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Leyton Orient owner Barry Hearn is considering the ultimate re-branding, re-naming the club London Orient. They would then be the only league club with ‘London’ in the title. The idea is to raise the club’s profile so that it seen as a city club.
The move would probably only go ahead if Orient move into the Olympic Stadium. West Ham United, the likely tenants, have made it clear that they do not want to ground share with Orient.
This article has been written by Simon Hines of Sponsorship Today:
In the season 2011/12 the average shirt deal in France’s Ligue 1 was estimated at €1.5m per season with Betclic topping the league at €5.5m with its Olympic Marseille sponsorship. Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) was reportedly earning €4.9m from Emirates whereas OGC Nice had no shirt sponsor. If news reports are to be believed, a Qatari bank is close to finalising a deal worth €100m per year for shirt and stadium naming rights to PSG.
Chelsea have renewed their shirt sponsorship with Samsung until the end of the 2014-15 season. The deal is said to be worth about £18m a year. However, that is dwarfed by the £50m annually that Manchester United agreed this summer to have General Motors, the makers of Chevrolet, as their shirt sponsor from 2014-15.
The Football Association has signed a new shirt deal with Nike. No doubt it is good business for them, but it will prove costly for England fans as they face the prospect of three different shirts in as many years. Fans will have to decide whether to pay £50 for a new shirt every season which, of course, costs a fraction of that to produce offshore. Some fans have only recently bought the present kit.
This article warns that branded football credit linked to a particular club may not be all that they are cracked up to be. The amount that they give to the club is generally miniscule and the fan can probably getter a better deal for themselves elsewhere.
There are some exceptions in terms of cards that offer interest free deals on season tickets or other discounts or preferential offers.
Simon Hines, the editor of Sponsorship Today, assesses the recent sponsorship deal between Chevrolet and Manchester United:
So why has the new deal broken previous records by such a high margin? The first point to look at is the starting date. By the time the sponsorship starts in earnest in 2014, it will have been four years since the Aon deal was signed, so it is not an overnight doubling. Rights values for major properties are now growing at a rate well ahead of inflation.
Liverpool’s shirt sponsors, Standard Chartered Bank, have been accused by US regulators of sanctions busting deals on behalf of the Iranians. The allegations are denied by the Bank, but there is a real risk of their US licence being revoked. This would pose serious difficulties for them as much as their income comes from facilitating trade deals. In the meantime, 16 per cent has been wiped off the value of their shares.
The Growth Company Investor website is reporting that an AIM-quoted company called Sports Stars Media is developing an animation series aimed at children entitled Mourinho and the Special Ones.
Chief executive officer of the company, Ruben Dias, said that they also planned to develop a card-trading game based on the television series.
Kendal Town football club have signed an unusual sponsorship deal that requires players to wear crocheted black beards with sideburns and red beanie hats in pre-match warm-ups. Local firm Rosetta makes off-the-wall giftwear. The beards are a big seller in the US and it is hoped that this success will be replicated in the UK.
The beards come in a variety of colours, including grey.
The ability of Manchester United to attract increasingly lucrative sponsorship deals is demonstrated by their new shirt sponsorship deal with Chevrolet. Their current deal with US insurer Aon, admittedly over a four year period, is worth £80m. The new deal which will start from the 2014-15 season is reported to be worth $600m over seven years. They are the club’s fifth shirt sponsor.