It would, but then so would a deal with Heinz, Coca Cola and Cadbury but if they didn't want to do a deal then there is nothing we can do about it.

I think the shirt deal is very positive. New place to be a part of , new people to deal with, young people/students who may come along out of interest and become life long fans (optimistic but it could happen), they could then bring friends etc Lets suck it and see - we have nothing to loose and a lot to gain. The options each businesses have to offer can only be positive.

St Mary's College the new Leeds Carnegie.

Seriously though I think it could be good for you. I suspect there's not a lot of money in it, but it might bring some specialist input in terms of sports science, etc.. in an in kind way.

LISTER

To someone not educated in sports sponsorship, what i wrote would be drivel!

Of course, Coca Cola, Heinz, Sky, GlaxoSmithKline, Vodafone will never sponsor Quins.

i.e. £500,000 for 5,000 fans - not good maths or business sense!

It's a step in the right direction.

I found out about it from one of the London rags I picked up on a train this evening, they described it as ground breaking (probably cut and pasted from the PR - but still positive). Elsewhere there's a story about Sarries imploding so the owners can turn it into Sith Efrica Exiles RUFC, so things could be much, much worse.

SaintsFan

I don't know how far your history goes back with Saints, do you remember the trial of underground heating? this was going to be financed by Pilkington's but where a small time thinking Board frightened of losing power (and most of them had a Union background from Cowley and Moss Lane)

Are you fully aware how many times Pilkington in the days of Sir Harry may have wanted more involvement? - I was also born in the town and just live outside now, but I have supported the London Club since my teens because of small time thinking.

J

I think this is a good thing. It ties the club into the community and a recognised sporting establishment. I believe it will help raise the profile of both organisations.

Some people just arent happy (mentioning no names!)

Don't quite see why Lister and Gutterfax are getting so hot and bothered over this. Up until this week we were the only SL team without a major shirt sponsor, which I think spoke volumes about the current situation, both economic and administrative, at the club.

As has been mentioned by other posters, this is much better than nothing. We've got good recent links with St Mary's College, particularly through their sporting prowess and crucially it is a local institution. The club always seem to be getting flak for not developing things in the Richmond area but here's evidence of that.

In the current climate sponsors are pulling out left, right, and centre - we were never going to get a blue-chip sponsor, and St Mary's demonstrates a commitment to academia and the local area which I think is worthy and good PR. This might not be a long-term tie-up but at least its a positive arrangement for both parties and doesn't leave us odd-one-out amongst the SL sides as the only one without a main sponsor.

The tie up now brings in a new captive audience (students)
It could provide a supply line to the Academy sqauds (adding another tier)
It could sway borderline Union players to turn to league from a younger age.

Ok.....my original posts are still available to view as I can't delete Listy's "quote" posts and to be honest, a lot of the sentiment in those posts is still true, but have had time to crunch some numbers and mull over the pro's and con's of this deal and from a professional point of view, I can see the benefit to the club as a community awareness excercise.

As a Sales and marketing professional, I understand that the club isn't the most attractive proposition and accept that any sponsor on the jersey is better than none. What upsets me and I know a lot of work was done to even get TNT on board for the Manly game, is the percieved lack of commercial activity at the club. We have been Quins RL for 3 years now and have failed to attract any unrelated paying sponsorship, sold little in the way of match day, match ball or corporate boxes and have stagnated with our crowd figures. All of this points to us operating on a strict budget, with the obvious aim of creating interest through the community team.
The problem is, I have yet to see the tangible results (and by this I mean the paying spectators) at the ground. Last year v Wigan we donated loads of tickets to the youth of the London RL community and I haven't seen many of them coming back with mum and dad.



If you read the press release, the quotes from the club are from our CEO stating the community work done is great, Brian saying the same thing and from the head of youth development....no comment from the commercial team.

Community is all well and good, but if the Union lot decide they don't want us there anymore, it's back to square 1.....again.

Gutter

You seem to think that TNT are waiting with open arms and a blank cheque book!
What if they could only afford a one-off event?

There are 2 sides to this coin which some people just arent considering, its all well and good saying we play in fornt of '000s and have TV audiences of hunders of thousands, but if the Quins target market doesnt fir in with the company profile - they wont sponsor you!

I worked for Audi Marketing and knew that Rugby was a sport they didnt consider, because the demographic and 'culture' of Rugby didnt seem right.

They positioned themselves as engineering/technical brand leaders and a prestige brand.

Therfore they are active in Rally, Skiing (for the engineering/technical side) and alligned themselves with Polo, Man Utd and Real Madrid.

