Thin Lenses for Strong Prescriptions: What You Are Actually Paying For
5 October 2026
12:20
If you sit on a club committee in Glasgow, you already know how the sponsorship conversation usually goes. You approach local businesses in the spring. A few say yes to a few hundred pounds. Their logo goes on the back of a shirt or on a hoarding by the pitch, and everyone agrees it has been a good partnership.
Then next season comes round, and someone has to ring them again, and nobody on either side can really say what the money achieved.
We think there is a better version of this, and we would like to propose it to rugby, football and cycling clubs across Glasgow.
Nobody involved in club sponsorship is doing anything wrong. The format is simply weak on both sides.
For the club, the money is welcome but usually small, and it arrives with no relationship attached. For the business, the return is invisible. A small independent practice cannot tell whether anyone booked an appointment because they saw a logo at a rugby ground, which means the decision to renew is based on goodwill rather than evidence. Goodwill is a fragile thing to build a budget on.
Worse, the arrangement gives your members nothing. They wear the shirt, the sponsor gets the exposure, and the person actually playing is not part of the exchange at all.
We are an independent, family-run optometry practice in Bellahouston. Rather than simply putting our name on your kit, we would like to sponsor your club by providing eye health services to the people in it.
There are four parts, and a club can take all of them or any one.
Each of those four has its own article in this series, linked at the end, so you can see exactly what is involved before you commit to a conversation.
Traditional sponsorship | What we are proposing | |
|---|---|---|
What the club receives | A cash sum, usually modest | Squad eye health provision plus a cash contribution |
What members receive | Nothing directly | Eye tests, eyewear advice, a safety talk |
Committee workload | Low, but recurring chasing | One conversation, then we do the organising |
Renewal conversation | Awkward, based on goodwill | Based on whether members used it |
What the sponsor gets | A logo few people register | Genuine local relationships |
Measurable? | Rarely | Yes, by uptake |
The row that matters most to us is the last one. A sponsorship you can measure is a sponsorship that gets renewed, which is better for your club than a generous one that quietly lapses.
Nothing, and that is not a sales line. NHS-funded eye examinations in Scotland are available to anyone living in the UK, generally every two years and annually for under-16s, over-60s and people with diabetes. For most of your squad, the examination itself is already funded.
What we are contributing is the organising, the club-specific advice, the talk, and a cash sponsorship element on top, negotiated in the normal way. We are not asking the club to pay for the service and call it a sponsorship, which would be a strange arrangement and we would not blame you for saying no to it.
It is worth being straightforward about this, because a club committee is right to ask.
We are not pretending this is charity. It is a commercial arrangement that we think is better constructed than the usual one, because the club and its members get something real rather than a transfer of a few hundred pounds.
A few commitments, offered up front so you do not have to ask.
One conversation, usually twenty minutes, with whoever handles commercial or welfare on your committee. We will tell you what we can offer, you tell us what your club actually needs, and if the two do not match we will say so rather than sell you something ill-fitting.
If it helps, start by reading the four articles below. They set out exactly what each element involves, so you can arrive at the conversation knowing what you are agreeing to.
Book your comprehensive eye examination or eyewear styling consultation with
Mosspark Opticians today.
Four elements, and a club can take all or any of them: a squad eye test check to find out who is up to date, eyewear advice specific to your sport including protective options, a twenty to thirty minute talk on eye injury prevention and vision in performance, and guidance on the eye test, insurance and duty of care questions a committee should be asking. A cash sponsorship element is negotiated separately in the normal way.
No. NHS-funded eye examinations in Scotland cover most adults every two years, and annually for under-16s, over-60s and people with diabetes, so the examinations themselves are largely already funded. We contribute the organising, the club-specific advice, the talk and a cash sponsorship element. We are not asking the club to pay for a service and call it sponsorship.
Very little. One conversation of around twenty minutes to agree what your club wants, then we handle the organising. The talk slots into a session you are already running rather than requiring a separate event, which is usually the difference between it happening and it not happening.
Rugby, football and cycling clubs across Glasgow, with a particular focus on the Southside since we are based in Bellahouston. We are equally glad to hear from squash, hockey, athletics and swimming clubs, as the four elements adapt to any sport.
No. Nobody is pressured, and a squad check where everyone turns out to be fine is a good result rather than a failed one. We do not ask clubs for member contact details, and we do not tie the sponsorship to anyone buying anything. Some members will choose to become patients, and that is the commercial logic, but it is their decision entirely.
It belongs to the individual. Results go to the player, not to the club and not onto a marketing list. If a club wants to know how the initiative went, we can report aggregate uptake numbers, such as how many people attended, with no individual detail attached.
Yes, and juniors are often where it matters most, since children rarely identify a vision problem themselves. Anything involving under-18s is arranged through the club in line with your safeguarding policy, with parental consent and parents present as your policy requires. We will work to your procedures rather than asking you to work to ours.
Other Articles from Mosspark Opticians:
