state it’s actually really easy to get money to toss the name of those large companies on just about anything public facing to help with public perception. If I really wanted to I could do a really big event for va states in a casino funded mostly by a big name in sports betting but I had my trepidation before I even posted this thread.
I think the path will be shrink scope and find a small theater in DC that I can really get some excitement from and have a small pre registration fee (higher at the door for spectators) that’s really the only path that’ll probably be kosher to most.
I do appreciate the opinions and there’s still a small part of me that might look at something absurd down the road for a larger event but that won’t be a state yoyo contest it’ll be something more ambitious maybe next year.
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Yoyo people need philanthropy. Whereas, Philanthropist and or companies can donate to a non-profit via capital campaigns to establish endowments. Endowment monies can then be spent in perpetuity. Fund raise 1million dollars and spend the interest income each year.
How an Endowment Works
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Donation: Donors give assets (cash, stocks, real estate) to an institution.
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Investment: The principal (corpus) is invested, often in a diversified portfolio.
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Spending Policy: A small percentage (e.g., 4-5%) of the investment earnings is spent annually
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Reinvestment: The remaining earnings are reinvested to grow the principal, ensuring the endowment’s value increases over time.
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Awesome idea that sounds difficult to pull off.
@codinghorror probably has some useful info about this
If you’re considering changing the name to accommodate a corporate sponsor, straight up ask them to commit for a 5-10 year run. Consistent branding is important for both of you
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After reading this topic, this is my two-cents: just hold a contest in a library room (probably won’t charge money) advertised as your town’s yoyo contest. Ask local businesses if they’d like to donate gift certificates or gift baskets as prizes. Entry fee can be a donation to a no-kill animal shelter or food for a local food bank.
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Things might be different outside Australia, but I doubt it.
ALL major casinos in Australia are known to be involved in money laundering and connected to organised crime. Not conjecture, proven in court. If the casinos were closed the impact on employment, tourism and tax revenue would be significant so it was just a series of fines.
Gambling providers influence on organised sports means that Adelaide will never host an AFL grand final because the gambling revenue wouldn’t be enough. Even if it was Adelaide vs Port Adelaide, the final would be in Melbourne.
Most (possibly all) of the online gambling apps have been trying to introduce betting on family oriented non-sporting competitions who wouldn’t have accepted a bookie as an event sponsor.
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Well, you can more easily set up a Donor Advised Fund (DAF) @Astroyama .. there has been exponential.. yes, exponential growth in DAFs over the last few years. I suggest looking into it.
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Most library in the US require any use of their free rooms to have free entry and no named sponsors as a part of the terms of service when booking the room. Penalty being banned from future usage. University and state run schools have similar stipulations which make raising funds basically just asking for donations online or gifts with no expectation of recognition. Essentially all philanthropy. It’s possible but VA states last year was attended by over 100 people. That wouldn’t work out as an option for this scenario. But yeah i get your point
I do have a program with a library and have access to the auditorium and my club does do local events for little prizes usually stuff from my own collection.
Yeah this is something I’ve been looking into. It’s a bunch of effort but it would be neat to be a non profit as we could then request county and state grants for an event. That’s a year or two out at the moment. It took nearly a year to get through the bureaucracy of becoming a chartered program for a city library.
I’ll have to look into that. I haven’t the slightest idea on that front
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Okay so not to bring this back up to the top but also really no desire to open a new thread. Just curious on thoughts. Still poking a few other places but everywhere in DC is either absurdly expensive (over 10k for 4 hours) or has absurd restrictions and or additional fees or are just terrible locations due to either stage or distance from everything. I get some folks don’t like this thread I’ve been told as much but I also kind of like to get some group think from the community as I keep calling different places.
What if a venue is 21+ (they serve alcohol as an adult catering theater) and the only way to allow under 21 is for there to be a paid employee present checking IDs and marking those that can drink ( like an x on the wrist or something)
Would that be super off putting. Even paying for the person to check ids it’s still way cheaper than even the previous venue VA states was held at while being in an ideal location for folks to fly in commute by transit or park along with lots of food options and lodging. Kind of a unicorn location with one caveat….
I have a call next week with a few different malls and mid month for a museum in DC but not expecting that to be feasible.
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I think parents may be hesitant when they see that, but having someone check id and mark over 21s would be making the best of it.
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If I had self control I’d go. Headline would be “Yoyo starts fight at bar with yo-yo”
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The coolest location would be the ball room at the Gaylord hotel in national harbor which is technically in Maryland but we can just pretend it isn’t 
sadly that venue was absurd 30k for a 6 hour event. I could book the Dulles expo center at 8 times the space for that much and they basically brushed me off saying the events too small lol.
I have a venue that is a strong contender and but a bit more than I wanted it to cost and a tad farther than I wanted it from an airport that I can fall back to and I have talked to the science museum in Richmond which is also an option funny enough about as expensive as some of the stuff in DC proper but it’s all possible and I’m still shooting for fall this year.
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