2011 Jersey & Sponsorship Discussion

[Frederick]

HSG sign nib as inaugural major partner

www.newcastleknights.com.au

8/09/2011 2:50:33 PM

The Hunter Sports Group is pleased to announce Newcastle-based national health insurer, nib, has today signed a two-year major sponsorship agreement with the Newcastle Knights and Newcastle Jets.

nib is making Australian sport sponsorship history by becoming the first sponsor to agree to a unique dual sponsorship agreement with the region’s two national sporting teams operating under the Hunter Sports Group banner.
The pioneering deal is the first of its kind in Australian sport.
“The new ownership structure of the Knights and Jets under the Hunter Sports Group provides nib with a unique brand sponsorship opportunity across both the NRL and A-League,” nib’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr Mark Fitzgibbon said.
“Our sponsorship of both clubs will provide national brand exposure all year round allowing us to extend our brand reach into new markets and demographics.
“Our support also reinforces our ongoing commitment to the Hunter region.
“We look forward to the new relationship with great anticipation. We strongly suspect the value of the sponsorship will be much higher than most would calculate given our confidence that the heavy investment the Hunter Sports Group is making will deliver on-field success for both teams.”
Additionally, nib’s logo will feature in a unique position on the front of the Knights’ jersey that has previously been reserved for the apparel partner and a position never before available to any NRL sponsor.
The nib logo will appear on the playing shorts of the Jets’ A-League and W-League teams.
The new two-year sponsorship will see nib maintain its status as the longest continuous sponsor of the Newcastle Knights. nib first partnered with the Knights during the Club’s inception in 1988 and has been the Club's sleeve sponsor since 2003.
The Hunter Sports Group is delighted to retain the Knights partnership with nib and look forward to this new, innovative and unique sponsorship across the consortium.
“nib is an iconic brand and it is appropriate they are an inaugural Hunter Sports Group sponsor,” HSG CEO Troy Palmer said.
“It is rewarding to give nib a sponsorship property never before used by an NRL sponsor and we need to give credit to the Knights new jersey manufacturer ISC for offering this key position.
“We thank nib for their continued support and look forward to a successful partnership for many years to come.”
nib joins a stable of over 130 corporate partners already supporting the HSG, with a major sponsor for both the Jets and Knights anticipated to announced in the coming weeks.

LINK

 

[Henson Park Hornets]

Two things here:

1) collar type sponsorship is nothing new in the ESL and was only a matter of time before something similar appeared here. Looks OK, don't have any major dramas about it personally.

2) they're moving to ISC from Blades, with the same (sh*t) design.

 

[axl rose]

So it looks like they may be allowed thier apparel sponsors ISC as a 2nd sleeve sponsor. If so, that would be the end of any sort of regulation in regards to jersey sponsors, as there is no space left.

 

[BunniesMan]

Wests Tigers don't and shouldn't play in the heritage strips as their regular jerseys.

They are a new club and need to have their own identity.

The heritage strips are fine for heritage rounds etc.

Just like how St George Illawarra are so far removed from St George?

Huh?

hrundi makes a moronic point and TGG makes a very sensible point.

It's bullshit that the Tigers can't use their heritage jerseys as their regular ones.

Look at the Dragons, they're doing just fine using one of the merged teams' jersey as it's regular. Why do they do it? Because it bloody looks good.

Imagine if they had a box of red V jerseys collecting dust in the basement while every 3 years since the merge, they brought out a new even shittier jersey than the one before it. That's what the Tigers have done. In a hopeless goal of trying to make a jersey that's equal parts Wests and Tigers and equal parts new, they just come up with shit jersey after shit jersey.

They'd be better of adopting one of their heritage jerseys as their home and the other as their away and sticking to it.

Look at the big clubs and iconic brands in rugby league, generally it's the ones that haven't f**ked around with their jersey and allowed it's fans to get used to one thing. Look at the Dragons/Souths/Raiders/Eels(more or less)/Canterbury and compare them to the Tigers/Panthers/Cowboys/Warriors.

The Dragons sell more of their stuff than any other club, and they've never changed, so it's bullshit that clubs need to keep changing to make money.

If the Tigers knew what they were doing they'd go back to their heritage jerseys, same with the Panthers.

 

[carlosthedwarf]

New Knights sponsor? I'd rather have Henny Penny!

 

[flippikat]

hrundi makes a moronic point and TGG makes a very sensible point.

