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Madina Athletic Boosters pledge $50,000 to district athletics; boosters outline programs and sponsorship plan
Summary
Representatives of the Madina Athletic Boosters told the board they support about 80 teams and 1,200 student athletes and announced a $50,000 annual donation to the district athletic department, while describing membership and sponsorship strategies that send 80% of membership dollars to individual teams.
The Madina Athletic Boosters presented a year-in-review to the Madina City Schools board and announced a $50,000 donation to the district’s athletic department.
At a board meeting, boosters said their mission is “to enrich, support, and promote all Madina school sports teams,” including middle-school programs. The boosters reported supporting roughly 80 teams and about 1,200 student athletes through memberships and sponsorships and said they award more than $10,000 a year in scholarships.
Booster representatives said they changed their membership model so that 80% of a membership contribution is directed to the team named by the donor and 20% covers booster expenses. “So let’s say you have a son that’s on the baseball team and you give a $100 donation. $80 goes directly to baseball, $20 goes to us,” a boosters representative said. The boosters also described corporate and local-business sponsorships that fund large, visible projects such as stadium scoreboards and field improvements.
Jim Smeaggel, a longtime boosters volunteer, described recent projects funded by sponsorship revenue and donations, including new electronic scoreboards at the stadium and gym, wind screens at baseball and softball fields, a $25,000 contribution to improve the weight room and procurement of a portable AED for athletic trainers. “Those are the kinds of projects that we look to do,” Smeaggel said, adding that the group strives not to favor one sport over another.
The boosters also outlined plans for a new LED sponsor board (about 7-by-8 feet) to be installed in March that they said will operate 365 days a year and allow more flexible sponsor messaging; sponsorship packages were described as starting at $500 to encourage participation by small local businesses.
Board members thanked the boosters for the donation and said the district looks forward to collaborating on longer-range facilities planning where booster support could be applied.
The board accepted the donation as part of superintendent action items approved that evening. The boosters encouraged parents and community members to join; meeting information and further details are posted at madinaboosters.org.
