That's the nature of the beast. My advice is to distance yourself from asking the school for assistance because the more they help you, the more control they're going to demand of your operation; most importantly, your winnings if or when they come.

When we set up the first fundraiser at TTU, the main expense was man-hours. We reached out to anyone looking for exposure and the desire to help out a fundraiser for a good cause, (getting our top three teams a paid trip to nationals and back) and we were fortunate to receive a great deal of assistance from folks like Sandy Creek Marina, Still Waters Bass Club and many others. You may be surprised how willing folks are to help out a good cause if you can clearly explain what you will do for them (exposure/advertising on jerseys, posters, your website etc.) in exchange for some help financially or with product.

Just don't expect hand outs. That doesn't work very often and it gives us college guys a bad wrap if you don't return the favor for someone that helps you.

We ultimately spent around $100 to get food supplies for our weigh-in cookout and some other small things. Managed to pay out $900 to first place, paid eight places out of 34 and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. We netted $600 from that event and a lot of good connections. It can be intimidating to put one that big on and we actually limited how much advertising we put out because we were afraid it would get too big for us to handle on our first try. But, 34 teams was pretty easy.

You should definitely get in touch with the folks at CarecoTV (They administer the BoatUS Championships). They honestly care about every club that gets started and they want to keep them running. I'd suggest giving Danny or the bossman Wade a call sometime. Just being associated with the Association of Collegiate Anglers (BoatUS Championships) grants you access to a lot of discounts with several companies with little obligation for your club.

Wade Middleton - Director
CarecoTV LLC
Phone: (210) 697-8081
E-mail: wade@carecotv.com

Danny Blandford - Head of Sales and Marketing
CarecoTV LLC
Phone: (812) 219-5681
E-mail: danny@carecotv.com

You can message me if you have any questions too. I've been in the college game for a while now.