"If you want some accessible but informative insight into football then I suggest you couldn't do better than the Political Economy of Football website, which is not only intelligible but comes with the added bonus of being written by Addicks fan Wyn Grant." Ben Hayes - Charlton Athletic programme
The proposed naming rights deal between Vodafone and the London Stadium has yet to be signed, leading to fears that HMRC’s raid on the stadium last month has led the telecoms giant to reconsider. A draft contract of a £20m six year deal has been with the Vodafone board since the start of the month, but has not been signed off.
If you look at today’s Premier League table there are the top six clubs (three from London, two from Manchester, one from Merseyside) and then nine points behind the last of the top six can be found Everton. Given their history, Everton fans feel that they also qualify as a top club.
Farhad Moshiri has a 49.9 per cent stake in the club and he has made them a £80m interest free loan. He has vowed to return them to the elite of English football.
Liverpool are looking to the expanding Far East market in the hope of attracting a £90m naming rights deal for the new stand at Anfield which is due to open next season. The club is looking for a ten year deal worth £7m to £9m a season and is understood to have met with three potential buyers.
Liverpool are interested in a strategic partnership, particularly in the retail sector in the Far East, that would allow them to build their brand in that region of the world.
Olympic athlete Jessica Ennis-Hill will no longer have a stand named after her at Sheffield United’s Bramall Lane ground. Instead the stand will be named after local estate agents and club sponsors Redbrik.
Ennis-Hill had threatened to have her name removed from the stand if the club had re-signed convicted rapist Ched Evans. However, the club made no reference to this and said they wanted to continue an association with Ennis-Hill.
There is a lot of detailed and interesting information in this report from Forbes about which clubs get the big sponsorship money and how the picture is changing.
The biggest source of revenue is shirt sponsorship (or jersey sponsorship as this report calls it). That is followed by stadium naming rights which have become an increasingly lucrative source of revenue.
What is the long-term management plan of Joe Lewis, the majority owner of Enic, the company that owns Tottenham Hotspur, and of his representative on Earth, Daniel Levy?
In the longer run, they may want to sell the club. Champions League football would make Spurs a more attractive proposition, but so would a redeveloped stadium.
Emirates’ sponsorship of Arsenal FC is the most recognised amongst sports fans in the UK, a new study finds.
New findings from Repucom’s Sponsorlink study has found that amongst people attending sports events in the UK, 88 percent are aware that Emirates own the naming rights to Arsenal’s home stadium. Awareness of Arsenal’s shirt sponsorship deal with the Dubai based airline was also the highest of all Premier League clubs with 62 percent of people being aware of the partnership.
A number of clubs are in the market for naming rights deals, not least West Ham in relation to the Olympic Stadium. Football takes just under a quarter of a global market worth $750m a year, according to data from Sponsorship Today. Multi-purpose venues, which would include the Olympic Stadium, account for 29 per cent.
Manchester United has emphasised that the naming rights for Old Trafford are not for sale in the wake of a £15m eight year deal with AON to name the Carrington Training Ground after the club’s current kit sponsor. A more sceptical note is struck by the BBC’s sports editor and some of the comments are interesting.
Arsenal’s new sponsorship deal with Emirates Airlines will enable the club to spend on player retention and acquisitions, but the real action is not expected to occur until the summer transfer window. Arsenal’s kit deal with Nike expires in 2014 and they are expected to sign a lucrative new deal with Adidas which should further boost the funds available to them.