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
9 Brumbies! What a joke! The best performing team in Oz! Ditch Skelton for Swain or Neville. Ryan Lonergan ahead of McDermott any day! Best selection bolter is Toole … amazing player
12 Go to commentsI like this, but ultimately rugby already has enough trophies. Trying to make more games “consequential" might prove to be a fools errand, although this is a less bad idea than some others. Minor quibble with the title of the article; it isn’t very meaningful to say the boks are the unofficial world champions when it would be functionally impossible for the Raeburn trophy not to be held by the world champions. There’s a period of a few months every 4 years when there is no “unofficial” world champion, and the Raeburn trophy is held by the actual world champions.
8 Go to commentsIts a great idea but one that I dont think will have a lot of traction. It will depend on the prestige that they each hold but if you can do that it would be great. When Japan beat the Boks (my team) I was absolutely devestated but I wont deny the great game they played that day. We were outclassed and it was one of the best games of rugby I have seen. Using an idea like this you might just give the the underdog teams more of an opportunity to beat the big teams and I can absolutely see it being a brilliant display of rugby. They beat us because they planned for that game. It was a great moment for Japan. This way we can remove the 4 year wait and give teams something to aim for outside of World Cup years.
8 Go to commentsHi, Dave here. Happy to answer questions 🥰
8 Go to commentsDon’t think that headline is accurate. It’s great to see Aus doing better but I’m not sure they’ve shown much threat to the top of the table. They shouldn’t be inflating wins against the lousy Highlanders and Crusaders either.
3 Go to commentsSuch a shame Roigard and Aumua picked up long term injuries, probably the two form players in the comp. Also, pretty sure Clarke Dermody isn’t their coach. Got it half right though.
3 Go to commentsOh the Aussie media, they never learn. At least Andrew Kellaway is like “Woah, yeah it’s great, but settle down there guys” having endured years of the Aussie media, fans, and often their players getting ahead of themselves only to fall flat on their faces. Have the “We'll win the Bledisloe for sure this year!” headlines started yet? It’s simple to see what’s going on. The Aussie teams are settled, they didn't lose any of their major players overseas. The Crusaders and Chiefs lost key experienced All Blacks, and Razor in the Crusaders case, and clearly neither are anywhere near as strong as last year (The Canes and Blues would probably be 3rd & 4th if they were). The Highlanders are annually average, even more so post-Aaron Smith and a big squad clean out. The two teams at the top? The two nz sides with largely the same settled roster as last year, except Ardie Savea for the Canes. They’ve both got far better coaches now too. If the Aussies are going to win the title, this is the year the kiwi sides will be weakest, so they better take their chance.
3 Go to commentsThe World Cup has to be the gold standard, line in the sand. 113 teams compete for what is the opportunity to make the pool stages, and then the knockout games for the trophy. The concept is sound. This must have been the rationale when the World Cup was created, surely? But I’m all for Looking forward and finding new ways for the SH to dominate the NH into the future. The autumn series needs a change up. Let’s start by having the NH teams come south every odd year for the Autumn/Spring series games?
8 Go to commentsWhat’ll happen when the AI models of the future go back in time and try to destroy the AI models of the past standing in their way of certain victory?
41 Go to commentsThanks, Nick. We (Seanny Maloney, Brett and I) just discussed Charlie as a potential Wallaby No 8, and wondered if he has truly realised how big he is in contact (and whether he can add 5 kg w/o slowing down). Your scouting report confirms our suspicions he has the materiel. No one knows if he has the mentality (as Johann van Graan said this week about CJ, Duane and Alfie B) to carry 10-15 times a game.
57 Go to commentsHe would be a great player for the Stormers, Dobbo should approach the guy.
3 Go to commentsGood article. A few years back when he was playing for the Cheetahs, he was a quiet standout for exactly the seasons stated here. I occasionally get to see his games in the UK, and he has become a more complete player and in many ways like an Irish player. His work ethic is so suitable to the Leinster game. I wonder if Rassie would have him listed somewhere.
3 Go to commentsResults probably skewed by the fact that a few clubs have foreign fly halves in their 30s, but most teams have young English scrum halves. Results also likely to be skewed by the fact that many teams rely on centres and fullbacks to provide depth at 10, whereas they will need to stock a large number of specialist backup 9s.
1 Go to commentsI really get the sense that when all is said and done, the path of least resistance will end up being a merger of Wasps & Worcester that essentially kills the Worcester Warriors brand and sees Wasps permanently playing at Sixways. I’m not saying that’s what should happen or what I want to happen. I just think it’s the easiest rout to take and therefore, will be what happens. Wasps will definitely return to play first, and I suppose it all depends on if they can find support at Sixways. If people turn up and support Wasps in that community, at that ground, I bet they drop the Sevenoaks plan and just remain at Sixways. Under the radar but not totally unrelated, it looks as though London Irish are going to be brought back from the dead by a German consortium and look set to return, likely to the remade Championship. It’s set to have 12 clubs next season with 14 in 2025/26, what do you want to bet those extra 2 are Wasps and London Irish?
3 Go to commentsThe shoulder is a “joint” with multiple bones. You don’t “fracture” a shoulder, you fracture any one or more of the bones that make up a shoulder.
2 Go to commentsOh dear, bones too suspect to continue?
2 Go to commentsBold headline considering the Canes and Blues are 1 and 2 and the Brumbies were soundly beaten by the Chiefs and Blues. Biggest surprise is Rebels 4 Crusaders 12 - no one saw that coming. If Aus are improving that’s great 👍
3 Go to commentsAnna, You are right, we need to have patience whilst the others catch up to England and France. Also it is the PWR that has been the game changer for England. the RFU put money into that initially at the expense of the Red Roses. I was sceptical at first but it has paid off in spades.
1 Go to commentsI think Matt Proctor became a 1 test AB in the same fixture. Cameron is quality and has been great this season, can’t believe’s he only 27. Realistically how would he not be selected for ABs squad this year. Only Dmac is ahead of him as a specialist 10. With Jordan out, it will come down to where and when Beauden Barrett slots back in, and where they want to play Ruben Love. Cameron seems an absolute lock in for the wider squad though. Added benefit of TJ-Cameron-Jordie combination at 9, 10, 11 too.
1 Go to commentsFarcical, to what end would someone want to pay to keep this thing going.
1 Go to comments