As the TV camera’s panned over the dressing rooms at the Donetsk stadium in advance of last night’s Euro 2012 semi final they picked up the car seats that replaced the more traditional benches for players to sit and deal with any last minute nerves.
The presence of such seats in football dug outs has become standard as soccer has moved towards multi sponsor deals and one of the most obvious had been the Audi branded ones at Old Trafford.  Next season they will be replaced by leading US brand Chevrolet.
It hopes the deal will ease its expansion to the UK and European market and in turn expects to help the club grow its US base.  Chevy has quite a macho image and it is not certain whether the more youth and female based audience for soccer in the states is a perfect fit but Britain is it’s main target for this deal and they have scored an early win by promising to build a car park for United fans.
Not quite in tune with the move by local planners to reduce car traffic and encourage public transport but the fans will like it and there is an immediate relevant association with the product the company wants to sell.
Dealers in Ireland will be disappointed to know though that Chevrolet have turned down the corporate box that goes with the deal and have instead said they want to use their allocation of tickets to allow more ‘real’ fans get to the ground.  Not sure whether the marketing team referenced this as getting more into the ‘bleachers’ but the heavyweight US style approach to marketing will be interesting to watch over the course of the five year deal.