Sunderland Expats Abroad - Untapped markets

[sanddancersoftheworlduniteandtakeover]

Hi

Do any expats (like me) have any ideas about how the club could raise it's profile where they live.

I live in North Poland (I'm redressing the balance!) and see countless premier league shirts but never Sunderland shirts. Poland is a huge market for football and with something like the 6th highest population in Europe (and the UK) we should try to tap into some of the market (and unlike other expat destinations the Polish League is completely cr@P). When Poles ask me who i support the usually say WHO??? to which i talk endlessly about Dariusz Kubicki.

SAFC seem to spend an incredible amount of effort raising the clubs profile in Africa but are disregarding countries on it doorstep. How about...

a) Loaning a few youngsters to Eastern European teams. I'm sure Wickham would develop with a season playing for Lechia Gdansk.
b) Sponsoring a couple of Academies/Football centres in the major cities Warsaw, Lodz, Krakow, the Tricity area? I'm sure the EU would part fund this and we could potentially turn out the next Lewandowski.
c) Sending the remains of last season kids/adult strips over to the Poorer European nations to be distributed and used by local football teams?
d) Sponsoring a preseason tournament in Warsaw and playing a top Polish, Ukrainian and Czech team?

Arsenal are massive here because they have a couple of Poles.. why cant we buy just 1? (the aforementioned Dariusz was our only Pole and he did a fair enough job)

Also, what about having a season ticket for expats where we can watch games online for a fee? I get to about 2 or 3 games a season but would gladly pay 10-20 quid a month for an expat SAFCTV channel.

Any ideas how we could band together to help the club by being the eyes and ears in foreign lands.

 

[Hairyhaggis]

I live in Perth, australia.. and while there is a very large UK population here, they mostly all support the big 4. Lots of Man Utd fans down here for some reason. But down here, AFL reigns supreme, especially in WA. We have the Perth Glory (Fowler played for us a couple of seasons ago), but they aren't that big. Lots of Brits support the Glory, and some aussies. But 'soccer' will never overtake the AFL, which gets crowds of 80k+ every game, especially for the local derby (Eagles and Dockers), or the big rivalry... the Eagles, and my team - the Sydney Swans.

 

[Vincemac]

Don't call them the big four they may be top teams at the moment but will that last remember we were once the Bank of England club and we are a big club but underperforming at the moment.and don't call me a **** I'm only saying

 

[sanddancersoftheworlduniteandtakeover]

Hi Haggis

Any ideas on how the club can become more noted in Oz?

I can imagine the large Italian expat communities will be taking note. The club had 2 shirts for 20 quid not long ago so I bought a few to give to family and friends here.

Maybe us expats should be exploited?

 

[aratwithaspade]

I live in Korea. So my perspective from an Asian point of view.
I've only been here 10 months and I don't live in Seoul where its massively populated so may be slightly different there, but theres still a good 5 million people who live in my city and I've been playing in an amateur league where some of my team mates and opponents are Korean.

When I came over I was expecting people to know a little bit about Sunderland but to be honest were not well known at all. That could be partly because of Ji not having that much game time. But imo it's because in East Asia football is a minority sport. The premier league games here average about 8,000. Baseball gets around 15,000 (been to two and it was the longest 5 hours of my life each time.)

Koreans are massively fashion conscious, they only wear clothes specific to the activity they are doing, so football tops when not playing football are generally a no no. (but Pringle jumpers, golf shoes, socks over pants and visors are spot on for indoor screen golf and the driving range, and a walk up a hill the size of penshaw requires all the clothing needed for Everest) The ones you do see are mainly Man U and Barcelona.

Here and Japan (which I've heard is pretty similar in terms of Baseball being number one) are painted as football daft because of the world cup. But if you host something the majority will jump on the bandwagon. Look at the Olympics last year how many people know or care how Jess Ennis or Mo Farrah did at their last Athletics meet. It seems Korea has this attitude towards all sports. For about 3 months over the winter there was nothing on tv other than UFC because there was a Korean guy with a belt in some division. It's not on as much now so I'm guessing he lost it.

Only the very knowledgeable fans would know any footballers other than Park Ji Sung, Beckham, Messi and Ronaldo. Their current biggest star Ki, who plays for Swansea (3 o clock Saturday games on TV are Swansea or Cardiff regardless of other fixtures) isn't that well known, teenage kids I teach - who play football didn't know who he was.

So I reckon outside of Europe and South America there isn't that much of a killing to be made with anyone we could attract. Unless of course we get someone Chinese in, because even a minority of Chinese fans would be nearly equivalent of what we have already. Whenever a bonified good premier league standad Chinese lad is produced whoever signs him will make a fortune.


Altidore will certainly help get a few more Americans on board though.

 

[Brian Storm]

Hi

Do any expats (like me) have any ideas about how the club could raise it's profile where they live.

