Rugby must rethink shirt sponsorship and constant kit changes
For so long the gold standard in Gallagher Premiership rugby, Saracens are now sentenced to playing in the English second tier from next season.
Over the last couple of months, the sporting and financial penalties inflicted on them have been unprecedented in English sport. However, it might well be the reputational cost that Saracens have paid that is the heaviest punishment.
The club’s long-term sponsorship partner Allianz will find other ways to spend £2million a year of their shareholders’ money – apparently, a relationship with an organisation convicted of financial wrongdoing is not a good look in the insurance world.
The deal between Allianz and Saracens was reportedly the largest in the Gallagher Premiership and entailed stadium naming rights, shirts logos and all manner of other offerings that come with such a deal. How do Saracens replace such a valuable partner? Maybe a little asymmetric thinking is in order?
Rugby needs to decide what it wants to be. On the one hand, it looks like an American sport with a salary cap but on the other hand, it looks like football with constantly changing kits, relegation and a league pyramid system (for now).
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Saracens will use their trip to the Championship to have a hard reset within the organisation. It might also use the time to restructure its commercial offering to partners that more closely align with the sport rugby is becoming.
The Saracens shirt is badly tarnished, but the people in the shirts are still some of the most valuable assets in all of rugby. Have you ever wondered why NFL teams, don’t have shirt sponsors? It’s because the NFL Players Association negotiated to protect the commercial value of the players. Would Panasonic sponsor a player who has Sony across his chest?
In football, players can be paid literally whatever someone wants to pay them… and this might include payments for their individual image rights. Rugby’s salary cap means that a club can, in reality, only pay the players their rugby value. So why should Maro Itjoe and Billy Vunipola, along with Owen Farrell, be walking billboards for a club sponsor? This might be a valuable area for the Rugby Players’ Association to look at next time they come to negotiating the salary cap.
Premiership shirt sponsors have a large range. At the very top of the market, you can have anything from £600k upwards. Leicester Tigers would hope to have their main shirt sponsor for about £1m a year.
However, the more likely amount is between £175,000 to £350,000 – surprisingly low. The shirt is not the only thing teams can sell. They can still offer the stadium naming rights, advertising hoardings and all sorts of other things for those willing to pay. England, for example, will have paying lunch guests come to Pennyhill Park to observe training and meet players – which is a pretty cool thing to do with a Tuesday afternoon.
Removing the shirt sponsor might not suit a club like Newcastle or Worcester because of the profile of the team and the players, but as demonstrated above they also have least to lose. For Saracens’ sizable international contingent, this could work very well. That said, coming up with ways to pay players might not make them too popular on their Gallagher Premiership return.
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'I would be lying if I said I didn’t want to play for England again'
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Then there is the relationship with fans. One of the bugbears of sports fans in the UK is the never-ending line of ‘new’ kits. England have had a bewildering array of shirts over the last decade, as have most clubs.
For a Gallagher Premiership team, the standard is three shirts – home, alternative and European – and all cost considerable pocket money. This is of course self-defeating. Who would want a full price shirt knowing they need to buy another very soon?
More importantly some of these new kit creations are questionable at best. Leicester, for example, maybe the finest club shirts in all the land, racing green (or light green) with red and white hoops. Wonderful stuff.
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However, the constant hunt for new shirts designs meant that in 2015 this institution of English rugby played their game in what can only be described as a monstrosity.
There are obviously commercial drivers for this. Aside from the change in shirt sponsor, a team might also change its kit manufacture. Even this is not insurmountable. The Green Bay Packers have had basically the same kit since 1961. Admittedly it has been slightly updated it to 1997 but since then nothing has changed in 23 years!
Even when the NFL kit supplier changed from Reebok to Nike, the Packers insisted on the same uniform down to the fabric it was made of. The notoriously money-hungry NFL have a rule that a franchise can’t change uniforms within five years of its last change. This is one of the reasons that a league that plays a sport only competitive in one country can have so many dominant brands.
