New Aston Villa Shirt Sponsor
Aston Villa have today announced that 32Red will return as the club’s Principal Partner with their company logo to appear on the club’s new home and away shirts, as it did over a decade ago.
32Red previously appeared on the shirts for two seasons between 2006 and 2008 when Martin O’Neill was the manager of the club. It was the sponsor in the seasons immediately before the charity Acorns adorned Villa shirts.
Training Sponsor
While 32Red will be the principle partner, existing betting company sponsor Unibet will continue in the capacity as an Official Partner. The Unibet logo will now feature across all the first-team training wear.
Balancing the Books
Back to the new Principal Sponsor and it’s safe to say that Neil Banbury, General Manager UK at the Kindred Group that is behind 32Red, wasn’t at Wembley to witness the first half against Fulham, when he said of the deal: “The 32Red logo won’t look out of place adorning the famous claret and blue with both brands priding themselves on excitement and entertainment. The likes of which has made 32Red an industry-leader in online casinos.“
Seriously speaking though, it will be interesting moving forward to see if Villa’s commercial department venue to add anymore external sponsorship deals to the kit, for example the sleeves. It’s expected that Recon will continue to sponsor the back of the shirt to help with balancing the FFP situation.
It’s a mark of how player wages now dominate a club’s out-goings that sponsor deals can cover only two to three of the top player’s wages per year.
With this in mind and with the difficulties ahead in terms of further lowering the wage bill, considering some of the current wages and contract lengths, it will be interesting to see if Villa take any further novel approaches commercially to combat their financial woe.
The earlier announcement of the renaming of the Bodymoor Heath training complex may only be the tip of the iceberg.
UTV
New Podcast Episode incoming. Subscribe below:
