I'm completely new to the sport (and the site), but not to competitions or growing businesses/organizations. If I'm out of line or have no place to talk here, I apologize and mods please remove my post.
I've always identified all the problems first before offering solutions because if you try to solve one issue, the solution might make another problem worse and negate the implemented solution altogether.
From what I read, it seems there are a few different problems that affect different components of PRS.: Shooters, Sponsors, and the size of PRS as a sport/competition.
As somebody just getting into PRS, shooting against pros is exciting because I'll be learning from them, but I don't think I should compete with them at my level. To me, I look at matches as ways to learn, grow my skills and gauge myself against pros so I know how much more I can improve. To others, competing with pros discourages them enough that they won't even try. If they don't even try, PRS doesn't grow and everybody suffers - shooters, sponsors, everybody.
Having different levels based on skill/experience/age might encourage more shooters to join. Each level would also have their own motivations and would help sponsors and match officials determine "prizes." If a sponsored pro can only use specific gear, obviously providing gear for them doesn't make sense. Maybe pros want cash; maybe they just want to win. Some people have mentioned that giving gear as prizes makes sense to intermediate shooters. Those are the people that a new optic, barrel, suppressor might provide the gear they've been saving up for to be a better shooter and squeeze a little more accuracy from their setup. If I won a competition and the prize was a new NF optic, I'd be excited about winning, but not so much for the optic. I'd sell it and use the money for ammo because shooting ammo will improve my skills more than a new optic. I'm new though, so what do I know?
If there are different levels according to skill, it would be exciting to level up and shoot against better competitors. Even if you aren't winning, you're improving by competing against better players. Anybody get on varsity as a freshman or sophomore in high school?
It's easy to find out what their motivations are by the turnout, but when in doubt, ask. Send a survey to the competitors and ask them. Give them some options to choose instead of open ended questions otherwise you'll get some inappropriate albeit hilarious answers. Or maybe that's just how I would answer?
I only buy t-shirts when I travel to other countries and at events like concerts, races, competitions, music festivals, etc... I like knowing that I have something nobody else will have unless they were there, and shirts have started conversations with strangers whether I initiated them or they did. Sometimes the conversation is about both of us having been there, or one person wanting to go. My point is that a "prize" doesn't have to be a $2000 optic for it to be meaningful. People have come up to ask about Spartan races because I was wearing a shirt from a race. I've seen people with blood running down their legs from a fall limping across a Tough Mudder finish line just because they wanted the sweatband and shirt. Prizes don't have to be shiny and expensive. Not everybody needs a trophy. If something is provided to all competitors, it should help grow PRS. But I still want a shirt.
Coupon codes don't always hurt the retailers. Manufacturers give retailers coupons all the time - just go to the grocery store and look at the coupons. Hornady could work with Midway on a coupon code for an event, so the retailer, manufacturer and shooters all benefit, just as an example.
I've sponsored events and paid up to $40k for sponsorships. Tracking ROI has always been difficult, but digital marketing makes things a LOT easier. Lowlight had a great idea with the coupon codes because it does make it easier, but so do URLs with UTM codes given to the event coordinator to use on the competition's site instead of normal URLs. That would be the first thing I would do! All the links from the PRS site are normal links so the only way sponsors will know that traffic is coming through the site is through their analytics - since they aren't using UTM codes, I doubt they're even looking at their analytics. There are so many different ways to do it though. Having logos on banners, sponsor tents, "prizes," physical products for competitors to see, touch and feel are all advertising - nothing more. Sometimes advertising works. Sometimes it doesn't. It's all part of doing business. Not only do the sponsors need to take responsibility for this, but the match coordinators should help with it too - and I think that's what Lowlight is trying to do.
I spent $10k sponsoring an event and didn't see the ROI I wanted, but I saw opportunities to sponsor the same event in a different way because the people attending were the right demographic. I worked with the event coordinators to get what I wanted, gave them some ideas for other sponsors and doubled my sponsorship the next year. Then I saw the ROI I wanted, so I doubled my sponsorship the year after that. Tracking ROI is on the sponsor and even the event coordinators, but not the sport itself.
If event coordinators want to bring more sponsors, hard data needs to be presented about the potential ROI, sponsorship opportunities, and demographic data. The most important thing is the matches need to be successful. Think out of the box when it comes to sponsors. Why not get a restaurant or hotel to be a sponsor? Some competitors need a place to stay but everybody needs to eat.
Hell, why not sell spectator tickets to people that want to see a match and offer a discount for the next match fee or PRS membership? If the #1 shooter is coming to the match, advertise that! Sell the tickets at sporting goods stores, through here, and let bloggers promote them. Bring some awareness to the sport and make people realize that hitting a target at 1000 yards is feasible without being Bob Lee Swagger.
I don't think I gave any solutions because I don't have all the info, but I'm hoping I at least helped a little. I rambled on enough and look forward to shooting and learning from you all.