If Saracens made a commitment to keeping the same kit for five years, it would ironically become the bestselling English club shirt overnight as well as a statement of goodwill to the fans. This is not to say they don’t wear commemorative kits or change the third strip on occasions, but it does mean the home jersey is sacrosanct.
It’s also untrue that just because a new jersey is not on offer fans won’t spend money. Most shirt purchases are predicated on the player inside rather than the novelty of yet another new strip. The 40-year-old Tom Brady has had the same uniform for 20 years and is constantly near the top of the NFL shirt sales.
From a brand perspective, this is great. If a fan wishes to buy merchandise, they might buy and wear branded ties, cufflinks, scarfs etc. They might use their Sale Sharks mug in the office or wear the hoodie in their leisure time. This is branded merchandise that people away from the sport will see rather than a replica playing shirt they only wear among other fans. Besides, no self-respecting adult wears their team’s latest kit to the office.
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It’s not even that obvious the sale of new kits is that lucrative for kit manufacturers. On a visit to Canterbury, I was told that producing the England kit is not what makes for good margins. That comes from all the branded training gear and leisurewear. So why bother changing the shirt?
However, let’s not mince our words. If I were Saracens, I would remove all sponsors from the kit and produce a clean, one-off kit that could almost be a badge of honour about the time they were used as the punch bag of the league.
Combine that with an ‘All or Nothing’ style documentary where them club controls the narrative and suddenly Saracens would be on the front foot again, in charge of the narrative and rewarding the loyalty of supporters. Would there be a cooler jersey to wear when Saracens reach the summit of English rugby again then a Farrell No10 jersey? I doubt it.
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Comments on RugbyPass
Very unlikely the Bulls will beat Leinster in Dublin. It would be different in Pretoria.
1 Go to commentsI think it is a dangerous path to go down to ban a player for the same period that a player they injured takes to recover. Players would be afraid to tackle anyone. I once tackled my best friend at school in a practice match and sprained his ankle. I paid for it by having to play fly-half instead of full-back for the rest of that season’s fixtures.
5 Go to commentsJust such a genuine good bloke…and probably the best all round player in his generation. Good guys do come first sometimes and he handled the W.Cup loss with great attitude.
2 Go to commentsWord in France is that he’s on the radar of a few Top14 clubs.
2 Go to commentsGet blocking Travis, this guy has styles and he’s gonna make a swift impact…!
1 Go to commentsWhat remorse? She claimed that her dangerous tackle wasn’t worthy of a red! She should be compensating the injured player for loss of earnings at the minimum. Her ban should include the recovery time of the injured player as well as the paltry 3 match ban.
5 Go to commentsArdie is a legend. Finished and klaar. Two things: “Yeah, yeah, I have had a few conversations with Razor just around feedback on my game and what I am doing well, what I need to improve on or work-ons. It’s kind of been minimal, mate, but it’s all that I need over here in terms of how to be better, how to get better and what I am doing well.” I hope he’s downplaying it - and that it’s not that “minimal”. The amount of communication and behind the scenes preparation the Bok coaches put into players - Rassie and co would be all over Ardie and being clear on what is expected of him. This stands out for me as something teams should really be looking at in terms of the boks success from a coaching point of view. And was surprised by the comment - “minimal”. In terms of the “debate” around Ireland and South Africa. Nice one Ardie. Indeed. There’s no debate.
2 Go to commentsThere’s a bit of depth there but realistically Australian players have a long way to go to now catch up. The game is moving on fast and Australia are falling behind. Australian sides still don’t priories the breakdown like they should, it’s a non-negotiable if you want to compete on the international stage. That goes for forwards and backs. The Australian team could have a back row that could make a difference but the problem is they don’t have a tight five that can do the business. Tupou is limited in defence, overweight and unfit and the locks are a long way from international standard. Frost is soft and Salakai-Loto is too small so that means they need a Valentini at 8 who has to do the hard graft so limits the effectiveness of the backrow. Schmidt really needs to get a hard working, tough tight 5 if he wants to get this team firing.
