Getting Shirty Over Boro's Missed Sitter
IT COULD be clever marketing holding back the release of the new shirt to build excitement before a calculated commercial coup at the start of the lucrative school six week summer holiday/ beachwear retail boom. It could be shrewd product placement waiting for the high-profile billboard of a "spectacular" signing to unveil the club's new colours and new sponsor to the waiting world media. It could even be a bold artistic statement against the commercialisation of the game to not join the catwalk circus and cack-handed attempts at hype in favour of a subversive low key launch. It could be.
Equally it could be that Boro have missed a sitter. The shirts have been manufactured and are ready to roll but are sitting in the warehouse in Italy and losing precious shelf life because Boro failed to secure a smooth transition in shirt sponsorship. It is a major opportunity missed. Most teams have the major backer tied up long before the season ends and the new kit on display and on sale for the final home game. Boro shop staff are reportedly telling customers to expect the shirts in August - when a quarter of the potential selling cycle has already expired.
Newcastle, Bolton and Spurs unveiled their new shirts at their last home game, Everton a week after the season ended and Wigan and West Ham early in June. The big market players Arsenal and Manchester United are set to launch their new home kit pocket money hoovers this weekend. After that it is only away kits, third kits and European specials scheduled for release
. As not every team cashes in on a new home kit every year the only one left to launch in the Premiership will be Boro.
It would be nice to think it was a deliberate case of saving the best until last, however, the fact that there is no scheduled release date and that the eventual release is dependent on other factors hints otherwise. You suspect there are faces behind the scenes as red as the product.
"The shirts are all now manufactured and ready for the sponsors' details to be added once negotiations are successfully concluded," admitted commercial king pin Graham Fordy as he explained that the absence as yet of a name across the chest was the hold-up, an echo of the delayed Dial-a-Phone deal four years ago that led to much derided iron-on sponsors logos being dished out by the club shop in a rush to be ready for the big kick-off.
Which points to an even more worrying missed sitter. The Premier League is a powerful commercial magnet, a global bums-on-seats operation that has sucked in sponsorship cash from some of the biggest names across the retail, leisure and financial sectors as PR savvy companies scramble for the guaranteed media exposure and growth of brand awareness that comes with an association with football. It should be easy to find a sponsor.
Last season shirt sponsorship brought in £70m for Premiership clubs with income ranging from Chelsea's £20m to Portsmouth's £500,000. It is now a well established revenue stream from a international market serving hundreds of countries - which is why the new overseas TV rights deal is worth £625m a year to clubs - and one that any self respecting club should be able to exploit ruthlessly.
And Boro may not be a blue chip brand to rival the G-14 teams but as one of the more senior league members and as plucky underdog winners of a trophy and purveyors of pulsating last-gasp comebacks to reach a European final within the memory span of a corporate PR guru it, should be a relatively easy pitch to sell the club in such an inviting commercial environment.
Boro's billboard has proved good value for money for the last three sponsors. Cellnet had their logo plastered over three Wemley cup finals, Dial-a-Phone was highly visible for the League Cup win at Cardiff and 888.com enjoyed a season that brought Boro's best Premiership finish and a record number of televised games and topped that by having their brand push into new markets as the club launched consecutive European invasions. Given the record of past exposure and the potential for the future it should not be a hard package to sell.
Football sponsorship is not dependent on luck. There is now quite an elaborate body of academic economic research into the mechanics of the market, a semi-scientific breadown of types of relationships and financial motivations. It is not a question of suck it and see, let's see who writes in. Clubs can be proactive and seek out either a short-term cash cow or a longer-term name that offers a synergy of image, values and products. In short, clubs have at their disposal the knowledge and means to seek out an appropriate sponsor and market factors on their side. To be left bare-chested is a poor reflection on the club.
Potential problems had been looming with the 888.com deal. The firms switched their major football investment to Sevilla last season (a £3m a year tie-up) and, possibly more importantly, for much of the past year a row has been rumbling over whether offshore internet gambling firms should be allowed as sponsors at all as their operations were at odds with the gaming laws of some EU countries. That as much as anything should have prompted Boro to line up a plan B. To be caught short seems to be bad planning.
As it is, the withdrawal of 888.com and the absence of a ready replacement has had the knock-on effect of delaying the release of the new shirt. Naturally speculation is mounting over both the design of the new kit (here's the Errea catalogue, take your pick) and the new shirt sponsor. Mooted monikers emblazoned across our hearts ranging from defence electronics specialists Thales to chav nosh oven chip giants McCains. Tasty.
