As a kid playing Little League baseball, I longed for the day when the back of my jersey wouldn't have some business's name on it. I didn't understand, nor did I care to figure out, how important those names were. I grew up watching the Dodgers and all the major league teams. Our uniforms looked a lot like the big leaguers'. But those guys didn't have "Clippinger Chevrolet" on the backs of their jerseys like the kids on my team. To win a sponsorless jersey, one with big numbers on the back, I would have had to make the Little League All-Star team or later, the high school team. Now that I have children, I look at sponsorship a lot differently. I've come to understand how sponsorship helps pay for some of the costs inherent in having a child participate in sports. For example When Rayann Alger of Vancouver called to tell me what the owner of Philly Bilmo's did, it had real meaning to me. Alger was already a fan of the cheesecake at the 11023 N.E. Burton Road sandwich shop. She also appreciated the owner, Mike Bitter, who was good at greeting his customers by name. Bitter says business has been good. If so, it's not because of the location. The shop is tucked in a strip mall behind an AM/PM on the corner of Burton Road and 112th Avenue. But Bitter, a New Jersey native, has been able to attract a collection of loyal customers. Alger, being one of them, was in the shop recently with her 7-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son, both soccer players in a Vancouver-Clark County Parks & Recreation league. Alger and Bitter tell slightly different versions of the story, but the essential elements are the same. One of Alger's kids asked Bitter to sponsor his team. Bitter wrote out a $175 check. But when the other child got jealous about it, he wrote another $175 to sponsor both teams. So today somewhere in Vancouver there are two groups of kids running around soccer fields. One set can read and appreciate what Bitter did. The other can't even pronounce Philly Bilmo's. Good will Stores that sponsor youth teams probably do generate business by getting their names in a unique location. But looking at it strictly in terms of advertising, it's a risk. What it does do, however, is help defray some of the costs for parents who would like to have their kids participate in activities such as soccer. That means something. Years later, I'm grateful Mr. O'Hara was willingly paying to have his company's name on the back of my team jersey when I played in the Pacific Coast Little League. Having the big numbers on my back might have made me feel more like a big leaguer. But business owners such as Mr. O'Hara helped keep costs low enough so that I could play at all. |
| Thanks to the name on the back of the shirt by Steven Gardner published in The Columbian, July 20, 2002 |
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