3 Go to commentsSorry Morgan you must have been the “go to for a quote” ex player this week. Its rnd 6 and there is plenty of time to cement a starting 15 and finishing 8 so I have no such concerns.
2 Go to commentsGreat read. I wish you had done this article on the ROAR.
2 Go to commentsThe current AB coaching team is basically the Crusaders so it smacks of wanting their familiar leaders around. This is not a good look for the future of the ABs or the younger players in Super working their way up the player ladder. Razor is touted as innovative, forward looking but his early moves look like insecurity and insular, provincial thinking. He is the AB's coach not the Golden Oldies.
10 Go to commentsSimple reason for wanting him back. Robertson wants him as captain. Otherwise he wouldn’t be bothering chasing him. Not enough reason to come back just to mentor.
10 Go to commentsI had not considered this topic like this at all, brilliant read. I had been looking at his record at the Waratahs and thought it odd the Crusaders appointed him, then couple that with all that experience and talent departing and boom. They’ve got some great talent developing though, and in all honesty I don’t think anyone would be over confident taking them on in a playoff match, no matter how poor the first half of their season was. I think they can pull a game out of their ass when it counts.
2 Go to commentsNot a bad list but not Porecki and not Donaldson. Not because they are Tahs, or Ex Tahs, they are just not good enough. Edmed should be ahead. Far more potential. Wilson should be 8 and Valentini 6. Wilson needs to be told by his father and his coach, stop bloody running in to brick wall defence. You’re not playing under the genius Thorn any more. He’s a fantastic angle runner. The young new 8 from the Brumbies looks really good too. The Lonegrans are just too small for international rugby as is Paisami, as is Hamish Stewart at 12. Both great at Super Rugby level. Stewart could have been a great 10 if not for Brad Thorn. Uru should be there and so should Tupou. Tupou just needs good Australian coaching which he hasn’t been getting. I don’t think Schmidt will excite him.
3 Go to commentsIf he wants to come back then he should. He will be a major asset to the younger locks and could easily be played as an impact player off the bench coming on in the last 30. He is fit, strong and capable and has all the experience to make up for any loss in physical prowess. He could also be brought back with a view to coaching within the structures one day. Duane Vermeulen played until he was 37 or 38. He is now a roaming coach within the South African coaching structures. He was valuable in the last world cup and has been a major influence on Jasper Wiese and other young players which has helped and accelerated their development and growth. Whitelock could do the exact same thing for NZ
10 Go to commentsBrett Excellent words… finally someone (other than DC) has noted that Hanigan is very hard and very good at doing what Backrow should do… his performance via the Drua sauna was quite daunting for those on the other side… very high tackle count… carries with good end result… constant threat to make a good 20-25 meters with those long legs… providing his mass effectively to crunching the Drua pack… Finally he is returning to quality form… way to much injury time over the last 2 years… smart-strong-competent in his skills… caught every lineout throw aimed at him and delivered clean pass to whoever was down below… and he worked hard for the whole 80 minutes… Ned has to be in the top 5 for backrow honors… He knows what is required as he has been there before…
20 Go to commentsI think Sam Whitelock should not touch a return with a bargepole. He went out on a high, playing in the RWC Final. He would be coming back into a team that will be weaker than last years, and might even be struggling to win games, especially against the Boks. Stay in France, enjoy another year with Pau, playing alongside his brother.
10 Go to commentsRyan Coxon has been very impressive considering he was signed by WF as injury cover whilst Uru has been a standout for QR, surprised neither of those mentioned
3 Go to commentsIt’s the massive value he brings with regard team culture/values, preparation, etc. Can’t buy that. I’m hoping to see the young locks get their chance in the big games though.
10 Go to commentsAll good, Gregor, except that you neglected to mention Sam Darry amongst that talented pool of locks. In fact, given Hannah’s inexperience and the fact that Holland won’t be eligible until next year, Lord and Darry might be the frontrunners this year, to join Barrett, Tuipoluto, Va’ii and possibly Whitelock. In fact there might be room for all of them if Barrett played 6 (like Ollie Chessum).
10 Go to comments