Current at whereI live (Fort Wayne, Indiana, US), there are a few of us that play on a semi-regular basis. Even though Fort Wayne is a good-sized city (200,000 population), we seemed to have some difficulty making more people aware of the existance of our facility and schdule and attracting them to our group. We would like to see more bodies show up and just have some badminton fun. However, having never done this, we don't really know where to start. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how we should go about making more people aware of us? Newspaper? Sporting goods store? We don't have any fund allocated at this time, but we're open to any suggestion/venue. Thanks for your input.
how about an exhibition game? could be your group if you can wow people or maybe invite players from other cities. probably inside a mall or someplace visible to walk in traffic.
Put up posters in sports shops - not the big chain types but those smaller, privately run shops. Other places you might want to consider are other sports venues. In some countries, clubs put up posters in general stores - I saw one in a little coastal town in Australia advertising a badminton club. Quite surprising to find one there! Another option is those small classified ads in local newspaper, or maybe a community newsletter. Good luck!
What about getting members who attend PTA meetings for their kids to mention something about the club? Get the kids started in the sport. Perhaps it's also a good way of pulling the parents in as well. How big is your facility anyways?
Try putting posters at schools, or ask the schools phys ed teacher incorperate some badminton in there classes.. Therefore if the kids want to try it out, they would ask some of their friends if they want to go also.. Cause i find with advertising, its not usually effective cause they might not read it. But u gotta tell em first hand what its about.
What about making flyers and putting them under windscreen wipers in car parks at shopping centres or at local team football matches etc. Or even just hand them out at sporting events Basically anywhere you have large concentrations of people in the one place at one time
great suggestions Thank you all for your replies. Those are all great suggestions and ideas and we certainly welcome more of them. Considering the limited man hour we have (we all have regular jobs and other responsibilities, such as family and school), we may have to try a combination of some of them and see the effectiveness. Our facility actually is pretty descent: polished wooden floor, three courts with painted lines, and relatively adequate lighting. The ceiling is a bit too low to our liking but we can live with it. Given the number of gyms available in the city, we may be able to find a bigger place if we have more players (therefore have more convincing power and connection).
Er... three courts? It's probably not enough if your advertising efforts do become successful, unless your club have all day access to the gym. It'll get overcrowded pretty fast... and what do players hate most? The waiting between games. Be prepare to have a rotation system setup to handle overcrowding.
yep, we're getting ready for that (hopefully it comes sooner than expected ). One of the us has played in a much larger facility and with many more people before. He said the rotation system they played with was pretty effective and they liked it. We haven't tried it out at our facility yet (not nearly enough people), but I'm sure we can work it out.
