Sponsorship Opportunity.

Since 1972 the two main Isle of Wight Rowing Clubs, Ryde and Shanklin have hosted Hants. & Dorset Amateur Rowing Association Championship Regattas. These two events, staged over a weekend between mid May and mid June each year, bring around fifteen visiting mainland Rowing Clubs from all over the Southcoast - some 800 competitors and supporters - to the Island. As this is a weekend event most of our visitors stay over for the full weekend bringing a useful boost to early season trade for many Island businesses and the events provide a free sporting spectacle for Islanders and Visitors alike and generates useful publicity for the Island.

The success of the two events has on three occasions led to the Island being awarded the prestigious Southcoast Rowing Championships Regatta which the Ryde and Shanklin Clubs have organised jointly on behalf of the Hants. & Dorset Amateur Rowing Association. The Island Regatta weekend is one of the most popular in the South of England - regularly attracting over one hundred entries to each event - and with the growth in the sport this popularity is expected to continue to grow.

Coastal rowing remains one of the few truly amateur sports still in operation with no payments or expenses paid to competitors, officials or coaches and no cash prizes awarded.

As I am sure you will appreciate the cost of running the Regatta increases each year putting an ever increasing financial strain on the organisers. In spite of this the Ryde Club is proud of its record of running one of the most successful and best organised Regattas in the Hants. & Dorset area.

The income generated by the regatta is limited as the entry fees are fixed by the governing body and it is not possible to charge a fee to spectators as you can with many sports. Since 1980 we have been able to offset some of the costs thanks to the generosity of our sponsors.

Once again it is our intention to sell advertising space in our Regatta programme to local businesses who are known for their support of local Clubs and who hopefully gain from the competitors and spectators who will be visiting the Island. In addition to the advertising space we will link advertisers to an event or cost of the Regatta and give them additional publicity over the P.A. system during the Regatta. We will also be prepared to display any publicity material made available at the Clubhouse and to circulate additional advertising material when the programmes are distributed.

I have attached a sample page from a previous programme to illustrate the sort of advert we can accept. The programme cover and any inside pages on which the adverts are displayed are professionally printed.

It is our hope that sponsors will be willing to contribute around £50 for a quarter page advert and £100 for a half page. While we appreciate that this is probably not commercially viable we hope that the knowledge that you would be supporting a local Club and event will persuade you to take a place in our Programme.

Stephen C. Bull,Regatta Secretary.