You’ve probably seen them on sports teams across the country showing advertisements for different businesses. While there is nothing new about promotional merchandise to help promote a particular sports club, the use of promotional clothing is a relatively new venture that has really taken hold in recent years.
From the Premiere League to American football and more, there are sports teams around the world that have large promotional contracts with various companies which offer a number of advantages for the team, ownership and the fans as well.
For example, Manchester United has recently signed a deal with Chevrolet that is up in the neighborhood of £47 million per year. The has brought the grand total amount of money in terms of sponsorships to the Premiere League up to a whopping £191.35m for the 2014 – 2015 season. That total has nearly doubled since the 2010 – 2011 seasons and represents a new age in sport shirt sponsorships.
But what are the advantages that having such promotional merchandise bring beside the money and the attention to the sponsoring companies? In fact, such deals have a tremendous impact that offers many positive benefits for sports teams and clubs around the world.
Business Focus
Arguably the main impact of promotional clothing and merchandise is that it offers teams and leagues a way to focus their efforts on the team itself instead of worrying about how to raise money for efforts that support the franchise. Promotional efforts like the one which blesses the Premiere League means that teams can focus their attention on getting better players, making stadium improvements and so forth.
More Ticket Price Control
Because the sponsorships do more than just pay for the uniforms, teams can focus more on filling the stands by keeping their ticket prices under more reasonable control. While tickets continue to go up, if you take away the money made from promotional merchandise they would be a lot higher today or the teams would really vary in terms of talent on the field. The ideal situation is to keep the tickets reasonably priced so that fans can fill the stands and offer home teams a real advantage.
More Money for Salaries
Getting better, more talented players is generally the key toward having a more successful team. This means that promotional clothing which offers a small space on the uniform to promote a business signifies that more money is now available for teams to really pay for the talent that they need to effectively compete.
Reach
There is little doubt that the reach of Premiere League has been extended considerably when you look at the number of different companies around the world that are offering sponsorships. Currently there are 14 shirts that are promoted by overseas companies as far away as the United Arab Emirates, South Korea, South Africa, Thailand, China and the United States.
That kind of reach was virtually unthinkable 20 years ago. Today, the Premiere League is now well known around the world thanks in part to these sponsorships which attract attention in far away places.
Daisy Burgess is a branding and marketing expert blogging about online and offline marketing for companies including Stupid Tuesday http://www.promotionalgear.co.uk
