Corporate Donations?

Salsa · Post by **Salsa** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 12:02 pm

Will BG athletics in the next few years receive some major corporate donations?

From what I know, the recent major donations to athletics and other University programs or projects have been made mostly by individuals.

I read that Huntington Bank donated something like $10 million to U. of Cincinnati's Varsity Village Athletic Complex. Will BG ever be that lucky?

What nearby corporations might be possibilities?

Sky Bank? You'd think this would be a natural.
Cooper Tire?
Marathon Oil?

With the Building Dreams campaign underway, it may be more likely that corporate donations would go to academic projects, and of course that would be great.

But it would also sure be great if some corporations would donate to athletics programs or projects.

mk455 · Post by **mk455** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 12:04 pm

if i win the lottery, i'll donate a cool million.

UK Peregrine · Post by **UK Peregrine** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 12:36 pm

Donations across the board have been up this past couple of years at BGSU. But it's impossible to predict which corporations will donate what amount, when and for what purpose. I do know a few corporations that have donated money recently. Namely, Sky Financial Group and Nationwide have been the publicized one's that made significant donations. Below is a link to the status of the Building Dreams Campaign as of June 30. The Athletic program goal is $18,000,000 of which they've raised $9,055,617.12.

http://giving.bgsu.edu/development/buil ... ogress.jsp

duckunder53 · Post by **duckunder53** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 12:47 pm

I have heard that the new marketing guy in charge of getting corporate sponsors for sports hasn't had much success. I hope that is a false rumor.

orangeandbrown · Post by **orangeandbrown** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 1:17 pm

Well, its important to have an idea of what product you are taking to the potential sponsor. This isn't Cincinnati, first of all. Its a smaller town and a smaller market. What is the exposure for the sponsor? You're buying into a situation where crowds are highly variable, and not likely to be especially influential or affluent.

Does that mean it can't be sold--no, it can. At some price, it would have value. These guys have a limited pot of money, just like everyone else. Your $100K opportunity has to be better than the other things they could do with that $100K. Its going to boil down to numbers.

Which is why most of the donors have been individuals looking to support something they care about and get some recognition for it.

Dayons_Den · Post by **Dayons_Den** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 1:32 pm

There is a difference between "donatiions" and "sponsorship".

I think the trend in college athletics is towards sponsorships- I.E. the Corporation making the "donation" expects something in return. Corporations are expecting some sort of return on investment because quite frankly the money being "donated" these days is some major moohlah.

The challenge to the sponsorship guy and the athletic department on a whole is to provide real value to the companies whether it be providing demographic research on fan base to even potential exposure and contract opportunities with the university.

Flipper · Post by **Flipper** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 1:59 pm

"Welcome to Doyt Perry Field at 5/3 Stadium. Today's game features the Alltel CMU Chippewas vs the homestading Time Warner Bowling Green State University Falcons"

This will happen....time will stop...reality will be altered...the center will not hold...cats will play with dogs...golfer will come back...life as we know it will cease to exist.

mk455 · Post by **mk455** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 2:22 pm

Flipper wrote:...golfer will come back...

hahahahhaa

where did he go anyways?

Tricky_Falcon · Post by **Tricky_Falcon** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 4:01 pm

I think he found out that he wasn't accepted to BG and left for the ohio state boards.