In the sub-Reddit, Ask An American, someone posed the question, “Are company sports teams a real thing?”. This made me stop to think about what a truly American thing office sports are, and something I’ve never heard of outside the United States.
Corporate sports teams and leagues are a great way for officemates to bond and work together as a literal team. This can lead to a cohesive team at the office, too. If you want to participate in adult sports, joining a corporate sports team can be a great choice.
Don’t have an office sports team or league? Read on to learn how to get one started, and why it’s a fantastic thing to do.
First Steps To Starting A Company Sports Team or League
Depending on whether you are organizing an office sports team or a full-fledged corporate sports league, there will be different action steps involved. Building a league will require a much more coordinated effort since you’ll have to create multiple teams to compete against each other.
Depending on the size of your organization, this could involve forming intra-company teams across different locations. If your company is smaller, you can create a league by getting other local businesses to join in with their employees. If, for example, you work in a shared high rise with other companies, hit them up to see if they have employees interested in joining a sports league.
Whether you’re forming an office sports team or a sports league, you’ll need to perform the following tasks: get approval, gauge interest, determine location(s), budget, recruit, and coordinate/manage schedules and teams. Let’s dig a little deeper into each of these items.
Get Approval
Your first step before trying to form an office sports team or league is to get approval from your higher-ups. Depending on where you are in the chain of command, you should probably run the idea by your manager and also HR. Injury liability might be a concern, and your company may want to create a waiver to ensure it isn’t responsible for employee injuries.
Gauge Interest
Obviously, you’ll want to gauge interest if you’re forming an office sports team or corporate sports league. Depending on the size of your office, you can ask in person, or you can send out a company email. You may already have a sport in mind, or you can ask what sports people would participate in if you formed a team.
Corporate softball and soccer teams are some of the most popular, but you can create office sports teams for any sport you like.
Forming a corporate sports league will require more effort, so you might consider forming a board with different assigned tasks. As mentioned earlier, if you work in an office building or strip mall with other businesses, you can invite your neighboring businesses to form teams and join the league.
Or you can create a league based on your type of business. For example, if you’re in the real estate industry, you can invite other real estate agencies, lenders, etc., to join the league. The added bonus? Networking opportunities. That’s precisely why this adult athlete formed his corporate sports league.
Scout Locations
Once you know you have some interest, you need to determine where you’ll play.
If you’re forming a single sports team for your office, check for local leagues you can join (you can start by looking in our directory).
If you’re forming a corporate sports league, the process will involve more steps. Check if your city has sports complexes where you can rent field or court space (or whatever type of space you need for your sport). Also, check local schools with facilities that can accommodate your sport and see if they’d be willing to rent out space. You’ll need to consider things such as whether you’ll need lighting or if permits are required, and whether you’ll need to hire referees, umpires, or other officiators.
You might be lucky enough to have social sports leagues in your area that can help you form a corporate sports league. Check out organizations like ZogSports and Sportskind.
Budgeting
There are costs involved whether you are putting together an office sports team or a full-fledged corporate sports league, so it’s wise to plan this out so you won’t be caught with any surprises.
Find out fees to join local leagues. Find out fees to rent space or get permits. Get estimates for uniforms. Establish whether you’ll need to purchase equipment (balls, goals, cones, etc.). Do you want to give out trophies or other awards? Will you organize post event happy hours?
Once you have your estimated fees, talk to your company (or companies if you’re forming a league) to see what they are willing to sponsor. If you’re lucky, they’ll cover it all. If you’re semi-lucky, they’ll cover a portion of fees.
Recruiting
Once you’ve laid the groundwork and determined there’s enough interest, it’s time to start recruiting. If you conducted a survey to gauge interest, circle back to those who expressed the most enthusiasm about a company sports team and get them to commit to joining the team or league.
During the recruitment process, you should probably also assess the skill levels and desired positions of interested players. Some leagues have different levels of competition you can join, so determine if your group will be into casual recreational sports or all-out hardcore competition.
In your recruitment process, emphasize the benefits of joining a company sports team or corporate sports league. Networking, teamwork, building intraoffice friendships among different departments, and, most of all, fun are just a few of the benefits.
Coordination And Management
You’ve made it this far. Upper management has given you the green light, you’ve found a location to play or league to join, you’ve got your roster of players, and now it comes down to finalizing the details.
If you’re joining an already established league, it will be easier since you’ll simply have to register your team, and the league will provide you with the fees and schedule.
If you’re forming your own corporate sports league, you’ll need to create a schedule. There are tons of free options for this, including this one from PlayPass. To coordinate schedules and RSVPs, you can use an old standby like Evite or a more sports-focused sports league app like BenchApp. The benefit of using a sports-centric app is that all things can typically be done on one platform–managing RSVPs, paying league fees, messaging teammates, viewing schedules, and more.
If the participating companies support all the costs, you’ll need to collect money from those participants to pay any fees. If they aren’t covering all the costs, you’ll have to figure out the remaining costs to be covered by the players and collect directly from them. You can use Venmo, PayPal, or a sports scheduling app.
Other Considerations For Company Sports Teams And Leagues
Once you have the basics down for your office sports team or league, there are some additional things you might want to consider.
- Practices: Do you want to arrange practices? Practices can occur during lunch hours or after hours–or not at all. You decide with the input of teammates.
- Trophys, Awards, Prizes: Do you want to energize participants with trophys, awards, or prizes? This is a great way to make friendly competition even more fun.
- Tournaments: Do you want to create or participate in tournaments? Consider this an option for your team or league.
- Coaching: If your company is willing to sponsor your sport, perhaps you can discuss bringing in a coach or trainer to provide additional guidance for your team.
- Extra Benefits: Talk to HR about providing additional incentives to employees who participate in company sports. Some companies have wellness programs with point systems for engaging in physical activity. Employees can use these points toward things like a departmental lunch or a day off.
