Etihad sponsorship

[tolmie's hairdoo]

Makes perfect sense. It’s like the scene in John Irving’s novel/film The World According to Garp where the title character and his new wife go to look at a potential new home. A light aircraft crashes headlong into the house and he immediately decides to buy it “because that will never happen again. It’s disaster-proof”

Haha - exactly.

A next door neighbour of mine won £18m on the EuroMillions a few years back and now lives in Antigua.

I don't really play the lottery anymore...

 

[DAGW]

It’d be hugely interesting to see some of the Sheikh’s recent investment dealings, over the past few years; see if he’s got anything in his portfolio that has acquired/part acquired in the last 5 years, and isn’t Middle East centric.

I might do some googling when I have time later, but I could see us being sponsored by a left field company, to which he is a board member. I can also see it matching or marginally exceeding the current highest sponsorship deal in world football.

IF we were to win the CL, and it’s a huge if, (the other side of a huge pit of vipers) I can see us leveraging it to broker an astronomical deal, that potentially puts us in hot water. I’d hope our owners wouldn’t be that arrogant though!

 

[DAGW]

Okay so a quick google...

“A year after graduation, he became chairman of the International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC), which had been set up by the Abu Dhabi government in 1984 with a mandate to invest globally in energy and related industries.

In 2016, it merged with another state-owned vehicle Mubadala Investment Company, which has a broader remit including industries such as real estate and aerospace.

The group now has a portfolio valued at $127.8bn (£99bn), including investments such as San Francisco private aviation companies Xojet, European commercial bank UniCredit and global oil and gas business OMV.

It also holds partnerships with blue-chip companies like Shell, Airbus, Rolls-Royce and Siemens.”

He also has a stake in Virgin Galactic...

I’m not going to beat about the bush... I’d take Rolls-Royce allllll day long. Shell would be hilarious as a slap in the face to the oil money jibes, and would fit well with our history of taking detractors’ jibes and owning them.

Most interestingly however from a synergy point of view would be the idea of having Thomas Cook > Etihad Airways > Virgin Galactic.

Mirrors a rather nice progression, within a loosely related travel sector, compared to our rise through football’s ranks.

 

[Damanino]

 

[cjn]

I'm sure it will be Etihad again. The brand exposure is now synonymous with Abu Dhabi and City, whether that be seen for good or bad by our rivals.

Following the CAS verdict, it is a partnership which nobody would dare try to take to task over ever again.

Etihad and City are untouchable and if Abu Dhabi deem it so, a new long-term deal worth millions more will be easy enough to do.

In the current economic downturn and the ongoing issues with China, it makes perfect sense to continue.

I wouldn't be so sure about that. Etihad's business was relatively weak even before this and the entire industry is in existential crisis mode right now. Demand isn't forecasted to get back to normal by 2022/2023 and they're cost cutting all over the place.

I can't speak to the state sponsored side to it (ie: the things they do because they have to) but from an economic perspective it makes absolutely no sense for them to renew. The optics would be pretty awful also if they got bailed out then signed an improved deal with us.

 

[Stoned Rose]

Be nice to have Apple on our shirts wonder if our owner could pull a few strings to nudge the company to eventually advertise in soccer.

Soccer?

Rag.

 

[Damanino]

Well its deffo need to be an improved deal on current terms either with Etihad renewing or new partner coming in. We might not need shirt and stadium naming partner to be the same unless in a package we can get more.

Also would not sign very long deals, 3-4 year imo maximum as 10 year deals are left behind very quickly by rivals.

Try to get a good CL run together with a good start of PL next season would put us into very good exposure for sponsors to negotiate.

I also doubt it will be Etihad.

I just imagine the sheer pain and eggs on the faces of rivals fans to see huge deal signed by a company not related to UAE at all haha.

 

[WRicko]

I think the sponsorship deal will be split up with us getting a new shirt sponsor but probably keeping the stadium as the Etihad and perhaps the rest of the campus but other sponsors coming in to sponsor each arenas / attraction etc

Everyone will call the Stadium the Etihad even if we change sponsors so I dont think it will be as attractive to other sponsors and Etihad are still a massive company with big backing despite the current crisis both from covid and the other issues due to poor expansion

 

[remember arthur mann]

I believe they operate a similar scheme in Liverpool, where you pick your own car and drive it away there and then.

 

[I'm With Stupid]

It's really not a good time to be looking for a sponsor. Even if we are a bigger advert than we were ten years ago, companies are cutting costs all over the place, and there probably aren't as many companies willing to spunk hundreds of millions sponsoring a football team.