I do not for one second believe it is easy...if it was all we would need is someone to answer the phone and TAKE orders. What the crux of the problem is, is that we have (I bloody well hope we have anyway) contacted hundreds, if not thousands of companies with not 1 success. We sold 1 box last year, a fact that Boss Hogg didn't seem to worried about when he told us...in fact he smiled when he said it

. If we are going to sell 1 box a friggin year and do contra deals for shirt sponsorship, then I think we might be a bit top heavy in the commercial department where we employ 2 people.
TNT and Quins could have a mutually beneficial relationship if only the correct business plan was put together. We have 15 empty boxes per game...why not offer them as prizes, awarding raffle tickets when normal tickets are sold through TNT and by selling raffle tickets at the games? Prizes to the value of £10,000 in exchange for exposure in TNT to the value of £10,000......
In the current climate, the free mags and papers in london are having their nuts squeezed by advertisers. It isn't brain surgery, it's simply knowing how to deal with these people. As far as I am concerned, there is nobody currently on the payroll at Harlequins Rugby League with any experience of buying or selling advertising.

The varying degrees of experience as declared on the club site include a Bus Dev manager for an immigration company, selling exhibition space for BBC Haymarket, organising events at a waxworks and being a rock DJ



Sorry, but the cold hard facts are that times are hard and we are not in the least bit geared up to face the challenges ahead when it comes to the commercial side of the club.

OK

Im willing to do it!

But here's a very very cold and hard fact.
A hospitality experience where only enough people come in to fill 1 stand isnt very sellable!

Fact!

Agree.

Gutterfax has touched upon it but i'm not really sure so I'll ask you, the "expert". When it comes to the sponsorship of a main shirt, isn't it up to the club to sell it rather than be approached by businesses to "buy" it? This is what worries and disappoints me that no success has occured in this respect.

Just on that point - season tickets were promised to junior players but at the club where my sons play they did not materialise because one of the community coaches (now moved on) didn't get his act together to make it happen. Whilst it made no difference to us because we had had tickets anyway it did discourage some of the parents/kids from attending.
There is a lesson for the club about attention to detail there - not always easy given the lack of resources.

Lister/Gutter

Its a 2 way street, its the brand proposition from the club and the those benefits for a sponsor.

Clubs position themselves in many ways, and finding like minded sponsors is the Holy Grail.

The problem for Quins is that they have no brand proposition. Other than being a televised support, there is no wider sporting attraction to RL in London which is the extended market. What is the demographic of the support? Are you all upper class, degree educated, public School, Telegraph readers or Lower/Middle class, state educated Sun readers?

The sponsor will look at the immediate people they will attract, the fans. But if the club has no 'distinct' fan base identified, then the sponsor will wonder who infact they are targetting.

E.g. Conde Naste Traveller magazine, Veuve Clicquot Champagne and Sunseeker yachts will never sponsor Hull FC - simply because there isnt a single person in the fan base who will use or buy those products.
Those same companies are more likely to be found at Cowes sailing week and Guards Polo club.

The Holy Grail now is - who would you consider to be the ideal sponsor for Quins RL?

The 2 way street occurs when the club tries to sell themselves. Hull FC could sell themselves to Veuve Clicquot Champagne, but if they arent interested in the fan base - then they wont buy. Simply because Hull FC might have a blank shirt, doesnt mean the companies will bite!

True....but as I said, if it was easy, we wouldn't need people to sell it, just to take orders over the phone.
Harlequins Rugby are Gold members of the Richmond Chamber of commerce and are [url=http://www.richmondexpo.co.uk/hosting[/url an event this year.......why not offer 1 box to every game to members on a first come first served basis?

The main point that I keep on trying to make and maybe I am not making it clear enough is that there is a massive difference between commercial activity and community activity.
You are a marketing professional, so will receive calls every day from people selling you everything from email delivery, banner/on-line ads, print ads and data through to exhibition space. You know that there are 1,000's of routes to market and it is those people who know how to sell that are the ones you listen to. We have nobody at the club who knows how to sell. I am not having a pop at any individual at the club, it's not their fault they were employed to do something that they aren't qualified to do, but what I am saying is the club will continue to tread water and spend Mr Hughes's money to survive if they don't address this issue now.
The RFL spent £12,500 (appx) on Manly and we got 4,000 additional bodies through the door.......what more proof is needed that when done by the experts (RFL employees) it reaps rewards!

I could go on about the statistics on crowd figures since we moved back to TW2, but this thread was originally about the Sponsor and I have accepted that the new deal is good for the community development....let's leave it at that.

GUTTER

What are you trying to sell then?
A half empty Stadium?
An unsuccesful team?

And your route to market is exactly what im saying - what is the Quins RL market? Who is the market and where do they live?

what exactly can the club sell, to who and where?

Its like we are a village Sunday league side or something...

Haven't you been on here before saying you've never actually been to a Home match?

no - ive been to many games!

Must be thinking of somebody else then.

But yes, we're still the equivalent of a Sunday league side then. Even they can usually get the local pub interested.

viewtopic.php? ... =#13748284 Threw me somewhat...

viewtopic.php? ... =#13748284 Threw me somewhat...

1st one this season!
(sorry, been to the Stoop many times - just not this season!)

LISTER

Just a quick question - who would you have liked to have seen as the club Sponsor?