It's bullshit that the Tigers can't use their heritage jerseys as their regular ones.

Look at the Dragons, they're doing just fine using one of the merged teams' jersey as it's regular. Why do they do it? Because it bloody looks good.

Imagine if they had a box of red V jerseys collecting dust in the basement while every 3 years since the merge, they brought out a new even shittier jersey than the one before it. That's what the Tigers have done. In a hopeless goal of trying to make a jersey that's equal parts Wests and Tigers and equal parts new, they just come up with shit jersey after shit jersey.

They'd be better of adopting one of their heritage jerseys as their home and the other as their away and sticking to it.

Look at the big clubs and iconic brands in rugby league, generally it's the ones that haven't f**ked around with their jersey and allowed it's fans to get used to one thing. Look at the Dragons/Souths/Raiders/Eels(more or less)/Canterbury and compare them to the Tigers/Panthers/Cowboys/Warriors.

The Dragons sell more of their stuff than any other club, and they've never changed, so it's bullshit that clubs need to keep changing to make money.

If the Tigers knew what they were doing they'd go back to their heritage jerseys, same with the Panthers.

This ^

I am sick to bloody death of teams like the Panthers & especially my Warriors undergoing an identity crisis every 3 years, and completely changing their club colours and/or logo.

Teams should revert to their original colours and STAY THERE - whats wrong with the Warriors being in blue/green/white, with a dash of red? I'd love to see it for good!

As for Penrith - they should choose: Brown & White or the 1991 multicolour. MAKE UP YR MIND. Then STAY THERE.

ok, enough ranting....

 

[hrundi99]

hrundi makes a moronic point and TGG makes a very sensible point.

It's bullshit that the Tigers can't use their heritage jerseys as their regular ones.

Look at the Dragons, they're doing just fine using one of the merged teams' jersey as it's regular. Why do they do it? Because it bloody looks good.

Imagine if they had a box of red V jerseys collecting dust in the basement while every 3 years since the merge, they brought out a new even shittier jersey than the one before it. That's what the Tigers have done. In a hopeless goal of trying to make a jersey that's equal parts Wests and Tigers and equal parts new, they just come up with shit jersey after shit jersey.

They'd be better of adopting one of their heritage jerseys as their home and the other as their away and sticking to it.

Look at the big clubs and iconic brands in rugby league, generally it's the ones that haven't f**ked around with their jersey and allowed it's fans to get used to one thing. Look at the Dragons/Souths/Raiders/Eels(more or less)/Canterbury and compare them to the Tigers/Panthers/Cowboys/Warriors.

The Dragons sell more of their stuff than any other club, and they've never changed, so it's bullshit that clubs need to keep changing to make money.

If the Tigers knew what they were doing they'd go back to their heritage jerseys, same with the Panthers.

Moronic? Coming from you perhaps I should see that as a compliment.

Having worked in the past for the WTs marketing department for close to 3 years, I think I'm reasonably qualified to comment.

The club has strived to move forward as it's own entity which it is. That doesn't mean there is a need to snub tradition, but the older generations of supporters (and board members etc) have been unhappy at times when it has seemed that one side was being emphasised over the other. The best way to work through this is to create a new identity as I've suggested.

The younger generations largely don't give a flying about the history, they just want to cheer on the young players like Benji and see WT as their team, not their Dad's team.

WT's jersey sales would seem to suggest that your idea about the sanctity of the design is wrong. People who are overwhelmingly in favour of sticking to tradition in jersey design are in the minority - the tragics, the oldies and the like. Nothing wrong with that,. but if the clubs only listened to these people, they'd never progress.

 

[LeagueNut]

The club has strived to move forward as it's own entity which it is. That doesn't mean there is a need to snub tradition, but the older generations of supporters (and board members etc) have been unhappy at times when it has seemed that one side was being emphasised over the other. The best way to work through this is to create a new identity as I've suggested.

This makes complete sense, and that's the difference between a genuine merger and a takeover I guess.

 

[Henson Park Hornets]

Moronic? Coming from you perhaps I should see that as a compliment.

Having worked in the past for the WTs marketing department for close to 3 years, I think I'm reasonably qualified to comment.

The club has strived to move forward as it's own entity which it is. That doesn't mean there is a need to snub tradition, but the older generations of supporters (and board members etc) have been unhappy at times when it has seemed that one side was being emphasised over the other. The best way to work through this is to create a new identity as I've suggested.

