Starter Kit. Idea 473 of 500. Cluster 25
School-sport leagues sponsored by the businesses in this list
The mechanism, from the book
The country's best-known export is cricket, and little of the business around it is built at home.
The first step
Pick one sport and one district, and draw up a season for 8 schools: fixtures, a final, a trophy and a results sheet. Then walk into 5 local businesses, starting with any from this list, and ask each owner to sponsor one team's kit or the final for a named amount, with their name on the shirt. Two signed pledges mean the league can run.
- Who pays first
- A local business owner who wants every parent in the district to know their name, and finds a school team shirt cheaper than a billboard.
- What leaves today
- Young talent leaves school sport early for lack of structured competition, and local firms spend their marketing money on nothing that stays in the district.
Ask first
- the Divisional Secretariat. Ask how to reach the schools in the division through the education office.
- the local council (Municipal Council, Urban Council or Pradeshiya Sabha). Ask whether council grounds can be booked for school fixtures.
Check before you spend
Confirm each school's permission, the parents' consent, insurance for players, and a written agreement with each sponsor on what they get.
Find out these three numbers
- What would a local business pay to sponsor one school?
- What do pitches, referees and a trophy cost for a season?
- How many schools in the district would enter?
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.