A club sticker album and a team yearbook both capture who belongs, but in different ways. In a sticker album, usually every member appears on a sticker, and the stickers are then collected and swapped. Five questions decide which one suits you better.
How does a club sticker album work?
You'll know the idea from the sticker albums for big tournaments, only here the stickers show your own people. The process is usually much the same:
- The members are photographed, usually at set photo sessions at the club, from the youngest team to the committee.
- Each photo becomes a sticker with a name. The album usually has pages for every team and group, often with extra pages about the club itself.
- The album and sticker packets are usually on sale for a few weeks from a local partner, such as a shop in town.
- Then the collecting and swapping begins, for example on the touchline or at school, and sometimes at swap days in the clubhouse.
Who takes the photos, who pays for what and how long the scheme runs differs from one provider to the next, so get the process in writing before you commit.
What a sticker album does well
A club album usually shows the whole club, including people who rarely get together otherwise: the under-7s and the veterans, every section of the club, the committee and the volunteers. Many children love collecting, and swapping gets families from different teams talking. While the collecting lasts, the club is often the talk of the town. For a large club with lots of teams, for an anniversary year, or if you want to win new members locally, the album is often the better choice.
Sticker album or team yearbook: five questions to help you decide
The whole club or one team?
A sticker album usually shows every member, each with a picture and their name. The bigger the club, the more that counts in its favour. A team yearbook shows only one team, but everyone in it with two photos and their own answers.
An event for the town or a keepsake for each person?
A sticker album lives on collecting. As long as the scheme runs, people swap, and how complete an album is at the end depends on how much a family has collected and swapped. With a team yearbook, every book is complete.
How much work is left to the club?
With a sticker album, that depends on the provider. The more of the photo sessions, consent forms, sales and swap days are left to the club, the more helpers you need, often over several weeks. With a team yearbook, one contact person shares the link, everyone fills in their own page, and an overview of who is still missing arrives via WhatsApp.
Who pays, and who carries the risk?
With a sticker album, both depend on the provider's model. What matters is whether the club pays anything in advance, has to take a set quantity or is liable for albums and stickers that are left over. With Flashbooks, everyone pays for themselves or one person pays for all by invoice, so nobody has to pay upfront. The minimum order is 10 books, and orders can't be cancelled.
What's left afterwards?
A sticker album leaves an album of the club in that year, a piece of club history for every family that collected. A team yearbook leaves everyone who orders one with a hardcover book containing their own spread.
In short: the sticker album suits you if the whole club should take part, lots of children and families are involved and you want a project for the town. The team yearbook suits you if one team wants to capture something and everyone should get a complete book, with no collecting or swapping.
How much does a club sticker album cost?
There's no fixed figure. What the club pays and what families spend on the album and stickers differs from one provider to the next. To compare offers, ask each provider in detail:
- Who pays for the photos, design and printing of the album and stickers?
- Does the club have to pay anything in advance or take a minimum quantity?
- Where can families get the album and stickers, and what do they cost them?
- How long does the scheme run, and are there swap days?
- Who photographs the members, and who takes care of the consent forms?
- What happens to albums and stickers that are left over?
How to win sponsors who cover part of the cost is explained in our guide sports club sponsorship.
How to prepare a sticker album in your club
Whichever offer you choose, this preparation helps:
- Check the member list: names spelt correctly, everyone in the right team, including the committee, coaching teams and volunteers.
- Collect consent early, from the parents in the case of children. Anyone who doesn't agree doesn't get a sticker.
- Agree the photo sessions with the coaches, ideally during training, so that as many people as possible are there.
- Pick a place for swapping, such as the clubhouse on a match day, if the offer doesn't include swap days.
- Announce the scheme early: a notice in the clubhouse, the club's website and the team groups.
- Name one person families can turn to with questions about the album, photos and consent.
You can do both
You don't have to choose: an album for the anniversary year doesn't rule out a book for one team. More ideas for the big year are in our guide to club anniversary ideas.