In yesterday’s Daily Digest we gave you a visual heads up on the new identity for what remains arguably the most followed sporting event among Irish audiences over the course of any given year.
From the start of next season there will be no title sponsor, echoing the model of multiple sponsors underneath a clean name adopted by such as the All Ireland Championships, the UEFA Champions’ League and the European Champions’ Cup in rugby.
Such a departure required a recasting of the identity of the League which has been closely associated with Barclays and before that Barclaycard over a period of 15 years.
The blue that carried through that period remains but only as one of a palette of vivid colours that we will now get used to.
In terms of sponsorship Nike through to 2019 and EA Sports have already been revealed as being among the new extended group of sponsors that will take sectoral exclusivity from this summer. Others have been promised over the coming weeks and the appeal of the League in international markets remains incredibly high for a tournament that spans nine months of the year and delivers exposure like no other.
That’s not to say its position is completely secure. Protests have taken place in recent weeks about the way in which ticket prices are escalating beyond the range of many, and while the main TV revenue stream continues to spiral, giving the freedom to step away from a single sponsor model, the nature of broadcasting becoming more fractured means that can not be guaranteed forever.
New court actions are taking place alongside technology based attempts to stop pirating of TV signals and resale through online channels around the world that lessens the exclusivity of the multi billion pound deals signed for domestic and international rights by Sky Sports, BT Sport and others.
The rebranding is also a reminder that one should always treat with caution what media sources sometimes reveal as fact. Four weeks ago the Daily Telegraph revealed that the Lion was to be dropped this summer and that the tender for the redesign of the brand had yet to be issued. That’s a pretty impressive turnaround if that was the case on the contract and that does look suspiciously like a lion in the image above.
Rest assured that Sport for Business would never stoop to uninformed speculation and rumour, well not often anyway…
