Franklin Regional booster groups concerned about exclusive merchandising contract for Panther products

Franklin Regional booster groups are worried their fundraising efforts will be hurt as school district leaders enter into an exclusive agreement with a Unity printing company to create official merchandise.

“I implore you not to grant rights to just one company,” said Joy Siegman, president of the Franklin Regional Football Boosters. “My biggest fear is that with one vendor, we’ll be limited in our timelines and what we can have access to. We do all our own fundraising, and a lot of it comes through clothing, so it would impact us greatly if this is where it’s going.”

At issue was use of the trademarked logo and branding that school officials have developed over the past decade. Board members voted 6-3 to approve an exclusive merchandising agreement with Fancy Fox, a Murrysville printing company recently acquired by Unity Printing, based near Latrobe.

“We created a brand that we could have control of, and we looked at it as a future revenue opportunity,” school district Superintendent Gennaro Piraino said. “We also knew, at that time, that we weren’t ready for that just yet, because we didn’t have someone who could meet the demand, have a storefront in the community, be online and work with our booster organizations. So we allowed our boosters to take that logo and do with it as they may.”

Store created

That would change with the exclusive merchandising agreement, which creates the Panther Den, an online and brick-and-mortar store that would be open year-round to sell Franklin Regional-branded merchandise. The school district holds seven trademark licenses with the state for things such as the school logo and panther mascot.

The three-year contract’s exclusive aspect had boosters concerned.

“I have children who play multiple sports, and we buy merchandise from multiple local vendors,” said Laura Vrable with the Franklin Regional Soccer Boosters. “If we have one vendor who everyone has to use, there’s a huge push at the beginning of the school year for merchandise.”

Booster representatives said they hadn’t been told about the exclusive merchandising contract, and many found out about it the morning of the school board meeting.

“I just think we should wait, so that the organizations who sell and buy this stuff can understand and participate,” Vrable said.

The board did not wait. It rejected a motion by board member John Fallat to delay a vote on the contract at its committee-of-the-whole meeting, before approving it immediately afterward at its voting meeting by a 6-3 vote.

Board members Deb Bucciero, Traci Eshelman Ramey and Fallat voted against the contract.

Piraino said the reality of the situation is that other businesses have been using a trademarked logo without explicit permission from the district.

“So right now we’re working with them to allow them to fulfill their contracts and run out their stock,” he said. “But we are looking at this as a way to create new revenue, something the school board has asked this administration to do.”

Piraino said the district will work with boosters to choose product lines with a range of options for customization. Ensuring Unity Printing can handle the workload was part of the district’s due diligence, he added.

“If there’s a performance issue, this contract gives us an out,” Piraino said. “If they fail to meet our demands, we can exercise that.”

Revenue growth potential

Piraino said the district’s hope is that booster organizations can have items for sale year-round through the online store and physical storefront and potentially bring in more revenue than if they were selling a piece of merchandise for a limited period through a traditional fundraiser.

The terms of the agreement with Unity Printing include an initial guaranteed payment of $2,500 to the district in the first year, a 10% exclusive licensing agreement fee on the highest annual sales growth, using 2024-25 sales figures as the baseline for comparison, and per-item payments to the district, outlined in a tiered fee structure in the contract.

Jamie Lingg of Murrysville owns a small business, Three Little Fishies, which has created school-branded merchandise in the past.

“I believe a single-source contract is going to hurt many small businesses in Murrysville and the surrounding area,” Lingg said, adding that she also supported a licensing agreement for local vendors and getting more feedback from local business owners before voting.

“I’ve brought this up before, but it’s very frustrating for the school board to have these back-to-back committee and voting meetings, where items go on the agenda, there’s a little bit of discussion for the people who are able to make it to the meeting, and then it’s voted on right afterward at the next meeting,” she said.

Vrable said she is concerned the contract will cause prices to go up for boosters and the people they count on to buy fundraising merchandise.

“We raise money so we can do things like get a team photo for the kids, have food for the team bus,” she said. “I’m concerned about having only one source to go to, how that will affect pricing and choices.”