Fox 40 Extends NASO Sponsorship
RACINE, Wis. — Fox 40 International extended its longtime sponsorship/partnership with the National Association of Sports Officials (NASO) for three years.
NASO and Fox 40 have been connected for the past 22 years, about the time that NASO was building its membership base and Ron Foxcroft, founder and CEO of Fox 40 International, began to patent the world’s most popular whistle. Since then the partnership has solidified each year.
“It would be hard to overstate the importance of Fox 40 and Ron Foxcroft in NASO’s history,” said Barry Mano, NASO president and founder. “There is no other single company that has provided the long-standing level of support that Ron and his team has. It is a heartwarming statement of Ron’s passion for NASO and the good work it does as the leading advocate for sports officials. Ron served on the NASO board and served as its chair. Today he continues to provide invaluable service to the board as a special advisor, a position that requires a board vote annually. That he continually gets reappointed to the position speaks volumes of his contribution to NASO’s leadership.”
The agreement enables Fox 40 to continue its co-sponsorship with NASO for the Gold Whistle Award banquet, which is held in conjuction with the NASO Sports Officiating Summit. Fox 40 also continues as a sponsor in NASO’s Education Partner Program.
Foxcroft said that his company receives more than 2,000 sponsorship requests per year, mainly in the immediate area of its headquarters in Hamilton, Ontario. But Fox 40’s five-member sponsorship committee told Foxcroft that it views its support for NASO as an easy call, a “wonderful investment with a tremendous return on the investment,” said Foxcroft. “It is a very hard-working committee that does a lot of research and makes a lot of tough calls,” Foxcroft explained. “This was an easy job for the committee. I did not have to say anything. The committee said it all. They said, ‘No organization on the planet does so much good for the officiating industry than NASO. The benefits and exposure to our company are enormous.’”