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The good and bad of Premier League sleeve sponsorship


Jodie Cormack - 24th March 2017 - 0 comments

Manchester City recently became the first Premier League club to announce a sleeve sponsor on the team’s kit. Next year, the Premier League will allow secondary sponsors on shirt sleeves for the first time. Manchester City’s new secondary sponsor is Nexen Tire, a manufacturer from South Korea. They will join Etihad Airways and Nike as team sponsors featured on the kit.

These sleeve sponsorship will be lucrative for teams. Bigger clubs like Manchester United—who already receive £47 million per year from Chevrolet—could see up to £10 million invested by secondary sponsors.

This opportunity won’t extend to all teams. At least two clubs will not be able to participate due to deals with main sponsors that ban other brands from appearing on the kits. Adding these sleeve sponsors is a fairly easy design decision in terms of appearance. The current kits feature Premier League logos on both arms. Next season, they will only appear on one sleeve, with the other left to new sponsors.

But beyond the details of this new announcement, there lies one major question: why?

When teams announce new sponsorships, money is usually a driving force. Whether organisations need the money or just want it, the reasons behind sponsorship are often monetary. So why is the Premier League looking for more money? In the 2014-2015, the Premier League brought in a record £3.4 billion, up 3% from the previous season. This revenue places them fourth in the world in professional sports organisation revenue.

Clearly, there is no lack of money happening. This new sponsorship will only increase value and revenue in the organisation. But how far will sponsorship go? Does adding an additional kit sponsor “cheapen” the brand in the eyes of fans?

Organisations like the UFC make the majority of their profit from sponsors. But this is because every square inch of a UFC event is plastered with logos and brands, from the ring to the fighters themselves. It doesn’t create a desirable image for an organisation. Fans do not want to purchase merchandise if it’s covered in sponsors. Sports leagues often turn to excessive sponsorship when they’re struggling to make a profit.

But the Premier League is decidedly not struggling financially. So, will the sponsorship additions continue? There will always be brands interested in partnering with the league. Its global popularity makes it a prime partner for both international and regional brands. Because if the Premier League is looking to increase sponsorship as it breaks revenue records, who’s to say what will happen in the future?

Too many kit sponsors can cheapen the appearance of a league, even if the sponsorship brings in large amounts of money. It would be a shame to see such a large organisation lose value in the eyes of fans simply because they were greedy.

But these sleeve sponsorships aren’t purely negative. Lower value sponsorships like these can give smaller companies a chance to partner with a team—a chance they wouldn’t get if the price range was higher.

It’s also worth keeping FC Barcelona to mind. Barcelona is now in its 11th year of a partnership with Unicef, an organisation featured on their kit. Barcelona now pays Unicef €2 million per year, and the two organisations work together to foster children’s education through sports. Instead of making money of an available sponsorship spot, the club chose philanthropy and publicity.

Nothing like this has even been rumoured with the new Premier League sleeve sponsorships, but it serves as a reminder that this new move might not be all bad. Positive outcomes are possible in the age of over-commercialisation.

It remains to be seen whether these sponsorships will have a positive effect. In the meantime, let’s try to appreciate the kits as they are.

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