When Maroochydore Rugby Union Club celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2022, sponsorship surged. However, 12 months on, the club’s $112,000 sponsorship portfolio had dropped by $35,000. Despite still having a relatively healthy sponsorship pool, the club was determined to maintain that momentum that the milestone year had delivered.
Rather than immediately approaching more businesses, the club’s committee paused and reviewed its position. Together, the group looked at what the club was offering, how sponsors experienced the relationship and how much work the process was creating for volunteers. That review shaped a more structured sponsorship strategy built around three ideas: listening to sponsors, packaging the club’s assets more creatively and securing longer-term agreements.
Reviewing current offerings
Maroochydore’s first step was not creating a new brochure or making more sales calls. It was speaking with its sponsors. The club asked current partners what had worked, what had not and what could be improved. It also contacted businesses that had chosen not to renew. Some of the feedback was difficult to hear. Several sponsors felt they had received plenty of attention when the agreement was signed, but not enough once the season began.
“Some of our sponsors felt that we ignored them or didn’t show them enough love. That’s something we’ve turned around more recently”Brendan Edwards – Club President
That feedback changed the club’s approach. Sponsorship became less about securing a payment and more about maintaining a relationship throughout the year. For other clubs, the lesson is simple. Before building new packages, speak with current and former partners. Their feedback may be more valuable than anything found in a generic sponsorship template.
Club Assets and Opportunities
Once Maroochydore better understood its sponsorship position, the committee mapped the assets the club could genuinely offer. It developed a clear structure that included Diamond, Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Supporter partnerships. A professional proposal then helped explain the club’s story, community reach and the benefits available at each level.
The proposal showed potential partners the size of the audience they could connect with. In 2025, Maroochydore had 390 registered players, including 260 juniors, with female players making up 23 per cent of registrations. The club also highlighted 4,380 social media followers and more than 700,000 combined Facebook and Instagram views during the year. Packages included familiar benefits such as signage, website recognition, social media promotion, merchandise and tickets to club events. One of the club’s strongest ideas, however, was dividing larger assets into smaller and more accessible opportunities.
The women’s jerseys were offered through one dedicated partnership. Across the senior men’s program, every jersey number from 1 to 23 became an individual sponsorship opportunity covering A Grade, Reserve Grade and Third Grade. Numbers 1 to 15 were offered at $1,000 plus GST, while numbers 16 to 23 were offered at $750 plus GST.
“We wrote down what our assets were that we could sell as sponsorship opportunities, and we were quite creative with it”Brendan Edwards – Club President
This gave more local businesses a way to support the club without needing to purchase a major package. It also showed that clubs do not always need to create something completely new. Often, the opportunity is to look differently at the teams, jerseys, events, digital channels and match-day experiences already available.
Sustainability and Longevity
The final shift was moving established sponsors towards three-year commitments. Instead of starting each season with a blank sponsorship board, club representatives sat down with trusted partners and presented a longer-term proposal. Many had already supported Maroochydore for several years and were comfortable making a longer commitment when they could see the club had a clear and professional plan. The agreements also included modest annual increases. One Gold package, for example, moved from $7,500 in 2026 to $8,000 in 2027 and $8,500 in 2028, with the sponsor receiving first right of renewal.
This gave sponsors clarity about their investment and gave the club more predictable revenue. For volunteers, the benefits went further. Late sponsorship decisions had previously delayed merchandise orders because sponsor logos could not be confirmed. Training shirts were not always ready for sign-on day, which meant extra collection days and more work for an already busy volunteer group. With most partners now secured earlier, the club can order apparel sooner, plan its income with greater confidence and focus its annual effort on a smaller group of new prospects.
“At the end of each season, the only proposals we need to put together are for the new businesses that want to come on board.”Brendan Edwards – Club President
Maroochydore’s success did not come from one person or one perfect sponsorship document. It came from a coordinated club effort to create a repeatable system. The committee reviewed the experience, listened to partners, identified the club’s assets, created different entry points and made successful relationships easier to retain. That approach helped add more than $50,000 to the club’s books. Just as importantly, it reduced uncertainty and made sponsorship easier for the club’s volunteers to manage.
