And now a word from our sponsor...

THIS x 2 x a zillion.

Are they paying YOU (your paper) any money? If so, mention them. If not, fuck 'em.

Bending the rule just a teeny tiny bit, as Canucklehead says, if it's the official name of the event, mention it ... ONCE. That's it.

 

Creaking the door a little bit wider open, if you are covering local youth leagues in micro-local detail, perhaps once a year you could do some kind of feature story about what goes into local youth league sponsorships -- many business owners just write a check to the local rec leagues, others get more involved by coaching, attending games or inviting their teams in for ice-cream parties, etc etc. Get into the costs (briefly) of sponsorship and the benefits the business owners think they are realizing as a result.

It would be especially good to focus on a sponsor who does NOT have a kid actively playing in the league. At the end of the story you could throw in a paragraph listing of all the league sponsors (presuming that list is not hundreds of names long).

 

Had it out with the organizer and he gets that we won't be mentioning sponsors (though the sponsors have bugged him all week about it). We too get youth sports standalone pic submission that want to list the entire yellow pages and we tell them our policy is no sponsors names, no matter what.
Now, taking a look at the thread about the basketball brawl in Indiana resulting in two teams benching their teams for the balance of the season makes me wonder: Does Shelbyville Bank want their name in the paper if something like that happens in the tournament they sponsor? I have a feeling we'd get no pushback if that happened and we left the sponsor name out.

 

We have a rule that we don't use sponsor names, but the publisher waives the rule at the first phone call. A few years ago, the local bank made that phone call and we had to use their name on every first reference. Looking over the special preview section we did, we failed to find one ad from the bank.

 

My standard line anytime someone tried to pull this crap thinking on me was akin to what a lot of you have said. If it's the name of the tournament, sure, I'll mention it on the first reference in order to be factually correct. But if it's just a sponsor? Sorry. That's not going to get in.
My reasoning? At some level, every preps game is sponsored by someone. Teams have fundraisers, receive money from Gatorade, bake sales, etc. To me, it wouldn't be fair to mention one without mentioning all of the others.
As for a tournament like this, as far as I'm concerned, that sponsor paid to sponsor the tournament. Great. But we're not seeing any money from it so why would we give them a free ad in the paper?
In addition, my job is to report the news and the news is the game going on, not who sponsored it. It's an editorial judgment and since I wouldn't allow some tournament sponsor to dictate how I wrote my game story, I don't believe I should allow them to dictate what I call the event. I have a job to be factually correct in my coverage, not to inflate anyone's egos.

 

Exactly right.

As others mentioned, "Local Bank Classic" is fine. But "The Holiday Classic presented by Local Bank" is a non-starter.

 

What about "Local Bank Holiday Classic"?

Especially if it had been called "Holiday Classic" for years.

 

I'll write a story with the sponsor's name as soon as the sponsor writes a check with my name.

 

We have a standing agreement. We will put in the sponsors name if the sponsor gives us something. If it's Joe Blow's Toyota Youth Tournament, we ask for new Avalons for the entire staff. If it's Bobby Joe's steakhouse Youth event, we ask for a year of steak dinners for the staff.
So far, none have come through, so we leave em out. Our business is struggling enough, we don't need to be giving away advertising.

Though, actually I will say this. A local restaurant has giveaways at local college and high school games. Their rep often comes by or office and drops off free food and coupons for the staff. But NEVER, have they asked for any free publicity, though once in a while we will mention them in the story (like "Joe's Pizza will give away free coupons if the Maggots score 100 in tonight's basketball games).
But again, no one has asked us too, not the schools, not the company.

 

I thought you were joking. But you're not, are you?

 

HAHA. The first part is very much a joke. Though if anyone company did offer us free cars or something worthwhile, I;m not losing any sleep overtaking it to put their name as a sponsor of a tournament. It's not like doing that would cloud my objectivity, and to be fair, I'd allow any other company to match that offer as well.

The part about the local restaurant is true.