I live in North Poland (I'm redressing the balance!) and see countless premier league shirts but never Sunderland shirts. Poland is a huge market for football and with something like the 6th highest population in Europe (and the UK) we should try to tap into some of the market (and unlike other expat destinations the Polish League is completely cr@P). When Poles ask me who i support the usually say WHO??? to which i talk endlessly about Dariusz Kubicki.

SAFC seem to spend an incredible amount of effort raising the clubs profile in Africa but are disregarding countries on it doorstep. How about...

a) Loaning a few youngsters to Eastern European teams. I'm sure Wickham would develop with a season playing for Lechia Gdansk.
b) Sponsoring a couple of Academies/Football centres in the major cities Warsaw, Lodz, Krakow, the Tricity area? I'm sure the EU would part fund this and we could potentially turn out the next Lewandowski.
c) Sending the remains of last season kids/adult strips over to the Poorer European nations to be distributed and used by local football teams?
d) Sponsoring a preseason tournament in Warsaw and playing a top Polish, Ukrainian and Czech team?

Arsenal are massive here because they have a couple of Poles.. why cant we buy just 1? (the aforementioned Dariusz was our only Pole and he did a fair enough job)

Also, what about having a season ticket for expats where we can watch games online for a fee? I get to about 2 or 3 games a season but would gladly pay 10-20 quid a month for an expat SAFCTV channel.

Any ideas how we could band together to help the club by being the eyes and ears in foreign lands.

Welcome aboard sir I see what you mean about the untapped market but but the romans took centuries to spread their empire. Unfortunately we can't spread the word fast enough. Africa is rapidly growing economy and a vast land, and the US is just land of the Dollar sign and as for the Italian league, it's full of talent at little cost, I think we're working in the right places at present. but who knows where our new found global brand will tap into next.

 

[sanddancersoftheworlduniteandtakeover]

Welcome aboard sir I see what you mean about the untapped market but but the romans took centuries to spread their empire. Unfortunately we can't spread the word fast enough. Africa is rapidly growing economy and a vast land, and the US is just land of the Dollar sign and as for the Italian league, it's full of talent at little cost, I think we're working in the right places at present. but who knows where our new found global brand will tap into next.

I can see what you mean regarding Romans but unlike normal businesses trying to get a hold in emerging markets we already have people with the knowledge to 'spread the word.'

I've no idea the amount of expats that Sunderland have but if 1% of those try to promote the club (with the clubs help!) then surely this is the right direction. I can't see any other club in world football that utilises this avenue. We can't compete with the likes of Man Utd etc when it comes to gaining support on the pitch but we can compete if the club had the impetus by getting the expats on board.

Any other expats with a view on this?

 

[Brian Storm]

I'm sure a lot of thought has goes into which countries we tap into. Elis knows money and business and I'm sure he's 4 or 5 steps ahead of everybody.

 

[Brian Storm]

I'm sure a lot of thought has goes into which countries we tap into. Elis knows money and business and I'm sure he's 4 or 5 steps ahead of everybody. If Eastern Europe is is worth tapping into than Elis will make moves. Other than that you're relying on us buying talent from the area to raise the profile me thinks

 

[sanddancersoftheworlduniteandtakeover]

I'm sure a lot of thought has goes into which countries we tap into. Elis knows money and business and I'm sure he's 4 or 5 steps ahead of everybody. If Eastern Europe is is worth tapping into than Elis will make moves. Other than that you're relying on us buying talent from the area to raise the profile me thinks

It's not about spending loads of money to tap into these markets. It's about using the people already in these markets to develop the brand. No other product on earth has such brand loyalty as football (maybe apple??!) which the consumers willing to promote the brand for free. How much realistically can we make from Africa compares to India/China for example? Two countries with over 1/3 or the planet in them and no really homegrown football leagues to talk about. Maybe we should ask SAFC expats who live in Africa what they think?

Africa is 1.1 billion people and a GDP of 1.8 trillion dollars, compare that to Austrailia and Poland added together population about 60 million and GDP about the same as africas!!

Dont figure why we are wasting our time... the average GDP of an african is just over 1,000 usd per year. (wow they are really ripe for exploitation!)

 

[Brian Storm]

It's not about spending loads of money to tap into these markets. It's about using the people already in these markets to develop the brand. No other product on earth has such brand loyalty as football (maybe apple??!) which the consumers willing to promote the brand for free. How much realistically can we make from Africa compares to India/China for example? Two countries with over 1/3 or the planet in them and no really homegrown football leagues to talk about. Maybe we should ask SAFC expats who live in Africa what they think?

Africa is 1.1 billion people and a GDP of 1.8 trillion dollars, compare that to Austrailia and Poland added together population about 60 million and GDP about the same as africas!!

Dont figure why we are wasting our time... the average GDP of an african is just over 1,000 usd per year. (wow they are really ripe for exploitation!)

