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Nike aim to make football their biggest money-making sport, overtaking the revenues they have obtained from basketball and running. Football is already Nike’s number one sport outside the US, although there are also significant sales within the US. It purchased UK-based football kit manufacturer Umbro in 2008, and next year begins an eight-year deal with the French Football Federation as the official supplier of the national team, r
State owned Northern Rock have renewed their sponsorship agreement with Newcastle United in a four year deal worth a potential £10m to the promotion chasing Championship club. The bank was nationalised during the 2008 financial crisis, but government tries to have a ‘hand offs’ relationship with its financial sector acquisitions using small supervision vehicles such as UK Financial Investments.
The Scottish Football Association is likely to veto the re-naming of Stirling Albion as Stirling Albion Meerkats. The cash strapped club which is £1.5m in debt and has survived two winding up orders has been in discussion with Compare the Market.com famous for their meerkat adverts. The supporters trust wants to buy the club and sell its naming rights for £50,000 a year. However, the proposal is not ‘simples‘ as far as the SFA is concerned.
Thierry Henry could pay a heavy price for his hand ball that gave France victory over Ireland. Henry has been earning £15m a year from sponsorship deals. He has been the face of global brands including Renault, Nike, Gillette and Pepsi. Between 2001 and 2006 he earned a reported £14m from Nike, a company he ditched in 2006 to sign with Reebok for a signing-on fee believed to be over £19m. With a certain irony, Reebok use him in advertising campaign entitled ‘Play Responsibly’.
Fans at Newcastle United protested today outside and inside the ground at the re-naming of the stadium as sportsdirect.com@St. James’ Park. However, a number of clubs are hoping to secure lucrative naming deals. Chelsea has said that it will consider selling the naming rights to Stamford Bridge with a hoped for fee of £10m per season. Tottenham take the view that their plans to build a new stadium which will not be White Hart Lane gives them an advantage in the naming rights race. However, Aston Villa have ruled any such move out.
The Premiership has secured a three year sponsorship renewal from Barclays worth £82.25m. The deal represents a 25 per cent premium on the £65.6m agreed with Barclays in 2007 and follows the rejection of an initial £70m offer from the bank. Barclays has sponsored the Premier League since 2001, initially in support of Barclaycard. The Premiership’s success in securing such a sizeable increase from Barclays provides further evidence that the recession has done little to diminish the marketing appeal of what is regarded as the world’s best and most entertaining domestic league.
The Premiership model is a highly successful one, but can it be readily extended to other sports? Premiership clubs could set up professional basketball teams to play in a new British league under their football brand names as part of a US-led $25m plan launched next week. US owners of clubs at Aston Villa, Liverpool and Manchester United are investor targets of the new British Basketball Association, led by a group of former US National Basketball Association executives and US businessmen.
Having gone on a £200m spending spree this summer, news that Real’s shirt sponsorship deal with Austrian online betting group Bwin has been extended by three years (until 2013) will come as some relief to the club’s accountants and creditors. At least one line of income has been secured. The deal could be worth up to 20m euros ($29.1m; £18.3m) a year from the renegotiated agreement.
Firms that make and sell alcoholic drinks are important sponsors of football clubs given that they give access to young males who are likely to buy their products. However, boorish behaviour by cricket fans may be the final straw that leads to a ban on sponsorship by drinks firms, as has already happened for tobacco. It is felt that the glamorous association between sport and drink may contribute to the rise in alcohol abuse and alcohol-related illness in Britain.
The Premiership and the National Basketball Association (NBA) in the US are exploring a marketing and commercial tie-up that would draw on the strengths of the world’s two most popular sports leagues as they expand into new international markets. Representatives from the football and basketball associations have met in London to discuss how they might work together. They have also compared notes on their respective rights strategies – particularly in Asia, which is a huge and still largely untapped market for western sport.