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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