I think the African end game is to have us taking the bulk of African Talent instead of them going to the french league, plus on the business side they're willing to put money into our club. I wouldn't say no. Business wise I think we'll move on from africa, leaving us with Academies and club associations that give us the pick of african talent (They seem to be producing some of the best talent in the world the last ten years)

 

[DEREK]

Tried last year when we were sponsored by Invest in Africa to get them to support the South African Riding for the Disabled in any way possible, but
never got a reply. This is a charity organisation that has many children and parents passing through their doors and would have made SAFC visible to
many people of all ages and races. Think SAFC missed a golden opportunity.

 

[Brian Storm]

Tried last year when we were sponsored by Invest in Africa to get them to support the South African Riding for the Disabled in any way possible, but
never got a reply. This is a charity organisation that has many children and parents passing through their doors and would have made SAFC visible to
many people of all ages and races. Think SAFC missed a golden opportunity.

We've still got a contract with invest in africa mate. Part of the original agreement was to take a year out to take on an african business sponsor. We've still got another year of sponsor with Invest in africa and then there's an option to extend. If it is an opportunity worth taking then we could still yet, if not we won't but the invest in africa initiative is still very much here and now and anything can still happen in africa as a result.

 

[Moorsleymountainman]

We've still got a contract with invest in africa mate. Part of the original agreement was to take a year out to take on an african business sponsor. We've still got another year of sponsor with Invest in africa and then there's an option to extend. If it is an opportunity worth taking then we could still yet, if not we won't but the invest in africa initiative is still very much here and now and anything can still happen in africa as a result.

True but don't see this happening. 1 year deal with an option for a second if both parties agreed. think it was £20m which was unbelievable for our club. Remember seeing we were 5th top in shirt sponsorship in Europe. ( not sure how accurate that was)

 

[SC SAFC]

the signing of Altidore has gotten massive press ( comparatively ) on espn and fox soccer over here. The "soccer locker" is now taking orders for Altidore shirts. The bloke in there would normally never stock a Sunderland shirt. He wouldn't even order me one last year. Good bit of business to spread the brand.

 

[sanddancersoftheworlduniteandtakeover]

I think the African end game is to have us taking the bulk of African Talent instead of them going to the french league, plus on the business side they're willing to put money into our club. I wouldn't say no. Business wise I think we'll move on from africa, leaving us with Academies and club associations that give us the pick of african talent (They seem to be producing some of the best talent in the world the last ten years)

It's not so easy with the home office rules in visa's for any British team to pick up kids from South America and Africa we would have to farm them out to other european teams first. (But then again we don't have any European teams to farm them to)

 

[sanddancersoftheworlduniteandtakeover]

How many African players in this years Champion's league final and how many Poles? (i'll give you a clue...Newcastle away!)

FYI I wrote an email to Pop Robson over a year ago asking him to cast his eye over a young player playing in the Polish League

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artjoms_Rud%C5%86evs

45 goals in 75 games for Lech Poznan..including 5 goals in the Europa league. Hamburg snapped him up for about 3 million quid.

If you know how strong German football is at the moment then take a look at any team and the amount of cheap Eastern European imports that they have Serbians, Croatian, Czech's, Slovak's and Poles.

But we'll p about in Africa.

Back to my point should we be exploiting the fact that we have fans in areas where really talent can be picked up cheaply without the need for a work around on visas?

 

[Brian Storm]

It's not so easy with the home office rules in visa's for any British team to pick up kids from South America and Africa we would have to farm them out to other european teams first. (But then again we don't have any European teams to farm them to)

We do fella, Belgian club Lierse SK. We've been with them for ages but never had the need to use them. I expect that to change.

http://www.rokerreport.com/2012/10/7/3467802/sunderland-announce-link-with-belgian-side

some further reading there. I can paste it if you can't follow the link?

 

[BrAdY]

the signing of Altidore has gotten massive press ( comparatively ) on espn and fox soccer over here. The "soccer locker" is now taking orders for Altidore shirts. The bloke in there would normally never stock a Sunderland shirt. He wouldn't even order me one last year. Good bit of business to spread the brand.

Same happened when he was a city and this was a few years ago, he's a much better player now, sunderland will be pretty big now in the states, especially with the world cup next year

 

[sanddancersoftheworlduniteandtakeover]

We do fella, Belgian club Lierse SK. We've been with them for ages but never had the need to use them. I expect that to change.

http://www.rokerreport.com/2012/10/7/3467802/sunderland-announce-link-with-belgian-side

some further reading there. I can paste it if you can't follow the link?

We'd still be relying on player getting EU citizenship after 3 years or on these players getting enough international games to qualify for a UK visa.

Piszcek - free Lubin to Dortmund now valued at 14,000,000 quid
Błaszczykowski - 2.6million quid from Krakow to Dortmund now valued at 16,000,000 quid
and finally Lewandowski - 4.8 million quid from Lech Poznan now valued at 34,500,00 quid..

So Dortmund without cow-towing to despots and using a third party club and 3 years to get a visa have made 7.4million quid into 64.5million quid from Polish kids.

Come back to me in 10 year time and we'll see who was right.