Soccer clubs turning down endorsement dollars
Posted by ZA on June 4, 2008
A second major European soccer club has forsaken endorsement dollar millions to instead promote a charitable cause. I wrote about FC Barcelona’s unique sponsorship deal with Unicef back in February, and now English Premier League club Aston Villa has followed suit. The London Times reports that Aston Villa has entered into a sponsorship deal with the Acorns, a local children’s hospice, replacing their deal with 32Red that expired this Spring.
David Strudley of Acorns said, “We’re over the moon at having our name on Aston Villa’s shirts next season and having the opportunity to raise funds for children.” Aston VIlla club chairman added, “I am very proud to be associated with such an initiative.”
The deal appears to be only setup for one season right now, but its too early to say whether this will become a long-term endorsement deal for Aston Villa. What is clear is that Aston Villa is walking away from $4 million (or more) in endorsement dollars, as their expiring deal with 32Red was worth $3.9 million per year.
Will this trend catch on with other Euro club teams? Or possible even trickle over to some teams in the United States? Impossible to say, but it is extremely refreshing to see these teams (Villa & FC Barca) set a new trend in sports marketing deals. The owners, teams and players for these two (and many others) are already raking any millions of dollars per year, so why not pull a little of their profits off the table. Especially since those profits can mean many millions of dollars more to the charitable cause than the value of the endorsement deal itself.
If Villa had just donated $4 million to Acorns that would have been very nice, but putting the Acorns name on their jersey might mean exponentially more to the charity. Acorns will net them tens of millions of dollars for their cause over the coming years, even if Villa doesn’t keep them on the jersey, because millions of people now be exposed to Acorns. This deal also means more to Aston Villa than the money they gave up, because it increases the value of their brand in two ways: more people will hear about Aston Villa because of the deal and many people will favor Aston Villa because of the deal. This partnership is truly a win-win situation, and I applaud Aston Villa (& Barca) for making it happen. I just hope there are a few American team execs out there that take notice (are you listening MLS?).
Aston Villa’s 32Red sponsorship will be replaced by Acorns next season.
(Photo courtesy: Subsidesports.com)