The younger generations largely don't give a flying about the history, they just want to cheer on the young players like Benji and see WT as their team, not their Dad's team.

WT's jersey sales would seem to suggest that your idea about the sanctity of the design is wrong. People who are overwhelmingly in favour of sticking to tradition in jersey design are in the minority - the tragics, the oldies and the like. Nothing wrong with that,. but if the clubs only listened to these people, they'd never progress.

Guess what most RL fans would like to see with the WTs jerseys is that some thought has gone into their jersey designs. The current designs are a disgrace, sure WT's are trying to create their own identity, but wouldn't take much to come up with a design that is a bit classy....?

 

[applesauce]

LINK

Hopefully this is the beginning of smaller sponsors (in size and in number) and therefore more exclusive and fought after. The AFL have minimal sponsorship on the front of jerseys yet get the same or more from the revenue. No reason we can't do the same once the new TV deal is in place and clubs are more confident.

 

[Evenflow]

Harvey Norman to be Storm's back of jersey sponsor throughout the finals as well as back of shorts sponsor for next year. Yes, the irony of having Adam in the pic wasn't lost on me either...

 

[hrundi99]

Guess what most RL fans would like to see with the WTs jerseys is that some thought has gone into their jersey designs. The current designs are a disgrace, sure WT's are trying to create their own identity, but wouldn't take much to come up with a design that is a bit classy....?

That's not what I'm talking about though.

 

[hellteam]

Hopefully this is the beginning of smaller sponsors (in size and in number) and therefore more exclusive and fought after. The AFL have minimal sponsorship on the front of jerseys yet get the same or more from the revenue. No reason we can't do the same once the new TV deal is in place and clubs are more confident.

I can guarantee its not. It's the beginning of putting heaps of small sponsors around the normal ones

 

[counterpuncher]

I can guarantee its not. It's the beginning of putting heaps of small sponsors around the normal ones

....there are cars under there, somewhere.

 

[Scott Gourley's Lovechild]

So it looks like they may be allowed thier apparel sponsors ISC as a 2nd sleeve sponsor. If so, that would be the end of any sort of regulation in regards to jersey sponsors, as there is no space left.

Is there actually any regulation on apparel makers logo having to appear on the centre of the jersey? Back in the 70's-90's most teams had the makers logo on the right breast, then above the NSWRL/ARL logo.

 

[Dragon Dave]

Hopefully this is the beginning of smaller sponsors (in size and in number) and therefore more exclusive and fought after. The AFL have minimal sponsorship on the front of jerseys yet get the same or more from the revenue. No reason we can't do the same once the new TV deal is in place and clubs are more confident.

haha no chance. Just means more $$$ from more brand placement.

 

[axl rose]

haha no chance. Just means more $$$ from more brand placement.

Exactly, in the next few years there will be three or four sponsors on the front of what use to look like RL jerseys. Club emblems will be scraped as that is valuable sponsorship space, there will also be sponsors around the collar and beneath the NRL logo. See QLDs dogs breakfast billboard/jersey as an example.

 

[NRL-TGG]

The clubs logo's won't go anywhere.

 

[Knightmare]

Harvey Norman to be Storm's back of jersey sponsor throughout the finals as well as back of shorts sponsor for next year. Yes, the irony of having Adam in the pic wasn't lost on me either...

I would love to know if Harvey Norman are paying any extra $ for the second logo on the lower back, or did they just ask for the extra logo there because "Everyone else is doing it!".

I think apparel sponsorship needs to be regulated. I don't want to see our teams end up looking like NASCAR. The EPL is a big money league, but nearly all the major sponsors manage to promote their name without taking over the clubs they sponsor.

The IC should rule that teams can have 1 front of jersey sponsor, 1 sleeve sponsor each side and a lower back sponsor, with sponsorship integrated wherever possible. The upper back should be reserved for player names, which in turn increases marketing. It would make our league look more professional, because having massive Herbal World/ WOW style sponsorships on jerseys makes the NRL look like a 2nd rate park football competition.

 

[brooksy19]

Harvey Norman to be Storm's back of jersey sponsor throughout the finals as well as back of shorts sponsor for next year. Yes, the irony of having Adam in the pic wasn't lost on me either...

In a way they're been sponsoring (via the club) the likes of Slater, Cronk, Inglis and Smith for years through Gift Vouchers.. only fitting that one of the blokes who is leaving cause he didn't get a slice of that extra pie is in the photo..