Bidding for Youth Sports?

[Chancey]

Hiya Everyone!

I have no clue exactly how to start this or how to word it so please don't throw stones. I throw back.

Does anyone here bid for youth sports photography?

My strength is sports photography. Love it with everything that I have. It has been my main focus throughout my years of photography.
I prefer youth sports of all sorts. Football, baseball, rodeos, cheerleading etc... Someone once told me I am a saint with children. It's all an act

I have photographed many teams and individuals, however, I have a baseball league that wants me to bid for the entire season - for ALL the teams in the league. I have no clue how to even go that route.
I have always just taken on individual teams. Not the entire league.

What I normally do is charge each parent a set fee for just showing up and doing what I do. (team shots, indivuduals and action)
All prints are done on-line through my website. They pay for the sizes and quantity of prints that they want/need and it is shipped directly to their home.

I don't set up a tent and let people go "shopping" - I don't print out ridiculous amounts of sizes that people don't even want. I prefer to keep it simple.

It works for me - so helpful advice on bidding for a Season would be appreciated. Thoughts? Ideas? Suggestions?

[StevenGWebb]

T&I work traditionally has worked thusly:

A photo date is set. An order envelope for each player is provided to the coaches no more than a week in advance. The envelope is preprinted with the packages available and the prices. There is also a form on the envelope with the player's info (Name Jersey Number Age Position and the like) this is the information for the printed backside of the trading card product. Parent's mark the order, enclose the payment, and the player arrives on photo day with his envelope.

On photo day, the team is set-up and a slate with the team name then the team is photographed followed by each individual. The individual's order envelopes are collected and placed face-down so the order matches the shooting sequence. This is repeated until all the teams for the day are shot.

Some leagues play in parks with multiple fields and may have several pairs of teams playing on the same date in the same location. If that's how yours works the photo dates can be staggered so 2-6 teams can be shot, each prior to game time. In this way the T&I shots can be gotten out of the way and action shots can be taken.

In the later example, my opinion is that on-site delivery is the way to go. Same as the old fashioned way, parents choose the pic-a-pack products and the T&Is are handled the same way, with a twist. The photographer has an on-site fulfillment area set up. The T&Is are shot for a pair of teams prior to the game and an assistant begins producing the orders (mostly memory mates) and having them ready during play. The photographer shoots the action through a few innings and those pictures are put on viewing stations. When parents come to pick up their pre-paid orders, they get the chance to see (and purchase) the action pictures.

In my humble opinion there are two keys to making a successful and profitable venture out of team sports. Superior quality and Immediacy. Tightly linked to the immediacy is limited availability.

Quality first: There are tens of thousands of snap-shooters out there. There are enthusiasts for all manner of sport and action event all out there with every range of camera doing what they do. The vast majority of them are thrilled to have someone ask them for a picture, so they give them away. They may not be great, the may be horrible but for free they are worth the price. If a professional is going to offer a product at a price that returns a profit on his investment, it has to be superior to what ever the weekend warriors, uncle Neds, and school kid's iPhone results. This also means producing products that rank amateurs can't. Magazine covers, collages, and the like. Superiority in appearance, both personal and product presentations. Anybody can (and far too many do) get an online presence and sell pictures.

Immediacy, Emotional buy, and a call to action: I have a personal dislike for internet marketing, though I do maintain a storefront out of necessity. There is a huge advantage in having a product the customer can take home while the emotion of the event is still high. The great play, the home-run or tag-out at home will soon be replaced with the next big thing. The kid's are going to have another Kodak moment tomorrow or next week. The excitement of tonight's game for parents will fade and tomorrow the price of a picture will have to compete with the utility bill or new tires for the car. If the pictures are online, there isn't any real reason to buy them. Grandma and aunt Suzie can be sent a link and the photos be shared. If the photos are time-limited that sometimes helps, but how long do the need to stay to maximize sales potential and limit exploitation. Not mentioned is the ability to simply snag all the pictures one wants with no more effort than a few mouse clicks.

Another situation that has to be dealt with is taking too many pictures for too long a period of time. "We'll just wait till the next time and see which ones are better before we buy anything" (may as well add "lather rinse and repeat"). You want a very limited number of chances for your customer to procrastinate. Sure, the league wants the entire season covered with pictures of every kid at every game. The reality is they want it, they won't pay for it.

My opinion is, make a splash and make the teams picture night the highlight of their season. Promote the upcoming photo date like its a Hollywood premier night. Have samples in nothing but large sizes (they can be seen from a distance), matte and frame the majority of them and do an excellent job processing them. Have a slick appearance, if you need to use an EZ-Up tent, decorate it well. Use frames appropriate with the particular event you are attending. Make everything neat and tidy. Use table cloths and keep the cardboard boxes out of sight. Have a dedicated area for working and another for presentations. Look like a $Million so your customers won't be surprised when they are actually asked to pay a real price for a real picture.

Anybody can make a picture and post it to a web gallery and charge $1.99 for a 4X6 copy of it. They can also slowly drown in the false success.

Limit your work, make it superior, make it worth something and sell it worth having done it. If you flood the market with everybody else's snapshot, you'll be competing for the same give-away market.

By the way, the leagues have grown quite accustom to getting a piece of the pie. Be sure your prices include the 20-30 percent kick-back you'll be expected to pay.

Best wishes

Steven