The FA Cup third round got underway at the weekend in England but did so without an overall sponsor. Budweiser did not renew its deal after last season and the FA was reported to be seeking a sum in the region of £6-8 million a year.
Talks with one potential partner were believed to be making good progress but have now broken down and it is likely that there will be no sponsor for this season. William Hill bookmakers were the main winners. Their partnership with the FA meant they were the brand that featured on the back of interview panels across the weekend games.
Live coverage of matches is split across channels but live BBC matches, something of a rarity outside major international tournaments would guarantee a larger than normal audience.
The fact of not being able, by dint of history and tradition, to offer full naming rights has been put forward as the principal reason for failing to secure a commercial partner.
Muscle
In part though it is because of the increased muscle which rights holders have through new broadcast deals. The FA’s latest round of negotiation with BBC and BT Sport yielded £200 million over 4 years, a 10% increase on the last deal which also included England international games.
That covers a lot of the pressure that would otherwise apply in striking a ‘deal’ on sponsorship at less than the asking price.
European Rugby has faced a similar challenge with only Heineken yet on board for the first season of the Champions’ Cup, some way short of the five that were being trailed in the run up to the start of the tournament back in 2014.
While sports sponsorship as a whole continues to rise on a global level there are different and at times contradictory trends emerging.
Ownership
The lack of overall ‘ownership’ of an event is proving troublesome for certain brands though in other areas the partnership model of sharing access to fan bases with non competing brands, and at a lower cost still appears to be thriving.
Nissan were quick to replace Ford as partners of the UEFA Champions’ League and Olympic partners are remaining firmly in place from one cycle to the next.
In Ireland the GAA model is based on a similar three way share of each Championship in hurling and football.
The one sure thing is that no sponsorship deal is ever going to a simple and straightforward placing of a brand on an event. There has to be logic to the engagement and a full measurable plan on how the relationship between sponsor and rights holder is worked through.
Our belief is that such a deal once done right delivers a far greater return for brands than simple advertising in a cluttered market. With sponsorship still a poor relation when it comes to marketing budgets that means there is still scope for continued growth, and a degree of confidence among rights holders at the highest end of the spectrum that their numbers will add up for a commercial partner.
