New Categories, New Struggles
The BBC's Maryam Moshiri reports that shirt sponsorship is no longer reserved for large multinational corporations, but also online gambling companies (as with AC Milan) and even charities (Barcelona and Aston Villa).
As the sponsorship coffers get more limited across the board, teams throughout the world are relaxing their virtuous restrictions on all kinds of categories and expanding the reach of their partners beyond the traditional CPG's, banks and autos. But it's not all about teams adjusting their moral compass, it was once presumed that the aforementioned categories were safer and more reliable for multi-year deals. That presumption has now been proven wrong to put it mildly. Just last week, the NFL voted to allow teams the opportunity to pursue lottery sponsorships and it appears they're wasting no time. While the NFL would likely never do jersey deals like MLS, some other leagues seem to be inching closer to the euro-style branding.
The question is with consumers jersey sales declining, does the ROI for a shirt sponsorship decline with it?