Given the global reach of the Premiership and the high-profile enjoyed back home by Boro's new recruits it may make commercial sense to pursue a tie-up with a Korean firm like Samsung, LG or Daewoo. Or a Turkish firm given the cult status of our "new Juninho" - although after the mischevious suggestion of Frys no one knew off hand of a Ottoman high street brand.
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Anthony Vickers
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As someone who lives in India and works in football - particularly Asia - I agree that Boro should be far more outward looking in terms of exploiting the global media exposure that comes with being part of the Premier League.
Boro's matches are broadcast in over 200 countries worldwide and most PL games are broadcast every week either live or delayed (and replayed) right across Asia. There is nothing else that gives a global corporate this kind of brand exposure...
We are one of 20 clubs that participates in the most exciting and popular league in the history of sport, and as such we offer a superb and highly cost-effective vehicle for any brand wanting to reach out to the world.
It's high time that the football club itself did the same and in all aspects of its business.
AV
'Nuff said. Rightly devastating critique.
Well said, AV but I think you could paint a broader picture of the continued failure of the commercial side of the club to support the playing side AND the fans.
We all remember the ticketing fiascos but, on a smaller scale, it still goes on. Hibs started to sell tickets for our match on Monday, 2nd July. Yesterday, our ticket office had no idea when tickets will be available or how much they'll cost. Someone even suggested I should buy my ticket from Hibs!!
I have recently bought items, online, from the Club Shop. The parcel eventually arrived with simple spelling mistakes in EVERY line of a scrawled address. What an image of couldn't care less sloppiness that presents.
If I want to buy tickets for a big concert the promoters are keen to take my money as soon as possible to help with cash flows and earn interest. Not so the Boro who leave ticket sales to the last minute making it difficult for travelling fans (I live in Aberdeen) or occasional supporters to plan their weekends. Make it easy to buy tickets and more people will come.
I could go on and on (the dire MFC website , for example) but I think the picture's clear. The whole commercial operation needs a major overhaul and quickly.
John B.
As you sow, so shall ye reap is an old proverb. Clearly no one has been sowing any seeds to generate a harvest of sponsorship.
The club are yet again snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. And it would not be right to blame it on bad luck or misfortune, the club have worked hard to become this incompetent.
The shirt deal is just added to the list of mismanaged issues.
We have a badge that looks puerile, a shirt we know nothing about. Both issues we have expressed views about. Now we have no sponsor for the biggest advertising forum in sport. And it has happened before.
Add in ticketing fiascos and the PR catastrophies in the past and you begin to wonder if anyone at MFC actually knows what they are doing. I exonerate the playing side, well nearly, they still suffer from foot in mouth disease. And there is the question of fitness of the squad.
I had better go.
The usual short sighted, "cack-handed" marketing from our club!
When will they learn?
The club have bought in to the 'small town in europe' mentality.
The fact that players from all over the world have worn the shirt, making the marketing possibilities global, seems to have passed the club by.
Prehaps the shirt could be sponsored by Bernard Matthews.
Has Graham Fordy put a price on the new shirt to be?
That was an interesting link to the economics of sponsorship website. Looking at it it seems Boro need to bring someone with specialist knowledge in the area and take some strategic decisions in this area.
The last few sponsors (Dialaphone and 888) have been what the expert on there called ‘cynics and short termers’ , companies looking for a quick publicity fix to raise their brand profile but with no commitment and no real identity with the club.
It may be that they offered the best short term cash deal for the club, we don’t know, but what Boro need now is to break with that thinking and look for the type of deal the expert called the “carers/community� model, a long term sponsor that has definite links with the community, shared values and the prospect for a partnership that goes beyond the cheque up front.
There are some big organisations on Teesside that are crying out for a wider exposure, who champion the strengths and skills of the area and who have a big budget: Tees Valley Development Corporation, the Middlehaven Development people have a real reason to get on board to attract inward investment from abroad plus big brands operating globally like Corus and BASF
Then there is the University, a fast growing centre of excellence for computing and digital and virtual technology and also now a major employer - and one with a long term commitment to Middlehaven, the town and the future of a new Teesside.
That would be my choice, a laudable sponsor that promoted the town even if the money was less than a hit and run opportunist can offer.
"The club have bought in to the 'small town in europe' mentality."
never a truer word spoken on this board.
If a shirt maker like addidas or nike made our shirts they would make sure the shirts were out in plenty of time to maximise revenue.
