Just a quick analysis done here, but it seems as if clubs are losing their shirt sponsors more often in recent years and (a bit concerning in my view) not getting new ones in a relatively short period of time. Here's a quick look at the state of the league: Chicago: Quaker Chivas: Corona Colorado: None Columbus: Barbasol DC: None (lost VW, no replacement) Dallas: Advocare Houston: None (lost GreenStar, no replacement) KC: Ivy Funds LA: Herbalife Montreal: BMO New England: United Health Care New York: Red Bull Philadelphia: Bimbo Portland: Alaska Airlines Salt Lake: LifeVantage (new 2014) San Jose: None (lost Amway) Seattle: Xbox Toronto: BMO Vancouver: Bell For a 19 team league, it seems a bit bizarre that there are still 4 clubs with no major shirt sponsorship. Outside of Houston, these four clubs have been struggling in recent years as well, and this is a very big financial blow to DC United in particular. The ones that are a bit...confusing (at least to me anyway) are Houston - which is in a major market and has been in MLS Cup finals frequently in recent years - and Colorado, which seemingly has made no progress in getting a sponsor over the past 5 years. I'm pretty interested in the business side of the league, and it seems like 4 out of 19 teams missing out on multi-million dollar partnerships is not a good thing. Have there been any indications that these four clubs will be getting sponsors in the near future?
DC appears to be close. This was a tweet from a couple of days ago Steven Goff (@SoccerInsider) 2/6/14, 11:52 AM D.C. United close to finalizing primary sponsor, I'm told. Probably not in time for unveiling of new jersey design on Feb 15 #dcu
Oh, it's not just "seemingly". At this point, it feels like listening to a State of the Union address: 'There's no lack of companies interested, it's finding the right company with the right deal,' Plush said." - January 29, 2009 "Plush: We are essentially back starting the process again. The world has changed pretty dramatically for everyone. We are repositioning our proposition. It’s going well but we are kind of at square one again. We can move very quickly. Beginning of the 2011 season is likely." - August 2, 2010 “'We’ve had a lot of meetings and we are very bullish on where that is going to land,' [Plush] said. 'There is a lot of confidence we will get closure in the near future.'” - December 21, 2010 "'Our objective has always been this year, and I know it will be a 2011 result,' [Hinchey] said. 'I don’t see this taking us past the regular season and I would like to think it will be before the end of July.'" June 1, 2011. "We have new business coming through, we are ahead of last year in new season tickets, we are making great progress but, ultimately, we have to get the shirt deal done. It’s on me and it is an absolute focus for me in 2012.” - Hinchey, January 17, 2012 “Denver is the 18th sized market and we have as many professional sports team as the New York market so when you talk about a share of voice for your brand, you have to be very clever to deliver what is required to be successful,” said Hinchey. “After having success delivering one for Derby County, I thought we could come in, take the same best practices and get it done, but it’s not gone as fast as I thought.” November 13, 2012 “I lose sleep on it,” Hinchey said. “Now, it’s not so much about the investment. It’s about the credibility for our fan base and our players and everyone in the organization to get that sponsorship and become fully integrated with our club. It’s a huge priority, we’re not going to stop and it’s on me to get it done.” February 25, 2013 “We’re in conversations with multiple people,” said Hinchey, who added the club has made recent presentations to potential sponsors. “I lose sleep over it. To me, that’s the next evident thing that we’ve arrived.” November 20, 2013 Sensing a pattern?
That leaves out Hinchey's comments at a blogger happy hour on Aug. 7th, 2012 which I reported as: http://view-from-the-couch.blogspot.com/2012/08/fascinating-happy-hour-with-rapids.html
DC and Houston will probably have sponsors soon. I am shock SJ does not have one, but i think it will be a package deal with the new stadium naming rights. Colorado will be the last I feel.
That is a pretty damning series of stories/quotes. For you Colorado folks, what do you think the overriding issue is here?
They already have the stadium rights sold so they can't package that and they have only recently had their attendance start improving? The Revolution are lucky to be on this list. UHC had approached the Krafts about a partnership of some sort with the Patriots. Part of that deal ended up including the Revs shirts. Had UHC not approached the Revs and had the deal packaged in with the Patriots, I have a solid feeling the Revs would not have a sponsor. Which honestly would not bother me, I know none of that money has gone back into the product so I would rather see Revolution across the shirts!
