Fantastic @ St James’ Park?
Posted on March 25th, 2010 | 84 Comments |
On the face of it, it doesn’t sound that bad. But when I read more into it, some alarm bells started ringing. Perhaps i’m reading too much into it? Perhaps the whole renaming debacle of a few months ago that touched a nerve with me has left me with some doubt as to just what the implications of this deal are?
Fantastic Telecom are part of the much larger MDS telecoms group, the deal will offer Newcastle United fans phone and broadband packages in a more cost effective way for the consumer. As an added sweetener, 10% of all subscriptions will be donated back to the club to invest in the youth setup.
Pen was put to paper on a 4 year sponsorship deal that will commence at the start of next season. On the clubs official website it mentions that part of the terms of the deal will mean that Fantastic Telecom will have highly-visible sponsorship branding around St James’ Park.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for maximising money coming into the club but what concerns me is the ‘highly-visible’ aspect of the deal, although I very much doubt the package includes any naming rights of the stadium. How visible? Will we have te more tacky signs draped off the top of the stands, much like the SportsDirect one on top of the Gallowgate end? How about putting it on top of the East stand, just in front of where it says ‘Newcastle United’? Put the signs together and we could have ‘Fantastic Newcastle United’ then couldn’t we?
Newcastle United are apparently thrilled with the deal. Commercial Director, Barry Webber had this to say about it:
“This is a highly significant deal for the football club and we are delighted to welcome MDS Telecom Group to our family of official sponsors.”
“Our aim is to continually offer our fans something more and we feel that joining forces with Fantastic Telecom provides our supporters with something truly exceptional. With the team doing exceptionally well, this is just another indication of the off-field commercial strides we are making.”
Barry sounds thrilled, but lauding something as basic as phone and broadband as ‘truly exceptional’ in the year 2010 is a bit rich, I mean it’s not like he has just re-invented the wheel is it? Still, I guess credit must be given for trying to maximise the potential of the club, even if I am less than enthusatic about it.
Is this another sign that Mike Ashley is finally getting things right?
Ah bravo on the headline and lead-in toonsy.
Take a bow.
Fantastic are actually already involved with the Football League in some capacity, as far as I’m led to believe. Hope that doesn’t mean we have plans of sticking around down here… ;)