[Archived] Sponsor

[Kelbo]

My concern here is we are a football club who need serious income to survive and break even, losing sponsorship money is an important revenue to the club, indeed, however it was done, Man City got one hell of a sponsorship deal and they are a wealthy club.

Whilst the shirt looks good and the charity excellent, we as a football club, do not appear to be operating in a proper businesslike manner, hopefully the new appointments will allow Rovers to conduct their business here in the UK rather than India!!

[Ralfinho]

Ha Ha! 30?? Thats the funniest thing I have read on this board for ages!

Great gesture, great shirt - anyone thinking otherwise is a miserable sod.

Pete you know Im 30 unlike your approaching 49th is it???? haha

My concern here is we are a football club who need serious income to survive and break even, losing sponsorship money is an important revenue to the club, indeed, however it was done, Man City got one hell of a sponsorship deal and they are a wealthy club.

Whilst the shirt looks good and the charity excellent, we as a football club, do not appear to be operating in a proper businesslike manner, hopefully the new appointments will allow Rovers to conduct their business here in the UK rather than India!!

Im sure if we were going to loose money then the owners would have got a paying sponsor. Surely having a charity as a sponsor means we are no longer loosing money but making money

[NookRover]

Mixed feelings on this! Not sure we can afford to loose the revenue, but also think its a really good thing to have a charity such as the Prince's Trust on the shirt! Especially at this crazy time!

Kit looks fantastic though! Quick question, not sure anyone will know, will a percentage of the shirt price go to the charity, or is it purely the exposure we are giving? I'm not one to buy replica kits, but if there is a percentage going to charity I'd be very tempted, the fact I think it looks great is a bonus!

[Hughesy]

Very good offers were made by the normal channels, which were rejected. The owners were clearly advised by someone/ company who made lots of false promises but didnt deliver - im sure we can all guess who that is. (Mentioning no names)

Sponsorship deals WERE on the table over 2 months ago! FACT. Very good deals.

[Iceman]

do we honestly need the extra revenue? I don't know anymore than you do on the finances, but having gone from having a so called £30M war chest, to scratching around in the couple of millions, I'd suspect we do need to maximise all revenue streams coming into the club.

If you actually bother to read my post though, you'll see that I'm pleased we took the decision to give it to charity rather than just take the £400k that was on offer. That was certainly one of their best decisions since they took over.

It's just a crying shame, that with all their 'resources' we couldn't find a shirt sponsor. That's the epic fail.

As for your other point - the level of cash you can get for advertising boards is not remotely in the same ball park as a shirt sponsor.

all im saying, and I read your post and have nothing against it, but all I meant was that in times where the owners have received some negative comments(rightly or wrongly so), the choice to go with the Princes Trust is a smart move, and one which should be applauded by everybody. I understand that we are missing out on financial grounds, through the lack of a sponsor who will pump in millions, but at the end of the day the image of the club and owners need to be rectified.

We can pull in many different sponsors, in all areas of the club and generate money, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be on the front of the shirt. in all honesty, had we signed a lucrative deal, and no money was invested, people would accuse the owners of swallowing up that money for their own gain. I also would like to point out, that I expected a top sponsor but im happy with the outcome with the Princes Trust. Remember, had Venkys plastered their own logo on, many people would have not purchased a shirt, that would have meant loss of revenue. The positive comments about the shirt, means that those people will have a change of heart and purchase the shirt. Imo, that already is a step in the right direction.

[Hughesy]

Im sure if we were going to loose money then the owners would have got a paying sponsor. Surely having a charity as a sponsor means we are no longer loosing money but making money

No a charity wont be paying.

BUT you have to ask, if they club can turn down sponsor deals, then does that show they can afford to take that hit?? Otherwise we would have just gone into the season without any deal set up and sold it either later on or game by game.

[Kelbo]

Pete you know Im 30 unlike your approaching 49th is it???? haha

Im sure if we were going to loose money then the owners would have got a paying sponsor. Surely having a charity as a sponsor means we are no longer loosing money but making money

Thats not neccessarily correct!

There may be other reasons for having the Princes Trust on the shirt!!

[Emge]

Obviously if Venkys desperatly needed money to run the club, like income from sponsorship deals, they wouldnt have gone with this charity-option, would they?

Shows that they are good people and that they can afford doing a good thing like this

[Glenn]

Poll added

[Gav]

If true then why were the hired agents scrambling around last week and hounding people for a "cut price deal" if they accepted by the start of the season.

If they wanted to give it charity all along, as the clubs PR team would have us believe, then why not announce it ages ago and get the shirts sorted out and on sale?

The deals offered by betting companies early on should have been taken, poor management and delusions of the amount of revenue they could expect to achieve.

Great gesture but their hand was forced by the lack of a viable offer.

I don’t think anyone’s saying that Venkys always wanted a charity on the front of the shirt modes, they certainly wanted paid sponsorship. But a decision was taken weeks ago to have a fall-back position of a charity.

