For the past seven years, Kathy Wyder listened with delight as the reedy voices of young baseball players mixed with the louder shouts of their parents to cheer, "Go Secret Garden! Go!"
The co-owner of a high tea-styled café on West Boulevard that bakes pastries and promises "tea is an experience," Wyder sponsored a sports team in 2006 when her son signed up to play T-ball with the Kerrisdale Little League. It cost her $350. She has risen in the ranks this season and for $550 sponsored a Majors team in the division that counts the oldest players and feeds the All-stars who contend for the Little League World Series.
"Our team has a teapot as a logo," said Wyder, who co-owns The Secret Garden Tea Co. with her sister-in law, and laughs at the contrast between baseball and English Breakfast.
Around Vancouver, the seven different little leagues offer different sponsorship packages at various price points, but the goal is always the same: fund amateur sport and link families to the businesses that support their childrens team.
The money is well spent, said Wyder, whose son plays on the team she happens to sponsor. She has since joined the volunteer executive and co-ordinates sponsors for the leagues 58 teams. She gets satisfaction from giving back and although her motivation is not exposure for her business, the increased awareness is a positive consequence. The profile of her storefront has grown.
"It contributes more to that sense of community for me because all the people who are sponsors also believe in Little League," said Wylder, noting Kerrisdale Lumber was an original sponsor when the Little League launched 55 years ago and Hills of Kerrisdale has been around for almost as long. "The nice thing is that you start to feel that all the people in the Little League are part of your giant family."
Wyder occasionally brought baked treats from the Secret Garden to spoil the players on its namesake team. "People who already knew about it would say, Ive got to go in and get those scones."
Funding leagues so families dont have to
Little League International enforces strict catchment areas for players and little leaguers around the world compete at neighbourhood ballparks. Even in a city of 600,000, players represent teams named for businesses down the street.
Across Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»at ball diamonds in Hastings, Memorial South, Elm, John Hendry and Carnarvon parks, some 1,500 children aged three to 12 play Little League from April to July. Without the sponsorship or in-kind donations from businesses big and small, players families would have to shoulder hefty registration fees.
Little Leagues have substantial annual budgets and each year replenish uniforms, catchers equipment and bats. They invest in infield grooming, scoreboards, batting cages, umpires, team photos and trophies. All-star teams cannot have a specific sponsor but making this select roster often means a player receives personalized gear and travels further distances. Each Little League must also purchase insurance.
"Thats the reality," said Neil Cusati, a board member with Hastings Little League, which counts roughly 400 players. "At the end of the day, the biggest impact our sponsors have is to essentially keep the annual league fees as low as we can and keep it affordable for a lot of families."
At Hastings Little League, the cost to run the league is $55,000 each year. At Dunbar, its nearly double at $100,000.
All Little Leagues are non-profit clubs run by volunteers.
"The sponsorship money goes to contribute to operations," said Dunbar Little League president David Berrington.
For its diamond at Memorial Park on Dunbar Street, the league pays a premium to ship in dirt from Kamloops. Known as "red gold," it doesnt get too dusty and soaks up water better than the dirt provided by the park board, which maintains basic elements of ball diamonds, such as fencing, but doesnt offer the sport-specific expertise needed to shape a batters mound or manicure the infield.
As with Kerrisdale, Dunbar Little League links a business with each of its 50 teams. Loyalty is rewarded. Until this year, the six Majors teams had the same six sponsors dating back 14 years. Regent Heating ended its 41-year tenure because the owner retired. He was presented with a framed jersey and the door opened for a new sponsor, McDermotts Body Shop, to move up from the minor to major division.
"I think its part of doing business," said McDermotts manager Terry Hartree. "What goes around comes around."
Neither Hartree nor owner Tony Ciccozzi lives in the neighbourhood, but the business has strong ties to Dunbar. "Its nice to get the feedback when you get customers and their kids are on one of the teams," he said.
Stongs versus Stongs
The majority of Dunbar sponsors have addresses listed on Dunbar Street, including Stongs which sponsors two Majors teams: Stongs Meats and Stongs Grocers.
If not in Dunbar, all sponsors are in the neighbourhood with the exception of five businesses, including Abbies Sports Store, a Main Street institution since 1948 that sponsor almost all of Vancouvers little leagues. (All little leaguers receive a 10 per cent discount at Abbies, and knowledgeable staff knows Little League gloves cant exceed 12 inches.)
