I put their logos on the jersey without a yes

The uniform production deadline came around and several sponsors hadn’t come back to me. I went ahead with their logos anyway, off the back of what we’d discussed or an offer they already had sitting in front of them.

Most of them paid what had been discussed. I still wouldn’t do it again.

It mostly worked, and that’s the part that bothers me. Something working out is not the same as it being a reasonable thing to do.

What I was really doing was moving the risk onto the club. If one of them had come back and said no, we’d have been holding a set of jerseys the club had already paid for, with a logo on them nobody had agreed to, and nothing in writing to point at. That’s a bill and an awkward phone call, and the sponsor would have had every right to make it.

What I’d do now is start from the date the supplier actually needs final artwork and count back from there, because that’s the deadline that won’t move for you. And I’d put an approval date in front of the sponsor early, along with what happens when it passes. Not as a threat, just so the date belongs to both of us instead of sitting in my head.

That’s the whole lesson, and it’s a fairly boring one. I started later than I should have, and this is the version of that which could have cost the club money.

Club Funding builds fundraising tools for clubs, and that’s how this gets paid for. This isn’t the pitch. Nothing above needs anything from us.

I’d like to hear one of these from you. What’s something you’ve done at your club that worked out fine, and you still wouldn’t do again?

I’m not after confessions. I’m after the ones where you got away with it and knew you’d been lucky. I’ll share the good ones in a later issue if you’re happy for me to, with your name on it or without.