Bring your sponsor. Get yourself paid.
URLA's model rewards players who bring their own sponsors. 75% of any sponsor you close goes back to you — covers your $310 season and pays additional funding above that for training and travel. Here's the playbook.
Why URLA pays players who sell.
URLA splits player-acquired sponsorships 75 / 20 / 5. The player who closes the sponsor takes 75% of that money. Your $310 (registration + kit) gets covered first, and anything above that lands directly with you as additional funding.
That's not a marketing line — it's the actual mechanic. A $415 sponsor closes your season cost exactly. A $1,500 jersey-front sponsor pays you $1,125 — your registration is covered, and the remaining ~$815 is your money for training, gas, gear, or just keeping your kids in shoes while you play.
URLA is the only rugby competition in Utah that runs this way. Every other league treats sponsorship as a club-level operations budget. URLA pushes 75% back to the player who did the selling. Bring more sponsors, take more home.
Four steps to your first sponsor.
- 1
List 5 local businesses you have a real relationship with
Your barber. Your mechanic. The gym you train at. Your employer. The bar you watch matches at. Real relationships convert way better than cold pitches. Don't pick businesses you've never walked into.
- 2
Send them your team's reserve link
Every URLA team has a sponsorship menu page with packages, calculator, and reserve form. Ask your team president for your direct share-link — it's pre-tagged so any sponsorship that lands gets credited to you, not split across the team.
- 3
Lead with the tax-deduction angle
Sponsorship is a tax-deductible marketing expense for businesses. At a 24% effective rate: $310 → ~$236 net cost. $1,500 → ~$1,140 net cost. Most local owners haven't run that math. Make it the first thing you say.
- 4
Follow up once, then hand it to URLA
If they're interested, URLA closes the placement, ships the welcome packet, and handles tracking. Your job ends after the introduction. No invoice chasing, no contract negotiation — that's URLA's lane.
Why a local business says yes.
- Permanent backlinked page on URLA. Every sponsor gets their own profile page on this site with logo, blurb, contact form, and external link. The page stays live indefinitely — even after the season — so the SEO value compounds year over year.
- Match-day photo + video library. Every URLA match is shot — game-day photos, livestream clips, post-match B-roll. Sponsors get the full library to repurpose in their own marketing, ads, social, and website. Most local businesses can't afford this kind of content at all — sponsorship hands it over for free.
- Logo on jerseys, social, livestream. Depending on placement, the logo shows up on game-day kits, every match-week social post, and pre-game livestream graphics. Real reach across the team's audience.
- Tax-deductible marketing expense. Treated as ordinary advertising spend by the IRS. Confirm with their accountant.
- Monthly URLA sponsor lunch. Free networking with every team president and the URLA sponsor roster. A real reason to be in the room.
- Real lead tracking. Forms route through this site so sponsors can prove the sponsorship drove inbound interest.
- Player database hiring access. Need to fill a position at their business? Sponsors can post hiring needs to URLA's 169+ player network plus the broader community. Free as part of the partnership.
- Referral commission programs (extra income for you). URLA sponsors can set up commission programs that pay players for referrals that close. JKW Vacation Club pays 15–50%. Top Notch Movers pays a flat percentage on every booked move. See active programs →
Get your team's share-link.
Talk to your team president. They'll give you your tagged reserve link so any sponsorship that lands gets credited to you. New to URLA? Sign up first — we'll route you to the closest team and they'll get you set up.