Agents could well have been looking for deals, that’s what they do, try to find business and with some success, we turned down 3 offers that eclipsed the crown deal that I know of.

Anyway enough of this ‘willy waving’ it’s refreshing to see a charity on the front of the shirt, as the owners did have other offers, I applaud the decision.

[Mike Graham]

Those pink plumes look like something from a french brothel (so I am told).

I do like the idea though of the charitable approach , and I cannot comment whether we can afford such an approach or not as I am not in the know and have no sources on this issue.

oh la la

[Herbie6590]

Does this mean we can start putting by appointment of HRH the Prince of Wales on everything now ha ha

Duchy original biscuits in snack bars ?

[AndyC]

I don’t think anyone’s saying that Venkys always wanted a charity on the front of the shirt modes, they certainly wanted paid sponsorship. But a decision was taken weeks ago to have a fall-back position of a charity.

Agents could well have been looking for deals, that’s what they do, try to find business and with some success, we turned down 3 offers that eclipsed the crown deal that I know of.

Anyway enough of this ‘willy waving’ it’s refreshing to see a charity on the front of the shirt, as the owners did have other offers, I applaud the decision.

agreed

[Lee0r]

It is by far the best looking kit we have had in years.

Even though we have by default ended up with a charity, it is a fantastic idea and one that more premier league clubs should follow.

[Flopsy]

It's a good decision, especially as I assumed, along with a majority (I assume) on here, that they would have gone with Venky's.

Down here in Brum, Villa sponsored Acorns Hospice. The hospice did well out of it. Which can't be bad

[Mattyblue]

Not really Matty. Parsonblue is very much a sceptic but his posts are worth reading imo (and in the opinion of other 'Rovers Fans' too I'd reckon)

The sponsorship situation seems to demonstate that there will be those that will find negatives no matter what. As has been alluded to further up the club could have taken a substantial sum of money but decided to forego this and benefit a charity instead. This also benefits the club by way of much needed positive publicity outwith the Rovers support.

Plus the shirts look superb. Everybody is happy. Or should be.

How does grumbling about this help the club in any way?

if people want to grumble, let 'em grumble- not that there's much grumbling on this issue, some folk are just discussing what kind of deals were on offer, should we have taken them, etc- what a Rovers forum should be about, no?

And yes, the home shirt is the best we've had in years.

[Oz Rover]

An excellent outcome and judging by the amount of fans in this thread alone who can't wait to rush out and get the new shirt it can only be a good thing. I wouldn't be at all surprised the usual suspects that are moaning will be quick to snap one up themselves ;-)

[Mike Graham]

can I buy one today.... it will be the 1st shirt I have bought in years

[Tris]

It may be that they have played a very astute long game by doing this.

If the commercial deals which were on the table were below what the space on the shirt is valued at, then there was no point signing a 3-4 year deal which doesn't meet the expected value.

This buys time. They can spend the next 6-8 months lobbying potential future shirt partners by pointing out the exposure the Princes Trust are getting ... and also the global economy will be another 6-8 months into recovery. They can use this one year arrangement with the Princes Trust essentially like an advert for next years shirt space.

Potentially putting Rovers in a position to sign a much more lucrative longer term commercial deal well in time for next season, instead of throwing the shirt space away on a 3 year deal with a two-bob online gambling outfit.

Whilst at the same time benefitting a fine charity and generating lots of positive publicity for BRFC ... and of course the shirt looks great as well.

[SAS]

we would have to sell about 1m extra shirts to meet the same levels. Anyone got shirt sales figures from last year out of interest?

I'm sure we make more than £1.50 profit on the shirts.

I'd be disappointed if the margin was under 70% on them.

[Ralfinho]

I wonder if the shirts will be available to buy over in India? And anywhere else for that matter

[alexanders]

Shirt; fantastic looking ! Do anyone know if its on sale at onerovers? I could Get them to. Ship it to my hotel in London ?

[SAS]

Though the media would have picked up on this.

Had it been mufc you can gaurentee that it would have been breaking news on ssn, sky news and BBC.....

Thought it would have been more newsworthy given that it should help the scrotes that are currently on a mass stealing spree...

[jim mk2]

Shirt sponsorship was worth a record £112m to Premier League clubs last season according to the article below and will presumably rise again this season.

Our income from shirt sponsor this season will be a princely zero.

Very nice to be associated with the Prince's Trust but in commercial terms this is a disaster and it's a good job the owners are already very wealthy and putting tens of millions of pounds into the club from their own pockets every year including £50m in this transfer window.

http://www.dailymail...and-Europe.html

[Mercer]

The way I look at it is that the Rovers' brand is tarnished and unattractive which actually means that certain people in the club have not done their job. including, IMO, the commercial 'expert' brought in from Leicester.

Corporate Social Responsibility is growing in importance but for a club, in Rovers' present predicament, to 'give-up' something potentially approaching 5% of turnover, it is ridiculous.

I wonder if some posters on this MB will be as generous in their plaudits if we are sitting at the bottom of the PL come the next transfer window, or even before the end of August, without a pot to p1ss in ?