Volkswagen has strengthened an already tight grip on domestic soccer with the announcement that Karmann Volkswagen, a new Dublin dealership to the west of the city is to sponsor Bohemians for the season that gets underway next week.
The news comes only days after McAllister Volkswagen unveiled their shirt front sponsorship of Shelbourne FC and adds to similar deals already in place between dealers and last year’s Champions Sligo Rovers and Bray Wanderers.
Shamrock Rovers are starting the second of a two year deal with Seat, another Volkswagen brand, meaning that five of the 12 top flight clubs that kick off their campaign on Friday March 8th will do so with the support of the country’s biggest selling car brand.
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[ismember]Yesterday we wrote about the battle in sport taking place between between Volkswagen and Toyota, both of whom are the busiest sponsors across the sporting landscape through the first two months of 2013.
To celebrate the new partnership Karmann has announced a ‘Kids go Free’ promotion which enables one paying adult to bring up to 3 kids (under the age of 14) to any home games in Dalymount Park free of charge.
This is a direct and effective way of tackling the problem of attendance at games and could be echoed for a small up front cost across the league, generating a better atmosphere at games and making an investment in the long term future of the game.
Over 700,000 journeys were made from Ireland last season to watch Barclays Premier League action and this is a start in helping to win back some of those fans to support local teams.
“The reaction from staff and customers to the new partnership has been incredible and everyone is looking forward to the season ahead,” said Darren Cahill of Karmann Volkswagen.
“Bohemian FC is our local premier league club and we look forward to enjoying a strong and successful partnership with them. We are very supportive of the efforts the club is making to expand their fan base within the local community.”
“We are very pleased a company associated with such a strong brand has come on board as the club’s sponsor,” said Bohemian FC President, Matt Devaney.  “Our aim now is to build a strong partnership that delivers mutual benefits.
With so many clubs now in the Volkswagen ‘family’ it will be interesting to see how ideas are shared between the clubs on promotion and activation within their communities.
Without a major international tournament this summer, the domestic game has an opportunity to stand out more than it was able to last year.  The Airtricity Premier League has its season launch taking place today and all next week Sport for Business will look behind the scenes at the commercial changes which we might look forward to off the pitch.
Simon Elliott, CEO of Volkswagen Group Ireland is a great soccer fan and was previously a director of Scunthorpe United in the English football league.  The company also has a foothold in the GAA through the sponsorship of Tipperary by Skoda, in Golf through a number of national deals and  in Rugby through a partnership with Leinster Rugby and the IRFU.
“We are strong supporters of Irish soccer,” said Elliot and we believe this is a great partnership between two strong brands. Bohemian FC is a fantastic club and we support these strong local relationships which can only benefit our local Volkswagen dealers.”[/ismember]