Media
SETANTA SPORTS’ future fell further into doubt after the broadcaster failed to make a payment due under its Scottish Premier League rights contract, and had a request for a £50 million advance payment from rival Sky turned down.
SKY SPORTS acquired the media rights for all ICC cricket events over the next two years, including the World Cup in 2011. Included in the package are live and highlights television, internet and mobile rights for the ICC World Cup, the ICC World Twenty20, The ICC Champions Trophy, and women’s and under-19s cricket matches.
Marketing
MANCHESTER UNITED agreed a new four-year shirt sponsorship deal with Chicago-based insurance firm Aon Corporation. The deal was reported to be worth £80 million, making it the biggest shirt sponsorship deal in football history. The sponsorship begins at the start of the 2010-11 season.
THE FOOTBALL LEAGUE agreed a new three-year sponsorship deal with training equipment supplier Precision Training for the company to become the Official Training Aids Supplier of the Football League. Each club will receive an annual supply of cones, speed ladders, boundary poles and ancillary training items to assist their effort to promote participation in football in their local area.
PEPSI launched a competition to promote its top-tier sponsorship of the England-hosted ICC World Twenty20 cricket competition, which begins this weekend. On-pack codes can be entered at Pepsi’s ‘Max It For £1Million’ website or via text message, to win daily cash prizes linked to the number of Sixes scored during the tournament. Pepsi is also making available for download a desktop widget providing scores, written commentary and news from the competition.
ESSENTIALLY, the sports marketing agency, was appointed by Yahoo! to manage its cricket sponsorships, including activation. Essentially’s job begins with Yahoo!’s sponsorship of the ICC T20 World Cup.
ROBINSON’S, the drinks brand, will launch a new television advertising campaign for the Wimbledon, playing on the country’s hopes for Andy Murray to win. Murray will not feature, but his presence in the final will be suggested by images of viewers on the edges of their seats watching a television screen, with audible commentary on a final featuring a British player.
THE ENGLAND CRICKET TEAM will wear the logo of a partnership between the England Cricket Teams and United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) entitled ‘Cricket Against Hunger’, during the ICC World Twenty20 competition. The aim is to raise awareness about global hunger.
Legal/Regulatory
FIFA gave its support to proposals for an all-English team representing Great Britain at the London 2012 Olympics. The Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish associations do not want to take part for fear their independence would come under threat if they united with England at the Olympics.
Finance
DELOITTE revealed that English Premier League football clubs had regained their top spot as the world’s most profitable in its Annual Review of Football Finance 2009.
The clubs’ returned a collective profit of €234m, out of revenues of €2.4bn. Deloitte predicted continued revenue growth for the league in 2009-10, although at a lower rate.
PREMIER LEAGUE DEBT was revealed to amount to £3.1bn. The Guardian newspaper said the figure suggested FA chairman Lord Triesman had underestimated the level of debt in English football, which last October he put at £3 billion including the Football League clubs and the FA. Manchester United and Chelsea lead the debtor’s table, owing £699 million and £701 million respectively. Arsenal is third with £416 million in debts. Liverpool owes around £280 million.
GOALS, the 5-a-side football venue and competition operator, announced it had received £11 million from shareholders to fund continued expansion of its business. Goals, which currently operates 32 sites across the UK, is aiming to open at least another 15 by December 2011.
NEWCASTLE UNITED FC was put up for sale for the second time in seven months by owner Mike Ashley. Seymour Pierce have been appointed as brokers, and are reported to be targeting a £100m sale price, a third of the price sought when Ashley first put the club on the market last Autumn.
TALISKER, the Scotch whisky brand, was announced as an official sponsor of sailing event, Cowes Week 2009.
Events
THE SPORTS EVENT MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE 2009 will feature Sheikh Saoud Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani from the Qatar Olympic Committee, Dan Jones of Deloitte’s Sport Business Group and Lars Lundov of Sport Event Denmark, giving their opinions on how the value of hosting major events should be measured. The conference takes place at the Shaw Theatre, Novotel St Pancras, London on November 10. Subject covered by sessions at the conference include host broadcast services, security, technology, promotion, and brand involvement.
LORD’S will play host to a charity cricket match between the Twenty20 champions of England and the Indian Premier League on July 6. Proceeds from the match will go to the British Asian trust, one of the Prince of Wales’ charities.
THE EUROPEAN SPONSORSHIP ASSOCIATION is hosting a forum promising to “unravel the digital landscape” at the London offices of law firm Osborne Clarke on June 9. Speakers Ciaran Norris of Altogether Digital, Mike Flynn of Fast Web Media, and David Fisher of Guardian Plus, will provide insight into world of new media and digital integration in a session will be moderated by David Peters of Carat.
THE R&A announced the host venues for 2012’s R&A Championships and International matches. The 2012 Amateur Championship will be contested at Royal Troon and Glasgow – Gailes Links, with the initial stroke play stage shared between the two venues. The final match play stage will be contested solely at Royal Troon. Other venues to be used during the year include England’s Notts Golf Club, Ireland’s County Louth Golf Club, Wales’ Machynys Peninsula Golf Club, Ireland’s Portmarnock Golf Club, and England’s Fairhaven Golf Club.
FUTURE SPONSORSHIP 2009, the conference, will take place on November 24 and 25 this year at the Mayfair Hotel, London. The event will draw senior executives from over 20 countries to discuss the issues at the heart of the industry.
Facilities
STARBUCKS opened its first outlet in a multi-sports facility in Europe at Surrey Sports Park, a multi-million pound development owned by the University of Surrey and expected to open in 2010.