I think with errea, mfc call the shots and never seem to be in a rush about getting it out early. I wish they would bring a long sleeved version which woould be better to wear in the winter.
The premier league is an international market place with all those millions of viewers across the world. Isn't it about time boro moved up from being a local team mentality to become more international? Lets start by getting an international global shirt sponsor.
Good post red_rebel.
However it would mean the club having to show some form of forward thinking for your thoughts to be acted upon.
This as most of us who post to this blog know, is not part of the football clubs makeup.
Lamb and Fordy are to modern business methods, what Cannon and Ball are to up to date comedy.
Well said rebel, and perhaps even Middlesbrough Council could get involved in 'encouraging' these companies - now that would be revolutionary.
In the spirit of moving on from the post-86 era it makes sense to finally, belatedly dispose of dinosaurs like Fordy
"In the spirit of moving on from the post-86 era it makes sense to finally, belatedly dispose of dinosaurs like Fordy"
What about gibson aswell as he is the one who hires and fires these dinosaurs. He seems quite happy with them
Could I dare to suggest the club approach the Turkish white goods and electronics retailer Arçelik? http://www.arcelik.com.tr/Cultures/en-US/?Language=en-US
At least it might attract schoolboys to buy the shirt....
Apperently theres been sightings of the new shirt with the micky mouse face
**AV writes: Ah, so Alan Smith did meet up with Boro officials when he was in Florida.
I think that a lot of the points on the board are well made, especially Rebels about getting on board the University, I think this would be a plus for the club and the town.
The idea of getting a major foreign sponsor, such as Turkish or Far East companies is a good one in principle. They would get a wider audience, which is bound to be a good thing.
The one thing which really annoys me, has done for years, is that you can only buy the Boro shirt in Middlesbrough, in fact, worse, in only 2 places in Middlesbrough! WHY????
I have lived in Scotland previously before returning home, and when I was younger, I could only get the shirt when I came back to visit. I couldnt order through the website as 14 year olds werent allowed credit/debit cards back then and my parents thought they were too expensive, so I had to save up....but was then forced to wait til I came home.
Imagine if our shirt was available throughout the country or even abroad. Im sure we have fans in more places than just the TS post code!!
I think this is worse than not releasing the shirt until after everyone else. We WILL end up getting a shirt out, but we WONT end up selling them in higher quantities until it is made available to a wider audience.
Followed the link to Errea and found a really good shirt (Maglia Bravia I think). It was a kit with a band on the shirt in various colours.
In fact the red one looked good, I wonder if anyone at MFC has thought of a red kit with a white band? I bet it would be popular. There was also a white shirt with a blue band that looked, would make a good away kit.
Oh dear, oh dear. we've all seen this before. Typical, typical boro.
should have been sorted by now
why are boro shirts not available in most sports shops? to give the club a better profile in the uk & abroad...
Who'se that team they call the BORO?
ANSWER: THE ONE THAT CONTINUALLY SHOOTS ITSELF IN THE FOOT.
TICKETS, ADVERTISING, SPONSORSHIP, SUPPORTER NEGLECT, COMPLACENCY, ETCETERA ETCETERA.AS YUL BRYNNER WOULD SAY.
C'MON BORO ITS 2007 NOT 1907 PLEASE CATCH UP WITH THE REST BEFORE YOU FALL TOO FAR BEHIND.
FANS WILL ONLY TAKE SO MUCH MEDIOCRITY BOTH ON AND OFF THE FIELD, AND I SUGGEST THAT SOME ARE ALREADY VOTING WITH THEIR FEET.
**AV writes: OK, you can stop shouting now.
Just another example of the Boro failing to compete on commercial terms with other mediocre Premiership clubs to maximise revenue potential allowing us to kick on to the next stage.
The deal with 888 didn't include sponsor's tickets for the later stages of European competitions - either 888 of the club felt they wouldn't be needed. What sort of signal does that send out?
We need a good PR agency - the in-house staff aren't up to the job.
People plzzzzz....you can moan and whinge all u like but at the end of the day, you and i will still go and buy the merchandise and still put up with lapsy daisy ongoings at mfc, for god sake, weve been doing it for years.
Message to coggins...yes steve hires n fires but boy has he moved this club forward and i defy anybody to disagree. Lets look forward because now gareth has settled in i for one am looking forward to the future.
We are all proud of our local talent on the pitch, but the local talent behind the scenes is pathetic.
