Re: RC: Speaking of sponsors

["Linda B. Merims" <lbm@naisp.net>]

At 11:57 AM 8/22/01 EDT, Judy wrote:
>Good question about asking AERC, I'd like to know also.  My husbands
>company (which he owns) was planning on paying my fees in exchange
>for myself and my crew wearing company T-shirts.  Had not thought
>about the "amateur" status thing.  I KNOW I'm an amateur LOL!

As a ride manager, I have to sign a Special Use Permit agreement
with the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Management to
use their state forests for our rides.  One of the clauses
explicitly forbids any commercial promotion at the ride:

 "This permit shall not grant the right to engage in commercial
  or promotional activity or any other form of advertisement on
  state lands."

I'm not sure how far this really goes.  (I don't really see
the DEM's Environmental Police arresting any rider with a
logo on their T-shirt :-)  But I have interpreted it to mean
that I'd have trouble if I got one of the local businesses
like Ocean Spray Cranberry to partly sponsor the ride in
exchange for prominant display of their logo.

Sponsorship is a real slippery slope.  It causes difficulties
for events (Remember the hubbub over Cosequin?), and if
pursued seriously, it could cause all sorts of problems for
riders.  There was a whole subplot in the English best-selling
novel "Riders" about the kinds of pressures corporate sponsorship
and naming of Grand Prix show jumpers puts on riders to perform.

Anybody else remember the 1950's book "The Year of the Horse"
written by an AHSA judge and New York advertising executive?
Disney made it into the movie "The Horse in the Gray Flannel
Suit" in the 60's starring Dean Jones.  The ad exec gets
one of his accounts to pay for his daughter's show jumper
by naming it after their pain killer Aspercel.

Linda B. Merims
lbm@naisp.net
Massachusetts, USA