If no sponsor is in negotiations, what about giving the rSponsorship to a charity for the remainder of a season in the same way that Barcelona donated their shirt sponsorship to Unicef.

The only negative is that it draws attention to the fact that no one wants to pay for it, but on the other hand SL is seen to be doing something for the general good.

No no no no no and no again!



What the powers that be need to do is get back to basics and "sell the product".....

2,000,000 + attending games over 27 weeks...
10,000,000 collective TV Audience over a season...
2nd Most popular sport on SKY TV after Soccer..

The other lot have similar fans numbers, less TV figures yet they command 5 million a year......there has to be a reason other than the old and outdates stereotype of your flat cap wearing whippet fancying ex-miner who keeps pigeons in his loft.

The RFL have a responsibility to the game in general to get the best deal they can....giving it away (AGAIN) will further devalue the offering....

What charity would want us?

The RFL whilst not having a title sponsor, they have sold more secondary sponsorships and partnerships. Its pretty obvious that there isn’t (and shouldn’t at this stage) be a title sponsor for this year.

Im not surer what gifting sponsorship to a charity for 2 thirds of a year would achieve in making us more attractive to sponsors.

I don´t think it would make us more attractive to sponsors, but nor do I think it would make us less attractive, that would take some doing. But there would be the opportunity to reap positive headlines on the back of it.

Foxy Bingo, Brut and Heinz Big Soup are PARTNERS with little if any money changing hands.......they are fillers.
Tetley and the Cider that isn't a Cider are the 2 Paying sponsors from this year so far.....the RFL annual accounts for 2012-13 will make interesting reading under the "sponsorship" column.

Engage were worth 1.7m a year.....do you believe that the RFL are getting anything like that now?

Based on the V.T attendance rhetoric, I’d give the Samaritans a call.

Genuine question, so excuse my ignorance if so, but if Foxy Bingo, Brut and Heinz are getting a range of match day ground , shirt and ball advertising as well as opportunities for them to promote themselves as 'partners' of the league how could that not involve money changing hands?

Clubs have announced that if people sign up to Fox bingo and quote their club in the promotions box, the club will get £50.

This could be the deal or at least the main part of it- similar to how the Championship received any money from Premier sports last year.

Seems the RFL are trying to Moneyball the sponsors. is it working? Doesnt seem like it..

Moneyball?

I don't think it would be a major problem - better a charity of course, than giving it away to the likes of Stobart - and I'm sorry, I count last year's deal as giving it away - would anyone in a good marketing department seriously have sat down and said "I know what we need - ads on trucks!!"? Of course not, it was absolutely ridiculous from start to finish.

Whether it goes to a charity or is left blank, it isn't going to fool anyone - they *know* we didn't have a paying main sponsor this year, so for me, fine, stick a charity on there and make something good out of this screw-up, then start afresh next year trying to find a main sponsor, hiring someone with a half a clue to lead the search.

Agree about the Stobart deal.
Certainly Stobart did better out of the deal than the game of RL.
As "Gutterfax" has said, it is utterly ridiculous that we cannot sell the game and interest some high level sponsorship.
One would think that this would be the no 1 priority for the folk in Red Hall but, it's all gone quiet and now we have moved on to the need to sell out Wembley for the world cup double header.
So it seems that this season is written off.

At this late stage we should be looking at breaking up the sponsorship opportunities.

Magic weekend
Playoffs
Grand Final

And gift the rest of the regular season to a charity or charities maybe on a monthly basis.

Its a world cup year and no league sponsor.

I would seriously consider auctioning magic weekend sponsorship with tickets etc on ebay.

The PR could be interesting.

How much additional business did Stobart get?

Partners is just a fancy word to 'big up' a sponsorship and make it sound somehow more important or perhaps, they feel it's more likely to give the impression that it's not just a sordid financial deal, but that we have a deeper, more altruistic engagement with our 'partners' than with a mere sponsor.....as if!

Thing is, don't partners usually offer freebies to the companies involved? The whole "official supplier" sort of deal?

I don't know how much business they got, but they got plenty of coverage on TV, radio etc.
Certainly more exposure to TV and radio listeners, than people who may have been lucky enough to see an elusive Stobart lorry AND grasped that it was promoting Super League and then actually bothered to do anything about it.

And what was that worth to Stobart?

Partnership = Little if any money changes hands....various "contra" deals and "CPA" arrangements.
Sponsorship = someone has paid for the right to be associated with.

If anyone thinks Foxy,Brut or Heinz have paid up front they need their heads looking at.

I was a deal that had the dubious distinction of being practically worthless to all involved. I imagine the lawyer who drew up the contract is the only one who made a profit from it. One of the most ridiculous deals ever seen. Apparently the final decision wasn't even the RFL's fault ( though of course had they had the skill, marketing expertise and general charm to find a better sponsorship deal in the first place it would never have been considered) - the mind boggles at who on earth thought it had any value whatsoever.

Are you serious ?

Are you suggesting that the more beans that are eaten in Wigan will mean the RL club will get more money?



How will they work it in Hull?

Whilst that may be true in some cases it isn't in all. Man Utd for example have loads of companies listed on their Official Sponsors web page and most of them are described as partners despite at least some of them paying out decent money.

Calls to the Samaritans are allegedly up by over 12% compared to last year, so yes... we need them more than they need us.