It seems to me Gibson wanted it to be a local club and hired people who were local rather than qualified people. Boro are a buisness and should act more professionally behind the scenes, the people who run the club couldnt get a job in the city no way.
Boro should sack the lot of the marketing department and the general running of the club and high some young qualified motivated people. Who can move this club forward. Football is a buisness and currently Boro are being run like those people who come out with a bucket and wash your car for a quid
AV
You are using this silent period in the transfer market as a milking pot.
Has the Gazette suddenly had an abundance of emails from its readers stating that they cannot buy a shirt?
You have just binned thousands of positives and will no doubt select the harshest of words from the posts to proof such.
I know many people who cannot even afford a shirt, never mind a season ticket which says it all.
Positive words are the way forward and not immaterial materials, which may well be clever marketing.
I look forward to your next blog with a ready smile which will be someone in a non - existent shirt.
Very Happy - do you think the Boro Marketing / PR department(s) do a good job?
If so please explain why we are the only PL club without a shirt sponsor or a shirt to sell.
Do you work for MFC?
Please,please,please.........can we please get a decent shirt maker??? every year we have problems with kit...Why?. adidas,nike,reebok any thing other than errea, also while we are at it can someone find the Boro a top quality right sided right footed midfielder??.....4 years of trying and still no luck ha.
Do we really care? The shirt I was most pleased to see had no sponsor - at Hartlepool in 1986. The bloke in the shirt matters a lot more.
Happy posters
Very Happy focusses on the positives and is right to do so. I too applaud the positives and also say so. Tuncay and Woodie look to be really good signings and Aliadiere could easily prove so.
The way forward is to praise the plus points and correct the areas where you have done less well. And that is the area where we are suffering. I am sure the people are doing their best and trying very hard because that is true of most people.
Sadly we keep getting caught out in many areas of the club. It is wrong to blame AV for voicing an opinion because that has been driven by observation of the facts.
Questions
have we got a club sponsor?
do we know what the shirt looks like?
have the fans had any input at all?
are the fans happy with the new badge?
And those are key points on top of previous fiascos in the PR desert that is MFC.
It wont stop my lad and I driving 140 miles for the first match. It wont stop us grumbling at the 11.55pm MOTD slot. We want the club to move forward, we are just baffled at the apparent - I say apparent because we dont know the facts but are not dim - confusion at MFC.
Mfc can prove many fans wrong but it shows no inclination to do so and that is even more worrying.
Very Happy
AV is only writing what is on everyone's lips. Even if the Gazette did get an abundance of emails complaining about the non-existant new shirt, isn't it their responsibility to represent their community and write an article if there's something in it?
The truth is, there is a whole load of egg on someone's face here. Surely, when a deal gets close to the end of the road, the club should be actively selling itself to whoever wants a piece of the cake? What an absolute joke...
I like the idea of a company from the Middlesbrough area sponsoring the shirt, but I don't think the University would be a possibility. There would be uproar in the government if an institution spent 200k on sponsoring a football shirt!
Good article AV. I bet some of the big heads at the club dread picking up the paper to so what you come up with week in, week out. Of course, that worry could be remedied if they'd just do their jobs properly...
Never Happy
I have more positives in me than Anthony Vickers could ever dream about, never mind write about.
Can you not honestly see that he is simply using you as guinea pigs to feed a blog until a new player arrives etc.
Ask him to make an appointment with Graham Fordy on your behalves to remedy the issue and report back, if his heart runs so deep over a material point, because he lit the fire.
I well remember when the Gazette had a free front page and placed our team on its pages and made them look like a pack of ASBO’s.
Talk about forging relationships.
He prefers freedom of speech, so now he has mine and I wish him well.
Sadly, on a commercial level, the club is a joke.
I've lived in Japan for the last several years. I know plenty of Japanese lads who love the Premiership but I've never met a single one who knows anything about Boro other than one or two who laugh at how we stupidly refuse to hire a manager with any experience. You can buy every Premiership team shirt here except, you guessed it, ours.
We will never, ever realise our ambitions while we continue to use garbage kit manufacturers, low level sponsorship, and this pathetic small town mentality that you rightly point out the club has bought in to.
We are clearly the least efficient of the Premiership clubs when it comes to off-field activity. Gibson is obviously an intelligent man so this lacking at the club baffles me.
Very Happy
Everyone has a right to their opinions, it would be boring if we agreed on everything.
I noticed that you responded to me but did not answer any of my questions.
