Kit Sponsor Dilemma - What would you do?

This is hypothetical as I’ve no idea whats causing the delay, but what would you do if you were in charge of the following situation:

You don’t have a sponsor signed up yet, your supporters are chomping at the bit to get their hands on the new kit, some supporters have already paid in full for the kit in advance despite not knowing what the kit looks like (ST offer), having the sponsors name on the kit and thousands of people wearing it gives the new sponsor a lot of exposure and will earn the club a greater sponsorship deal. The more money we earn the fewer players we have to sell/the more we can buy.

 

…There’s a few more options I’m sure:

• select a local charity as sponsor, great exposure for club but you’d lose money
• explain the delay to fans, keeps most fans happy but might upset sponsors. Maybe legally they can’t say anything about current negotiations
• Go naked, or a ‘shorts and socks only’ approach, imagine the global press we’d get, calendar sales through the roof, probably get suspended from the league, go out of business and lose our football club forever mind

 

Let's see what develops. I would have expected a development by now though. The club should tell fans what's developing instead of keeping people in the dark when the kit should have been out ages ago.

 

PATS FOR PANTS

 

I was having a look this morning. Quite a lot of clubs not released their kits yet. Not sure we’re in panic zone yet.

 

To add a bit more context, 11 teams have released kits in the championship and 8 teams have released kits in league one. So not sure why folk expected it to be out ages ago.

 

Slightly off topic, but...

I don't use twitter, I find its a place for people to tell weird lies about their football club to try and antagonise fans of other football clubs (did you know Sunderland brought 14,000 to Oakwell in 2007? Nope, me neither).

I pop in every now and then to see what people are saying.

But I'm bored to tears by our fans commenting on every tweet the club puts out saying 'Where's the new kit'. Why does it matter? There will be one, it will be red. I'm really not that arsed about it.

My Wednesday morning rant over, tune in tomorrow to see me vent my spleen about supermarket car park etiquette.

 

I really don't get the need to buy a new shirt every season. The bottom isn't going to fall out of anyone's world if they have to wear last year's or even the year before. I guess, for me, the answer is whatever makes most money for the club. That's the whole point of selling shirts anyway.

 

For me it’s symptomatic of the society we live in that requires instant gratification. Social media and constant access to information is a big cause, but the reason I believe people aren’t patient anymore is because they don’t have to wait until next week for the next episode of anything. On demand TV has ruined everyone’s patience levels.

 

An update, if the kits not close, would be the best way to go, we all want what’s best for the club and would understand if the reason was based on waiting for sponsorship. I wonder if there is some risk to negotiations doing this, might make the sponsors look bad if fans know the delay is with them

 

We are skint. We need money. So to not have all kits out by now is poor. They have missed father's day and the sooner kits get released the better value for money the buyer gets because they get more summery weather to wear it in without it being covered by a jumper and/or coat.

 

'This'. See also: the internet (for ruining everyone's patience levels). And also: peer pressure/bad parenting, to give kids everything they ask on demand. No more waiting for Christmas.

As others have said, the kit will come out. If you're after one, be patient. There are bigger problems in the world.

 

Why do you think the other 16 clubs in League One haven’t released it either yet, then?
If it makes so much commercial sense, surely they’d be all over it? I reckon that particularly the big manufacturers like to get their flagship kits out first, I.e Adidas - Arsenal and Man U, Puma - Man City and Crystal Palace, Nike - Liverpool and Chelsea… most of the others released in the Premier League are Castore. I very much doubt the clubs are holding it up on purpose.

 

They always miss father's day I don't see Fathers-for-justice scaling the floodlight pylon between Ponty and West. I'm of the belief that those who want a kit get one, whether it's for father's day, mother's day, or flatbread day. The club doesn't miss out on money because people who want one get one regardless, they just get one a bit later than father's day. And the dads are probs a bit annoyed they have to fork out from their own pocket but again, no crisis. People still use food banks remember.

 

At the risk of sounding like an old man, when I was a teenager, if you didn’t know something you had to put some effort into learning it. We did have the internet, but it wasn’t in the palm of our hands, and because you’d put some effort in, you remembered it.
Now I can Google the answer to any question I don’t remember any of the answers because I just look it up again if I forget.

 

I think we're probably in the same age bracket. I know exactly what you mean. Information goes in and out and is much harder to retain now because Uncle Google will always be there. Sad really. It's dumbed-down society no end.

 

Not sure about that.

When they did manage to do it in time a few years ago, it ended up like this.

I got my dad one
I got one "from my lads"
In turn I felt bad my lads haven't got one so bought 2 more.

That's 4 just by hitting fathers Day.

As it stands, my dad hasn't got one, and neither have I. My dad won't pay that price himself, and I don't feel as bad with lads now. So they "May" get one out of birthday or Xmas gifts, but given half the season will be gone by then, it results in zero sales.

And it is as simple as that for me

 

I couldn’t agree more with Twitter, I find the bbs a far safer and less annoying place to discuss all things bfc.

 

Completely! Each major announcement is met with comments demanding the next one. But essentially, club makes any sort of announcement, fans response "announce signings". Club announced new signing, fans "announce new kit". Club announces new home kit, "announce new signings". Club announces another new signing, "announce away kit". Or, when we announce a new signing, the reaction is either "who the f*ck is that" or "announce promotion". Twitter really is a strange place.

I think it's the effect of the Internet in general. Me and my Mrs were having a discussion last night about what we did before the Internet. She didn't get regular Internet access until she was at uni, because of the type of home her parents used to have. And whilst that's less than 10 years ago, she can't remember what she did to pass the time, before the endless scrolling through Instagram, or the millions of movies and TV shows on demand 24/7. She actually said to me, 'how did people get to places without the internet/GPS?'. I pointed out that I drove to Watford away using a map once, the time after, I just remembered how to get there. That blew her mind.

We've become so reliant on the Internet, and for many people, social media too. These days, this is the only social media I regularly use. I'm logged into Facebook and Instagram, but I don't use them, and I occasionally look at twitter, but I don't have an account. I've never felt less stressed if I'm honest.

 

Is there actually any evidence to suggest the release date has an impact on sales? If there is, then the majority of football clubs in England have really poor marketing teams.
Personally think the majority of people who want the kit will buy them regardless. As others have mentioned, if father's day was that big of a deal then every club would be releasing their kit earlier. Also, if we're reliant on shirt sales to balance the books we're in a lot more financial trouble than I thought.