"Typically the sought-after teams are older because they play more and [sponsors] get more exposure through that," said Berrington. "Kids talk about the business in terms of being the name of the team, so Cool Air plays versus RBC Dominion. They use the names and it means nothing more than a team name to them, but its still name brand recognition."
A Dunbar sponsors name is sewn across the front of each teams baseball jerseys in eye-catching cursive type like the L.A. Dodgers and Baltimore Orioles of Major League Baseball.
"They wear and tear," said Berrington, noting the average expense of $1,500 to $2,000 to replenish a full set of 20 uniforms. "White looks good but its also the worse to wear. They dont have home and away uniforms because of cost youre dealing with 12 year olds, you just want them to show up in the uniforms that youve given them."
It costs $400 to sponsor a Dunbar Majors team and $150 to $175 to sponsor a blast ball team and its four-year-old prospects. "What kind of exposure do you get? Ten kids running around with a long T-shirt on," said Berrington.
"Little League is always in the same place through the spring and you can come out any night and watch a ball game and let your kids run around the playground, walk with tour dog, have a hot dog, have an ice cream and it really is a true community feel. I let my kid hes eight roam free. Hes safe, knows the area and he knows 40 parents."
Think local, act local
Hastings, South Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»and Trout Lake little leagues dont link sponsors with specific teams. Hastings will host the 2016 national championship and relies on corporate heavyweights like McDonalds, Safeway and RBC to help offset costs as well as Hastings-Sunrise businesses like Cioffi's Market and Deli, Latimer Gallery and Fujiya Japanese Foods. They also have a long-standing relationship with the PNE, which donates proceeds from attendance on scheduled nights. "Were neighbours across the street," said Cusati.
Hastings players compete as the Blue Jays, Red Sox, Yankees and even the Expos while sponsors are recognized in the seasons programs and their logos are displaced along the fence line. Hastings offers two sponsorship packages for $500 and $1,000.
South Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»Little League has five different sponsorship tiers and the highest, platinum, recognizes sponsors who donate $1,200 or more. In comparison, a bronze sponsor is one who gives $350 and a booster $50.
Many South Van sponsors are drawn from Fraser Street although the league boundary stretches into Burnaby and includes Metrotown. The changing cultural makeup of the large neighbourhood meant sponsor turnover was high but has since stabilized, said the leagues vice-president Andrew von Rosen. In three years, only one sponsor has not returned after the business closed its doors and five new businesses have signed on. "Everyone else, year after year, they keep coming back," he said.
Numerous service groups have sponsored South Van since the leagues founding in 1957. Army, Navy and Air Force Veterans Club units 100 and 26, the Legion branch 16, Elks Lodge 55 and the Firefighters Athletic Club "are groups that have been around for decades and have always donated," he said. Their home park, Memorial Park South, circles a cenotaph where Remembrance Day ceremonies are held every November.
"I love it when people come out to watch the game. Thats really our goal: to get the community involved," said von Rosen, whose company Town Hall, donates $5 to the Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»Canadians Foundation each time a Cs batter knocks a ball out of Nat Bailey Stadium.
South Van has 250 members and is the only Little League in Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»without a dedicated ballpark. Their diamond becomes a soccer field in winter and because of this, the league must dismantle its scoreboard at the end of each season. Purchased by VanCity, the $10,000 piece of equipment is powered by an extension cord. Similarly, the league does not have a clubhouse and relies on UHaul for a storage locker.
"We did not raise our fees last year so sponsorship becomes very, very important," said von Rosen. "We dont draw from the highest incomes in Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»and we want to make it affordable to kids."
On a search for 20 first aid kits to supply teams on away games, von Rosen approached numerous national drug stores chains. He was repeatedly turned away. Two transport companies, Kimberley Transport and Ali Way Trucking, stepped in so South Van could purchase basic supplies like Band-Aids and ice packs.
"Were not necessarily looking for cash, were also looking for donations," said von Rosen.
At John Hendry Park, Trout Lake Little League recognizes their sponsors in the same way as South Van and Hastings: with banners, links to their websites and the encouragement that families visit their business.
"We look at some of the things we need and we approach a business," said fundraising coordinator Laura Larson. Trail Appliances gave Trout Lake a dishwasher, which means parents have an easier afternoon when they volunteer to run the concession.
"Its about perception," added Larson. "Wouldnt you rather support a business that you know supports your community?"
In turn, Little League sponsors set an example for young athletes who learn the value of giving back.
"Were always looking to reinforce our relationship within the community because its really important to us," said Larson. "Beyond baseball, were really helping out player become good citizen within our own community."
