Drop in shirt sponsorship deal revealed.
Posted on August 4th, 2010 | 98 Comments |
A new table has been revealed showing the value of sponsorship deals from each club in the Premier League. The revenue streams from shirt sponsorship at all clubs has increased, apart from at two clubs. On the plus side, revenue has dropped at Sunderland, despite them believeing that they are a big club. On the downside, our revenue has also dropped.
To be fair, part of the drop in revenue can be attributed to factors beyond the control of our football club. The credit crunch bit hard, and it bit Northern Rock particularly hard, meaning that any sponsor deal with them was never going to be as extravagant as it was previously. Add a relegation onto that, with the drop in exposure that goes hand in hand with that, and it is clear to see why the money we are being given to carry a name on our shirt has pratically halved.
It was way back in 2006 when our association with Northern Rock began as the then chairman, Freddy Shepherd, signed a four-year-deal for £4.8 million per year that meant the famous black and white stripes of Newcastle United began to carry the logo of the financial institution.
The deal was quite lucrative at the time, and near on £5 million coming into the club every year could only have been a good thing, right? Well it would have been had Freddy Shepherd not taken the sponsorship money all up front and spent it on Michael Owen, which never worked out for Newcastle, no matter which way it is painted to look.
That move meant that we have had no sponsorship money coming into the club for the past four years, which hasn’t benefited the club at all, especially when we got so little return from the player it was all invested on. That has changed now, and we do at least have new deal in place, but it is nowhere near as lucrative as the old one was.
From a four-year deal that totaled nearly £20 million, we have now dropped to a four-year deal that is worth between £1.5 million and £10 million, and that has strings attatched. There is a review point two years into the deal, but as it stands the maximum payment is £2.5 million a year and is dependant on Premier League football, so we should get money for this season. Get relegated however, and it drops dramatically.
How does our deal compare to other teams though? Not that bad is the answer. Our relatively small £2.5 million a year deal (assuming Premier League survival) is still the tenth most lucrative deal in the Premier League. Naturally, we are getting trumped by the likes of Liverpool and Manchester United, who both have a £20 million a year deal in place, but we compare quite well with clubs like Everton who are only slightly ahead of us. Not bad for the new boys eh?
You can view the full table here.
Our sponsorship deals can be improved, over time, but at least we are beginning to get new money into the club. It may not have been as much as it was in the past, not that it mattered as we never saw any of it anyway, but it is a small step in the right direction.
A club with the fanbase the size of ours will always be a draw for sponsors, but we must be in the Premier League to draw them in. For that, and many other reasons, survival is of paramount importance this season.
NUFCBlog Author: toonsy
toonsy has written 643 articles on this blog.
If only our sponsorhip money was equal to Liverpool or even Spurs we would have been a Real force.