Yeah, couldn't spell it out any clearer. I like what the club has done in recent years in terms of kits and whatnot. It's just surprising that a club with an MLS Cup to its name and a very nice facility can't get anything done. Is it incompetence or just a legitimate lack of interest on the part of local/national businesses?
I dunno about Houston. It seemed insane to me that they couldn't snag a sponsor for their first year in a brand new stadium. They're going on almost two years without a kit sponsor at this point, and there is no shortage of businesses cropping up and expanding in that city too.
Incompetence. This is the same group who have let to name a head coach less than 5 weeks from opening day. Hinchey seems to have a very narrow set of parameters for an "acceptable" company and is only now starting to widen his parameters. Up until last year he was looking really only at Colorado companies who shared the Rapids same "values". Now they've hired a firm to help look over a broader spectrum of options. Strong rumors/leaks in the past have linked deals "almost" done with Chipotle, Coors, and Westerra credit (who became a presenting sponsor of the team, but not a jersey sponsor). It sounds like the Coors deal was done and handshake-agreed with the head of Coors, but the overall head of MolsonCoors killed it and wouldn't sign the contract.
I would love to see Fly Emirates on the Colorado jerseys. Would make sense to me considering the Kronke connection. That or Walmart
FWIW, from Hinchey's 1/30/2014 Reddit AMA: "this continues to be my biggest challenge thus far, we've been very active and have engaged a third party firm to help us secure the shirt deal. It keeps my up at night and I'm personally disappointed I haven't delivered this yet." I'm concerned about how much sleep Hinchey is losing. Sleep deprivation might be affecting his efforts to find a jersey sponsor.
BTW, kudos to RapidStorm for figuring out how to make a link look like a link on BS. Write your text, underline it, then apply the hyperlink.
I'm more surprised it's only 4. A million dollars or more/year seems like a pretty big advertising deal. Aside from a handful of teams, what do you get for that? People don't watch the games on TV for the most part, and teams likely trail NFL/MLB/NBA/NHL for the most part in jersey sales. I'm sure people here will chime in with the magic words of "youthful demographic" but the overall size of the MLS pie in most markets still seems small. So to me, the league seems to be doing very well here.
That's not accurate. The Greenstar was terminated last February. From what I've been told, the team received a sizable buyout, so it's not really a financial issue until we get deep into this year. Houston has a very vibrant business community, but it's not necessarily concentrated in consumer products. Combine that with current sponsor conflicts (you can't get Shell on the jerseys when StatOil already has their name above the Northeast Gate), and it makes it more difficult to find a kit sponsor. EDIT: I'd also like to point out that there are different classes of shirt sponsor. IIRC, deals like Chicago/ Quaker and Seattle/ XBox involve league-wide advertising deals. That changes the equation a bit.
Hinchey has said (reading between the lines a bit) that the league has offered the Rapids help to find a deal like this (and also the Crew/Barbasol deal) but that the Rapids haven't taken them up on it, preferring to keep full control of the process.
Kroenke could advertise his other sports properties. He could advertise all of them, including the stadia. That would be ashtray money from each of Arsenal, the Rams, Avs, etc.
"San Jose Earthquakes in "advanced conversations" for jersey sponsor, stadium naming rights" (MLSsoccer.com - Friday, 1/31/14) -G
Why would they want to destroy it? Heck, at the start of games and after Rapids goals they fire the cannon from the Arsenal corner.
Fans of Arsenal rivals. All you need is a couple of Tottenham fans talking on the train about where they are sitting and having the guy who got the tickets saying "Ya, we are sitting in the section in front of that Arsenal logo."
Yeah, the second time he used that line about losing sleep, I rolled my eyes. Now, a third time? I can only laugh; it was terrible hyperbole to begin with, and even less believable when you admit you'd hired someone else (the 3rd party) to take care of the problem for you.
There are (sadly ) multiple Tottenham fans in Centennial 38 who stand in the Terraces in front of the logo. Nobody cares.
[I'm more surprised it's only 4. A million dollars or more/year seems like a pretty big advertising deal. Aside from a handful of teams, what do you get for that? People don't watch the games on TV for the most part, and teams likely trail NFL/MLB/NBA/NHL for the most part in jersey sales. I'm sure people here will chime in with the magic words of "youthful demographic" but the overall size of the MLS pie in most markets still seems small. So to me, the league seems to be doing very well here.[/quote] I agree with this. Most teams do have jersey sponsors and are still fighting for media attention.