Understanding how it is made explains why the artwork lasts as long as the balloon does.
Printed during manufacture
The blimp is assembled from white polyurethane panels and your artwork is printed onto them as part of the build, not applied afterwards as a wrap or decal.
That matters for a mascot in particular. Anything applied to a finished balloon lifts at the edges eventually, and a mascot has a lot of edges. Printed panels age with the material.
Both sides, full colour, included in the $1,512. No setup or plate charge.
Polyurethane, not PVC
Cheap advertising balloons are PVC, which stiffens, keeps every fold crease and goes brittle under ultraviolet light.
Ours are polyurethane. It stays flexible, folds and re-inflates without scarring, and handles sun far better. For a school flying one at six home games a year and storing it in between, that folding tolerance is the whole ballgame.
Lift and tether
Net lift on the 13-foot blimp is about three pounds, so a sandbag or a solid tie-off holds it. Nothing structural required.
Every blimp includes your choice of a 120-foot tether line or a 105-foot metallic pennant line. For a school field the plain tether is usually better, because the pennant line adds another thing at head height in a crowd.
Setup on the day
First inflation takes some reading. Allow an hour and do it the day before your first event, not an hour before kick-off.
After that it is about ten minutes and one person. For a booster club that is genuinely manageable by a volunteer, which is why these end up staying in use.
More at arizonaballoon.com.