Senior night auction packages

Senior night is the highest-emotion evening on a booster club's calendar and the one families most want a permanent record of. It is also, for a good number of families, the last home game their child will ever play. It is the part of the season families most want a permanent record of, and the catalogue should reflect that.

What to build

• The banner position — largest, or centre, or the one by the entrance
• A tribute page or full page in the senior programme
• A professional photo package of the senior walk, prints included
• The video tribute slot, or the longest slot
• A framed jersey with the season's record and the senior's number
• Reserved front-row seating for the family, extended to grandparents
• The announcer reading a family-written introduction
• A game ball from senior night, presented on the floor

Everything on that list is something the school or club already controls and is giving away free. Every one of them needs athletic department approval before it is listed: the approval process.

Handle it with care, or do not do it

Two things will go wrong if you are careless, and both are avoidable.

Do not create a hierarchy of seniors that families cannot afford to enter. If the banner positions are auctioned, every senior still gets a banner — you are auctioning position, not inclusion. Say that explicitly in the item description. A senior night where some families are visibly priced out of recognition is a bad night and a lasting one.

Set a floor of things everyone gets. Every senior is announced, walks, appears in the tribute and the programme, and is photographed. The auction sells enhancements above that floor and nothing that is part of it.

Timing

Run the auction two to three weeks before senior night, not on the night itself. Families need to know they secured the package in time for it to be produced, and you need lead time for banners, programmes and video. Close it early enough that the winner's item can actually exist on the evening.

Who bids

Senior families first, obviously — but the wider list matters more than clubs expect. Grandparents, aunts and uncles, and out-of-state family will bid on a tribute for a child they cannot come and watch. Make sure the auction link reaches beyond the parent group chat; ask senior families to forward it to their own relatives. That single instruction is worth including in every message you send about it.

Running it alongside the event: hybrid auctions.