What do you think of Umbro's new England football kit?

Umbro unveiled a retro-inspired new England football strip at the team’s match with Slovakia on Saturday and it seemed to prove lucky, helping the team to a 4-0 victory.

The Umbro kit features the brand’s Football Tailored concept, and was designed in a collaboration with Savile Row-trained tailor Charlie Allen.

The football kit, which is made up of a white T-shirt with a collar and reworked Three Lions crest, is influenced by retro shirt designs but uses modern performance fabrics and design techniques.

Umbro senior designer David Blanch said the kit was inspired by the all-white strip worn in the 1966 World Cup semi-final against Argentina.

Blanch said: “The new England kit is a performance garment rooted in tailoring. There’s a lot of work that has gone into the kit design and the detailing. We wanted to kit that would make the give the players pride and confidence to wear.” He added that the t-shirt would have a recommended retail price of £50.

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CBS's $6 Billion NCAA Wager Isn't Dead Yet

A decade ago, when CBS struck a comprehensive $6 billion, 11-year pact with the NCAA for the rights to 89 NCAA properties, including the men's basketball tournament, it was considered one of the most bloated sports deals in television.

But CBS had the foresight to secure a crucial sweetener: new-media rights. A week before tipoff, CBS says it has nearly sold out its online ad inventory to 35 marketers including AT&T and Coca-Cola and expects online ad revenue to reach about $30 million this year, up 30% from $23 million in 2008. Analysts say the current ad slump could make it challenging for the network to profit on March Madness this year, but the deal, which runs through 2013, isn't turning out to be quite as mad as many thought.

During the past couple of years, CBS has knit together a broad network to distribute the tournament, ranging from the Web to a new mobile partnership with AT&T. It has a deal with DirecTV to distribute games by satellite and also broadcasts games on CBS College Sports, the college sports cable network CBS acquired in 2005. "These different platforms were just a gleam in somebody's eye when the deal was signed. Now, they are very real," says Lee Berke, a sports media consultant.

At the height of the dot-com bubble when CBS struck the deal, most consumers had yet to watch online video on their computers, let alone their mobile phones. But Internet stocks were booming, and the prospect didn't seem far off. "Everyone thought the Internet was going to save every business in America," but CBS had no idea how it would use the rights, says Sean McManus, president of CBS Sports and CBS News, divisions of Sumner Redstone's CBS Corp. (Last year, CBS started to distribute the videos across a broad network of sites, including YouTube, Facebook, ESPN.com and Yahoo Sports).

Online ad sales are just a sliver of the total revenue tied to the games. Advertisers last year spent $643.2 million on the men's tournament on CBS, up 23.8% from $519.6 million in 2007, according to TNS Media Intelligence, a unit of ad holding company WPP. Under the pact, the rights fees escalate over the term of the CBS contract -- they're $571 million this year -- putting the network in the awkward position of seeking increases in ad dollars despite a tough economy and shrinking ratings. While Web usage has increased for March Madness, last year's final between Kansas and Memphis drew 19.5 million viewers, according to Nielsen -- down from 34.3 million in 1992. CBS says it has yet to finish its ad sales for this year.

—Emily Steel

Printed in The Wall Street Journal, 09/03/09 page B10

Setanta Could Be In Trouble

The Irish Times details the recent missed payments on a key deal that may indicate some trouble within the UK sports network:

DUBLIN-BASED pay TV broadcaster Setanta Sports is believed to have missed a £10 million installment payment to the Football Association in England, potentially jeopardising its rights to live FA Cup and England internationals and raising concerns about its future viability.

www.Ifight365.com, which is headquartered in the UK, has some keen insight into how this may affect the Setanta's partners.

Speculation is rife that the satellite broadcaster could collapse in a situation that shows signs of mirroring the failure of ITV Digital several years ago.
And one scenario currently being looked at is cutting back on the number of channels currently offered to subscribed in a move that could potentially cause the UFC and Setanta's other partners problems.

And while those deals may be the ones that stand out in the company accounts, the likes of the UFC and an exclusive 3-year deal with Frank Warren’s Sports Network to give a new home to boxers such as Joe Calzaghe and Enzo Maccarinelli could also be hit by the cash-strapped company.

One option is for the company as part of a cutback would be to focus on a smaller number of channels. Currently, Setanta offers customers up to twelve subscription channels. Restructuring and cost-cutting could reduce that number down to as few as two channels, with the focus being on offering as much top quality football as possible.

Obviously if that is the route Setanta choose to go down, other sports will likely be affected to some degree and in some cases, dropped completely.


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Younger Women Oppose Cadbury Sponsorship

The controversial Cadbury sponsorship of London 2012 is supported by only a small majority of people. A poll of 3000 adults found only 44% in favour and 37% against.

Moreover, among under 35 year old women the majority disapproved, with some 44% finding it inappropriate – a figure which is matched among 25- 34 year old males.

“These results show how strongly younger people, especially women, feel about the importance of healthy eating – which is actually a very positive trend. Cadbury need to demonstrate their commitment to good diet in order to win over young parents and secure maximum benefit from their involvement” said Stephen Proctor, Managing Director of Sports Marketing Surveys, whose company conducted the poll.


Note to editors-
Question: “Do you think Cadbury’s are an appropriate sponsor for the London 2012 Olympic Games”

For more information on our products and services please visit www.sportsmarketingsurveys.com

Financial Institutions Should Continue Sponsorship

Most sports followers feel that despite the current problems, banks & financial institutions should continue their sponsorship programmes. In the current climate, any cutbacks should be on advertising rather than sponsorship.

In research carried out since the financial crisis amongst UK sports fans, a third of respondents think both sponsorship & advertising programmes should continue. This compares to only a fifth who want to see both reduced.

However, when choosing between advertising and sponsorship for promoting business and products, a quarter of sports fans wanted cutbacks on advertising. Less than 10% of respondents wanted to see sponsorship reduced.

It also confirms support for sponsorship rather than advertising among this group of consumers. Over 50% of adults classify themselves as regular or avid sports followers, and almost 80% of adults have watched sport on TV in the last 12 months (Source: Sports Marketing Surveys – UK Player & Fan Survey 2007).

Commenting on these results, Stephen Proctor, Managing Director of Sports Marketing Surveys stated, '"These findings are very encouraging for the sports sector and for sponsors. They also make perfect sense, as it is well established that sponsorships thrive on long term consistency &
relationships, whereas advertising campaigns are based on shorter timescales and objectives. For companies to cut back on sponsorship, for short term considerations, does not appear to be a sensible marketing decision '".

The survey of over 900 sports followers was conducted by Sports Marketing Surveys between 22nd - 27th October amongst their Sporting Insights panel.

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For more details on our products/services please visit www.sportsmarketingsurveys.com

ADULT UK GOLF PARTICIPATION HOVERS AROUND 4,000,000

The number of golfers in Great Britain who play on a full length course remains just under the 4 million mark. This figure is supplemented by recreational golfers who do not play at full length courses, pushing the totalnumber of adults in Great Britain who play some form of golf to just over 4million. This equates to a participation rate of approximately 8% of the adult population.

The number of Core golfers (who play at least 12 times a year) is around exactly the same level as in 1998. A decrease of almost 400,000 Core golfers since the peak of 2004 is offset by a 340,000 increase in thenumber of golfers who play less frequently.

Driving range usage meanwhile decreased slightly in 2008 to around 3 million, which is still 15% more than 5 years ago.

There remains enormous potential for the game to grow, as the United States enjoys a participation rate of approximately 12.5% of the adult population. In the UK, with participation among women stabilising after 2years of decreasing numbers, and the game remaining more popularamong younger golfers than those aged over 55, there is certainly evidence that the interest is there for the game’s development.

The key challenge is to keep the younger generation in the game, by making golf more accessible and inclusive for children and for those with children.

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For more information on our golf research and to purchase a copy of the 2008 Golf Participation report please contact:

Tony Scott
Sports Marketing Surveys Ltd
www.sportsmarketingsurveys.com