da bet7k：
da cassino： For the first time in English football, Tottenham Hotspur will have different sponsors on their shirts depending on which competitions they are playing in. With their four-year deal with Mansion expiring at the end of last season, the club announced the partnership with the software company Autonomy, that will see Spurs receive around £20m over the duration of their two-year contract. That money however, only pays for their logo to be emblazoned across the shirts that grace the Premier League. When the team play in cup competitions, and in Europe, there will be a different sponsor on the shirt paying the club another, separate fee.
For Tottenham, it means more money, not only from the sponsorship deal, but also from shirt sales. Whether fans will be prepared to fork out another £45 for another shirt is questionable, but Spurs will be selling a home kit, away kit, third kit and goalkeeper kit all with the Autonomy logo, as well as all the kits again with the logo of the firm who strikes the second deal with the club. If you wanted all the shirts (and I fully expect, even hope, nobody does) that will set you back a cool £360.
The end of the Autonomy deal coincides with Daniel Levy’s proposed plans to move into their new stadium at the beginning of the 2012/13 season. The reason the deals stops then is because the stadium will carry a sponsor’s name, and the company with their name on the stadium for every bird to see, will also want them on the shirt (and probably for every competition too). Levy has said that the construction and move to the new stadium is only possible by selling the naming rights. Spurs will follow in the footsteps of the likes of Bolton (Reebok) and Arsenal (Emirates) with such a plan, and follow in the larger footsteps of a whole host of American teams, sorry, I mean franchises, who have adopted the same system.
Having your stadium called the Reebok stadium works because of the company’s association as a sporting brand. But how would you feel watching your team in the Home Depot Center (LA Galaxy), Gillette Stadium (New England Revolution) or Pizza Hut Park (FC Dallas)? You might not mind, the fact that such a company pumps so much money into your club and contributes to the expansion of your club as a brand (such an article requires the use of the term ‘brand’ when referring to football teams) means that you may have to take it with a pinch of salt. If it brings the club success, such Americanisation may be forgiven in return for trophies. When the history books show your club’s name in a list of Champions League winners, any loss of sentimental identity may be put to one side.
So far, the naming rights to stadiums in the Premier League have been a success. Arsenal’s almost seamless transition from Highbury to The Emirates is an example to follow for any club considering a new stadium, and the sale of the rights; it is amazing how quickly the name feels normal. Any team moving to a new stadium will have to consider selling their naming rights; it is such an influx of capital that it is impossible to ignore. As with virtually everything involving the sport, parties must reap as much revenue as possible, and if such business is the only viable option, it becomes difficult to dispute. Whether other clubs will do the same as Spurs in having different sponsors for different competitions will depend on how much success Spurs have with the scheme. In terms of naming rights, it seems certain that Spurs will not be the last club in this country to adopt the American philosophy and try to get a bigger piece of the pie, or should that be pizza?
Would you mind your club selling the rights to your stadium? Let us know
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