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England Ashes win aids ECB’s sponsorship search

Sponsorship | Sport

England’s Ashes series win against the Aussies this morning will be a valuable asset for the England and Wales Cricket Board in their hunt for a new sponsor for England’s home test matches.

Current sponsor Npower’s 2-year-deal concludes this year and a renewal of the contract has not been forthcoming because of reported discrepancies between Npower’s valuation of the sponsorship and that of the ECB.

Npower pays around £4m a year for its current deal and has been sponsoring England domestic test cricket since 2001, but recent deals with the Football League and the impending London 2012 Olympics have raised alarm bells over the cricket expenditure.

The ECB are seemingly looking to up the sponsorship fee with reports suggesting a figure of £20m over four years. Today’s Ashes win will be a useful ally for the ECB in this regard but the arrival of the Olympics to London next year will almost certainly marginalise coverage of other sports in the UK over the summer period.

If the sum of £20m for four years is correct, it would be remiss of any company to dismiss the sponsorship benefits because of the effects of one summer games. The benefits that can be derived from England defending the Ashes on home turf in 2013 must surely counter the negatives the London 2012 brings?

If 2012 is all about the Olympics, then it would make sense to make cricket topical by bring the two together somehow. Positive spin (pardon the pun) by a sports marketing or PR agency would go a long way to help tackle concerns Npower, or any potential sponsor may have over the London 2012 effect.

Chris Hughes

 

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