How to Create a Sponsorship Rate Card

A sponsorship rate card is your price list: every asset or package you sell, what it includes, the term and the price, with VAT shown clearly. Lead with a one-page summary, publish the smaller standard items and keep headline rights for personalised pitches. This guide is part of our series on how to write a sponsorship proposal.

What is a sponsorship rate card, and how is it different from a deck or proposal?

A rate card is a price list that is the same for every reader, while a pitch deck and a proposal are written for one prospect and show why a package suits that brand.

Two things come before the card: an inventory (see sponsorship inventory) and a price for each asset (see how to value a sponsorship asset).

What should a sponsorship rate card include?

Every line should say what the item is, what the buyer gets, the term, the price, whether it is available and what to do next:

Sources: Warrington Town, Hornchurch FC, Torquay United, Roffey FC, Evesham United, Winnington Park RFC.

Put a summary table near the front: Roffey FC's booklet sets out one price table after its introduction, then the packages in detail.

Should you sell tiers or individual items?

Many club cards do both: tiers for buyers who want a bundle, single items for buyers who want one thing. Our proposal guide covers the case for and against listed packages; here the question is layout.

• Tiers. Winnington Park RFC sells five tiers for 2026/27, from Bronze at £500 to a main club package at £10,000 a year, all ex VAT, shown as cards and in a comparison table (source).
• Single items. Evesham United's 2026/27 brochure gives each product, from match ball to floodlight, its own page (source).
• Hybrid. Winnington Park adds a "smaller commitments" list beside its tiers, such as match ball sponsorship at £50 a game. Roffey FC sells pitch-side boards in tiers but prices kit positions individually.

The UK charity Sported notes that tiers let sponsors "choose a package that fits their budget and goals" (Sported workshop, April 2025). To make tiers work on the card:

• Keep to three to five steps, so the comparison table stays readable.
• Make each step add something new. Winnington Park anchors each tier above Bronze on a kit position (sleeve, shorts, back of shirt, front of shirt), which gives a buyer a clear reason to step up.
• Price the entry tier within reach of a local business, so a first-time sponsor has an easy way in.
• Let the top tier lead to a conversation, not a fixed checkout.

How do you package assets on a rate card?

Use position, term and add-ons to make price differences clear:

• Price by position and size. Warrington Town lists main stand boards at £1,000 + VAT and end or road-facing boards at £750 + VAT, and says 20,000 supporters attend during the season (source).
• Fixed package plus a per-unit add-on. Torquay United's match sponsorship includes a meal for six, with extra guests priced per head, so a buyer can scale up without a negotiation.
• Multi-season terms. Hornchurch FC prices a 2.5m x 1m stadium banner at £795 for one or £1,495 for two, over two seasons, with manufacture and installation included (source).
• Future inventory. Evesham United marks its press box "Available 2027/28 Season", a way to take bookings a season ahead.

If a package includes category exclusivity, say so on the card and check it against existing partners first (managing multiple sponsors).

How should you show prices and VAT on a rate card?

State the VAT treatment on every price: "£1,000 + VAT at 20%" for business buyers, and VAT-inclusive prices for anything an individual might buy. The standard rate is 20% (GOV.UK).

ASA guidance on CAP Code rule 3.18 says VAT-exclusive prices are acceptable only where the audience clearly pays no VAT or can recover it, with a prominent statement of the rate or amount, such as "£120 + VAT@20%". "Ex VAT" alone is not enough, and for a mixed audience the VAT-inclusive price should have at least equal prominence (ASA). The CMA's price transparency guidance under the DMCC Act 2024 says consumer prices must include VAT, while trade customers may be given VAT-exclusive lists (CMA209).

For a club card, that suggests:

• Business assets (boards, kit, match sponsorship): "£X + VAT at 20%" on each line.
• Supporter items (player sponsorship, birthday messages): VAT-inclusive prices, or a separate supporters' page.
• Do not call a benefits tier a donation. HMRC says that where a sponsor must pay a set amount to receive benefits such as publicity, VAT is due on the whole amount; a donation element counts only where it is genuinely optional (HMRC VATSC03560).

Wording on real cards varies, so pick one explicit form and use it on every line.

This is general information, not tax or legal advice. Check VAT treatment and price display with your accountant or adviser.

Should you publish your rate card or keep it for pitches?

Publish the small, standard items, and keep headline rights unpriced for a personalised pitch. Hornchurch FC lists stand sponsorship as "Available on request" while pricing its banners openly (source).

Publish: pitch-side boards, match and match ball sponsorship, programme adverts, player sponsorship and entry tiers. A published price lets a smaller buyer decide before they pick up the phone.

Keep for pitches: naming rights, front of shirt, principal partner and anything built around a sponsor's objectives. England Rugby's sales templates make the point that "the final fee will be based on the final package of benefits, which will be based on the objectives of the sponsor" (England Rugby). See personalising sponsorship pitches. Keep an internal card for these too, so every member of staff quotes the same starting price.

How do you keep a rate card up to date?

Keep one master price list and take the PDF, the website page and each deck from it. Errors creep in when one package appears in several places. Common mistakes to avoid: the same package priced differently on two pages of one document, two descriptions of one package that list different benefits, and a "last updated" date left over from an earlier season.

• Stamp the season and the hold date. Winnington Park's "Prices held for the 2026/27 season" tells a buyer how long the figure stands. Update the date stamp every time the card changes.
• Launch next season's card in spring. Warrington Town posted its 2026/27 board prices on 19 May 2026.
• Mark availability ("Sold", "Held until [date]", "New") instead of deleting lines.
• Show first-year and renewal prices. Evesham United prices a floodlight at £200 for the first year and £100 on renewal, per floodlight, and Winnington Park charges £350 for a board in year one and £150 after. Roffey FC offers a 20% renewal discount on board tiers. See sponsorship renewal.
• Revalue each season and update the master list first.

What does a finished rate card look like? A worked example

An illustrative summary page for a hypothetical National League club. All figures are invented for this example and do not come from any real club.

Hypothetical: 2027/28 Commercial Rate Card. Prices held for the 2027/28 season. All business prices + VAT at 20%.

Each tier steps up by kit position, supporter pricing is VAT-inclusive on its own line, and the headline rights lead to a personalised deck for each shortlisted brand.

How Sportworks helps

Your rate card says what you sell and for how much. Sportworks.io, the AI platform for sports commercial teams, helps each item land with the brand you are pitching. Sportworks presents the prices you set; it does not value or price assets, and it is not a CRM.

• Designs puts the prospect's logo on the exact board, kit position or LED from your rate card, built from your own inventory photos with matching colour, sizing and perspective (sponsorship mockups).
• Decks turns your existing PowerPoint or PDF deck into a reusable template, then builds personalised decks for each brand with visuals, inventory and the pricing you have set. Exports go to PPTX or PDF.
• Deck tracking shows open notifications, per-viewer sessions and dwell time, and a slide-by-slide heatmap, so you can see who lingered on the investment slide (deck tracking guide).
• Scale generates personalised pitch assets for several brands or a whole industry in one run, which suits an unsold tier or open category.
• Studio and Video create activation visuals and short clips for a top tier.
• Showcase, coming soon, will let a prospect walk through your venue in 3D, see their brand in place and click through to the deck, the assets for sale, the price list and terms.

Sponsor management and reporting are on the Sportworks roadmap. In our view, the strongest use today is turning a rate card line into a pitch a brand can picture.

Birmingham City FC's Head of Partnerships says: "We can create personalised decks in minutes."

According to Sportworks' own aggregated client data, customers see 10x faster production, a 50% cost reduction and 3x more conversions, with average payback under 30 days from first use (Sportworks customers).

FAQs

Should a rate card show prices with or without VAT?

Show "+ VAT at 20%" to business buyers and VAT-inclusive prices for anything individuals buy. This is general information, not tax or legal advice.

How often should you update a rate card?

Once a season, with a new version in spring, and whenever an item sells or a price changes.

Should headline sponsorship be on the rate card?

List it, but mark it "on request" and sell it through a personalised pitch.

Can you discount from the rate card?

Yes, for a reason such as a longer term, a renewal or early commitment, but never below the minimum you set when valuing it (how to value a sponsorship asset).

Turn your rate card into pitches that sell

Book a 30-minute demo to see Sportworks turn your inventory and prices into personalised, tracked pitches, or see pricing.