http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/28144880 Big money is killing sport . F1 is my first love in sport , and that is no different
it's not about getting known is it. it's about nagging and reminding you every time you look at something you want to be looking at.
We've all heard of Woolworths, Body Shop, BHS. Sponsoring high profile events / entities is more about visibility and brand awareness than becoming a big brand. It is about maintaining your profile. Do McDonald's or Coca-Cola need to grow anymore? Do they need to keep piling the cash into sponsorship?
For my money [sorry], they're actually doing it to finance ManU back into the Champions League. They will make more money with ManU back in the CL with their name on their shirt than if ManU remain outside the CL. To me that's a horrific thought, in terms of compeitive sport, but it's the only conclusion I keep coming back to.
For my money they are doing it because Man U has the largest global fanbase in the world whether in CL or not. Much more cost effective than the same amount on TV advertising or billboards etc. 659m fanbase? £660m deal. Yes we doubt that 10% of the world follow Man U but still the whole of Essex do and in Asia they are beyond huge. We can cry about it all we want but companies don't do favours to clubs. They do business. Not Man Us fault if they are a massive club and if people are willing to pay these amounts to sponsor them.
It's a bold business that would sign up to a 10 year deal both supplier and customer so much can change in hug at time, I guess Nike think things in the EPL will continue to get bigger and bigger and MU are thinking its near saturation level.
I believe I might have already said this, in an albeit shortened version, with less speculative detail. Which for me is rare.
I thought it depended on who is flavour of the month. At the moment I would have thought that Barcelona with Messi, and Real Madrid with Ronaldo would be much more appealing for any football fan in Asia, Africa or the Middle East than United with Rooney!! Agree that Manchester United do have a big global following!!!
The rich list may change due to exchange rates and success but Man U has always been the largest global fanbase. There is an argument for Real/BArca in South America but in the rest of the world its a no contest.
Always can be such a vague word when used by the football fan. I would say... Since the very beginnings of the Premier League, ManU have had the largest global fanbase. This is simply because the Premier League got into countries where there was no UK TV football before, and they sold it as a product worth watching, even if you were in Outer *****lia and had zero connection with the UK. [Incidentally, I have no idea whether the PL TV rights have been sold to *****lia]. Prior to the Premier League, whatever romantic whimsy they come out with these days, ManU were just another pretty successful British football club. Certainly, by no means the biggest club in the UK. Their main claim to fame was that they were the first English club to win the European Cup [now Champions League, Celtic being the first UK club the year before] in one isolated couple of years of real success in the 1960's. All the major growth of fanbase has been in the last 20 plus years, albeit thoroughly deserved. Although they invested and spent heavy money in achieving it.
Yes, I would possibly agree if you look at the last 5-10 years. Don't want to debate degrees of influence, but the internet only really got into its stride when fast/reliable broadband appeared [I've got some history on this - I've been on the Net since 1995-ish, maybe a year earlier, I forget] several years back. Perhaps an even bigger influence in the future will be the coverage afforded to mobile phones, which seems to be where the growing amount of talk happens in its various forms.
