My electrician took $20,000 off our build-out in exchange for his logo in one kitchen. That was the first sponsorship I sold at The Courts LV, and I sold it before we had a court surface to put it on.

If you are opening an independent club, you are fighting for attention against every other business in your zip code, and you are doing it while your construction bills come due. Sponsorships solve both problems at once. They put local names on your courts and screens, which makes the club feel like part of the community before it opens, and they bring in capital you can use to build more value into the venue than a reservation system alone will ever give you.

Nobody handed me a guide for this. I did not know what to charge, how to get a sponsor's attention, or how to get anyone to commit to a brand with no track record. This is the playbook I wish I had: what to sell, who to call, what to charge, and the mistakes to skip.

Sell the first one before you open

During construction, I was looking for any way to cut upfront cost. Watching the PPA, I noticed the court itself is the most valuable real estate in the building. Those were national brands on national broadcasts, but the same logic holds at a local level: a logo on a local court, in front of local players, is worth something to a local business.

So the first sponsorship should be sold during your build-out, to a vendor who is already working on the project. Find one who is willing to give you a significant discount on tenant improvements in exchange for a court placement. That could be your electrician, the court company, your broker, even your landlord if they own other properties. What matters is that they want visibility for their own business and you have a bill from them you would rather not pay in full.

I chose our electrician. He granted us $20,000 off in exchange for his logo in the kitchen of one court. Once the deal was signed, I had that logo put down as fast as I could, because the first logo does most of the selling for you. Everyone who walks through on a tour now understands that this space is for sale.

After the first logo went down, owners started coming to me from their own businesses asking to buy walls, rooms, pillars, anything with their name on it. That is the moment the playbook starts.

What to sell: know your inventory

Before you talk price with anyone, write down every asset you have. Treat them as discrete products with their own price, term, and audience. At The Courts LV, the list looks like this.

• Court surfaces. The kitchen is the premium placement. Behind the baseline and outside the sidelines are the next two tiers. Every player on that court sees it every point, and so does everyone on the neighboring courts and everyone watching a replay of that court.
• Walls, pillars, and rooms. Once the courts are spoken for, the building itself is inventory. Our best wall deal came after every court and every screen was sold.
• Replays. Every replay at our club runs with a sponsor's logo on it, in the venue and on every clip that gets shared out to social. We started with our own logo on every replay until it was obvious that visibility of that kind is worth real money to a competitive local brand.
• Screens. Any TV in the building that is not showing a live court is digital real estate. We run sponsor content on our non-court screens today, and PodPlay's CMS lets you manage what plays on your court screens as well. Screens package naturally with replay sponsorship for a brand that wants both.
• Corporate memberships. A sponsor with a team is also a customer. Our neighbor Professional Contracting Supplies (PCS) came in for a court logo and left with corporate memberships too. Bundle them.

Physical and digital assets sell to different buyers on different terms, which is why you need to know the whole portfolio before the first conversation.

Why a local business says yes

A sponsor is buying the people in your building. That is the whole pitch: foot traffic, the clientele you are building as members, and the replays those members share.

Josh Galindo flips houses in the Las Vegas market. I had never met him. He walked into the club, saw the Findlay Automotive logo on the court he was playing on, and his first question was, "How do I get a court with my logo on it?" I laid out the options and the prices, and he said yes on the spot. He had already seen how many people were playing and how many replays were going out. I did not have to sell him on the audience; he was standing in it.

The Bar, a local gaming, food and beverage company, sponsors every replay across our club. Their logo runs on every replay in the venue and in the corner of every published clip. They see the value in month-over-month posts on social, texts of fun plays going around, and tags on TikTok and YouTube. A bar sponsoring the moment people share with their friends is a good fit for both sides.

Who to call

If sponsors are not walking in yet, here is where I would start.

Injury attorneys. Injury law is an oversaturated market with deep pockets. Injury firms have to stay top of mind constantly so that if a client ever needs representation, their firm is the one that comes to mind. If any attorneys play at your club, approach them first. They are easy to work with and they move fast. I would say the same about rehabilitation centers, especially with the injury volume pickleball is generating, though I have not closed one yet.