I am now thinking you could be an MP
AV, I think you have overstepped the mark with your criticism of the administrative side of the club.
Be prepared to be snatched and imprisoned and undergo intensive boredom torture, namely listening to Dave Allan's monotonous voice for an unbearable amount of time.
I think this blog should be printed out and hand delivered to Mr Gibson. See what he has to say. He is the one who calls the shots.
Very Unhappy
Many, many things need to be looked into and changed at the club. I cannot understand why Steve Gibson has let things drop below a level, which was once his strength.
MP………….get a life
AV’s negatives are like caviar compared to those moaners. His positives had Teesside shining last week then all of a sudden, out come his brollies for no other reason that which I firmly stated.
My fact is his print.
I complained to the marketing department about he small club mentality, the selling of shirts only in town, the fact we use a two bit shirt maker, and the reply was we are a small club with a small catchment area so does not make sense to sell shirt anywhere else! That says it all to me, and with that attitude we will always be a small club.
Get a grip Gibbo
Who owns errea? Anybody know? But come on, the fact is the club have lost out on the possible pre school holidays and also the first weeks of the school holidays where most boro mad kids want to walk around on their summer holidays with their new kits on.
The shirts should always be available at least in June. This would allow adults and children going on hoilday to be able have the tops to wear.
When abroad you always see the new Newcastle, Man United, Liverpool etc. Middlesbrough could well have lost out big time the year.
As you said our new hero is Turkish and thousands of Teesiders go there on holiday. Everyone knows that you can get anything copied over there and what is the bet with their own Turkish hero, Tuncay they will have Boro tops made with is name on (might not be this years design) but who cares it will be a 25% of the UK price.
Strange, everyone is usually moaning about having to buy a new shirt every season. Maybe it is a master stroke by the club to save supporters some cash so they can afford to buy a season ticket.
Just wear the old shirt on holiday and if you are going to Turkey stick TUNCAY SANLI and the number 9 on the back it will stand you in great regard in the bars out there.
JC, I'd get TUNCAY on the back of my shirt but I got Dong-Gook on the back instead, thinking he was going to be a superstar...
As someone who has heard the mootings of the costs involved with the 888 deal it looks like Boro have infact been trying to over-sell themselves which is why they have ended up in this mess. 888 have had great exposure but did it justify Boro asking for, say, a near 250% increase in the cost. I (and obviously 888) do not think so.
True, the Premiership brings worldwide exposure, but what is also true is that every year companies want return on investment from their marketing.
My sources tell me a deal will be struck in time (probably with another lesser online gaming company) but for only a small increase on last year's 888 rate.
Not the commercial departments finest moment.
J. C. Marske
On the back of my old Boro shirt I have now written. TUNCAY AND AV FOREVER
Once I start supping in those Turkish Pubs on me Hols I will be followed everywhere by the local press.
However, it will take far more than 20 pints of Spiked Coke to pop my Cork below?
ALMIGHTY VICTORIOUS
I hope that if they are not here in time for the big kick off then the prices will be slashed as usualy they are only for 1 season, again waiting until the last minute typical boro
AV - I think you will find that most Boro fans are embarrassed enough having to wear Errea in the first place to worry about what is on the front of the shirt.
It could be Porche or Ferrari, Givenchy or Ralph Lauren, it still wouldn't look the part with a cheapo Errea badge next to it.
When will the club ever learn.... Errea should amalgamate with Diadora. They could go the whole hog then and be called Diarrea.
I remember the old club shop at Ayresome Park, a small shabby set up, ill equipped to deal with the fast commercial pace of a Premiership club. While the shop(s) are now bigger and flashier, it appears the shabbiness remains!!!
I think red_rebel was spot on with the university or local company idea. Why not have the good old Evening Gazette (or website) sponsoring the shirt like we did around 16 years ago (Fond memories of that and the ICI shirt 92/93).
It makes more sense than being dumped after two seasons by some flegling company looking for quick exposure.
Or maybe we could be doing a "Barca" and not having a shirt sponsor for this season because we are a world famous club after all!
**AV writes: The Boro are out of the Gazette's league now. I think the University or Middlehaven or TeesPride makes a lot of sense but I'm not sure how much they could afford or whether they would be legally allowed to.
it sems a growing trend everyone dislikes errea, they splatter there badge all over the back. You would think we support some club called errea. We have had some good gear only to be ruined by the back.
I have friends who live down south who ask me for there shirts and stuff, no outlet down there.
listening too Allen is a good cure for insomniacs.