How To Create a Gameday Program For Your Sports Team
One of the best ways to celebrate your players and commemorate your team’s season is with a gameday program. A game day program is a printed or digital booklet distributed at sporting events, combining team information, game coverage, athlete features, and sponsor advertising to engage fans and optionally raise funds for the team.
Gameday programs can include everything from rosters, coaches info and game schedules to more personalized pages like senior spotlights, historical program stats or a letter from the head coach. They can be digital and accessed on phones or printed and sold at games. They are a great addition to the season but can be tricky to create if you aren’t sure where to start. Read below to get a full rundown of how you can create a gameday program for your team.
Do-It-Yourself Gameday Program
If you’re looking to create a gameday program yourself you’ll need to decide what website you’d like to use. Trying to create a gameday program in Microsoft Word or Google Docs will leave you with a headache and a gameday program that doesn’t look professional. There are several websites that offer digital templates that take a lot of the design work off your plate and can help you get started.
Gipper - Paid Option - Digital Only
Gipper is a templated content creation website. It is the easy and basic way for coaches to create fast social media graphics for their team. Once you pay for the yearly subscription (Ranging from $625 - $3,000) you have access to their digital gameday program template. Unfortunately it is digital only, it cannot be printed out. Primarily the website is used for social media graphics but does have newsletter type templates available.
Gipper Digital Gameday Program: https://www.gipper.com/gameday-program-newsletter-template
image credits - gipper.com
Cons
Pros
Requires payment
Digital only (cannot print out)
Basic design - more of a newsletter than gameday program
Template is easy to use
Faster and easy option
Story of the Season - Free Option - Digital and Print
Story of the Season specializes in gameday programs and weekly digital magazines for sports teams. We offer a free gameday program template that allows coaches and parents to create a digital program for free. The template is also printable and can be sent to a local printer for easy printing. The template is professionally designed and is complete with all standard pages while also including additional pages like senior spotlights, historical stats, sponsor page and captains page. Story of the Season also has a free playbook for creating gameday programs and raising money with them. It’s a great resource for coaches or parents trying to create a gameday program for the first time.
Free Gameday Program Template: https://www.storyoftheseason.com/gameday-program-template
How-To Playbook for Gameday Programs: https://www.storyoftheseason.com/mediaguide-playbook
Cons
Pros
Need Adobe Indesign App (free trial offered)
Completely free to use and download
Includes extra pages
Digital and print options
Professionally designed and easy to use
Offer free how-to resources
Overall both options are great. Gipper is a quick and easy option if your team just needs to get something out there. The price tag for Gipper may not be worth the final product though since you are limited to a basic design and digital only. Story of the Season’s free gameday program template has a few more bells and whistles. The ability to do both print and digital is a huge plus. Story of the Season’s gameday program is also completely free with no paywall or fees to use. The only turnoff for some may be that it requires Adobe Indesign to edit. This isn’t an issue for most as Indesign has a free 2 week trial that many take advantage of. Story of the Season provides teams with an easy way to create a professional looking gameday program completely free.
Easiest Way to Create a Gameday Program
Regardless of which website you choose you will have to do the bulk of the work yourself. The templates take the design decisions off your plate but content collection, sponsorship organization and editing will all be your responsibility. If this feels like TOO much work to take on, Story of the Season offers gameday program design services at prices comparable to Gipper.
Instead of paying and still having to create the gameday program yourself, Story of the Season takes care of the entire process. All teams have to do is give Story of the Season the content that they want to see in their gameday program, like photos and rosters. All of the designing, content collection and ad organization is taken care of. Coaches get to focus on what matters and parents don’t have to add more to their plate.
Story of the Season provides a great way for teams to get a digital or print gameday program without going over budget or dedicating a ton of time. A great and affordable option for teams looking to create a gameday program.
To get help with your gameday program, Go to https://www.storyoftheseason.com/leadform