Dentists and medspas. They usually have strong local brands, capital to spend, and a recurring clientele that overlaps with yours.

The biggest local brands you can reach. Findlay Automotive is not a national name, but it is one of the largest dealership groups in Las Vegas, and their logo on a court is what sold Josh. Big local names do double duty: they pay for the placement and they make every other placement more credible.

Your neighbors. PCS noticed the court logos from next door and asked for one. Look at the businesses within walking distance before you look anywhere else.

Networking. Go to local sporting events. I go to Aviators games and meet people every time. Use Eventbrite for local ownership groups, find the Facebook groups for businesses in your area, and do not skip your local Chamber of Commerce. In my experience the businesses there are properly vetted, more consistently legitimate, and the Chamber hosts events for local businesses nonstop. Tell people what you are building and how much foot traffic it will bring, and nine times out of ten someone asks how they can get involved.

What to charge

The rate card. For court placements, if you do this right, the numbers you should be looking at are:

• $15,000 to $25,000 a year for a kitchen logo, on a five-year term
• $8,000 to $12,000 a year for a behind-the-baseline logo, on a five-year term
• $4,000 to $6,000 a year for an outside-the-sidelines logo, on a five-year term

The five-year term is deliberate. Most courts need resurfacing on roughly that cycle, so when you refresh the surface you refresh the logos, and the renewal conversation happens on your schedule.

Upfront or recurring: pick a model per deal. Do you want all the money now, or a recurring payment with the goal of making more over the term? Neither is wrong, but you have to decide which one drives each deal, because it changes who you go after. Toward the end of our construction we decided to add acoustic paneling throughout the building to dampen noise and elevate the aesthetic. That added to our upfront cost, so we used sponsorships to credit it back: some courts were sold as a one-time upfront fee for the five-year term. Others wrapped membership fees and court placement into one monthly recurring payment to build the revenue line. A sponsor with cash on hand wants the first structure. A sponsor worried about a new venue's risk wants the second.

Price the digital assets on their own. For a sponsor who is reluctant to make a five-year commitment, point them to the screens and the replays. Those sell as recurring digital sponsorships with no long lock-in. My recommendation: $750 a month per sponsor if you run two on replays, or $1,500 a month for one sponsor with exclusivity on replays and everything associated with them.

Know your value before you set the number. Our replay sponsorship started as an annual contract at $9,000, between two sponsors, which was enough to cover the cost of our platform. I left money on the table. Had I understood how much visibility we were actually delivering, I would have increased the price, shown them the replay numbers from PodPlay Insights, and locked in more recurring revenue. Pull the replay and reach numbers before the meeting. They are the receipts.

Hold the line on risk. A well-known law firm approached us wanting a space for their name after every court and every screen was sold. We had walls available but had not advertised them. They were the most interested party we had, because they saw the foot traffic and the clientele we were building as members. Before the deal closed, their lead negotiator came back with questions about risk mitigation, since we were not a franchise with a nationally recognized brand. I was asking for all five years upfront. Most operators would take fewer years or a lower price to get past that objection. I did not, because I could show the management team how the risk was reduced: proactive retention, a real community, and a building that was already filling up. I ran the risk of losing the deal. Instead, holding firm to the value proposition as supply shrank got me more money upfront.

Five mistakes to skip

1. Pricing every placement the same. A kitchen is worth more than a sideline, a replay is worth more than a wall, and a cash-upfront buyer deserves a different structure than a monthly one. Price accordingly.
2. Negotiating against yourself on term. Multi-year contracts are the point. If you let a sponsor into a one-year deal on a court surface, you have given up the renewal leverage the resurfacing cycle gives you.
3. Assuming a brand is not interested. The law firm, the house flipper, and the contractor next door all found me. Ask everyone.
4. Letting the partnership stop at the invoice. Tag them, feature them in replays and posts, bring their team in for events. The sponsors who renew are the ones who felt the partnership after the check cleared.
5. Selling only the physical space. Your digital footprint has its own revenue line. If every court is sold and you have not priced the replays and the screens, you are not done.

Sell the first one before you open. Know every asset you own. Call the businesses that need to stay top of mind. Charge what the visibility is worth, and put the receipts in front of them.