The Columbus Crew on Wednesday afternoon announced that the team has entered into a five-year sponsorship agreement with Dublin-based Barbasol as the club's new uniform sponsor. Financial details of the arrangement were not released, but team president Mark McCullers described the arrangement as "the largest partnership in the history of the Columbus Crew."
"Jersey sponsors in the world of global football are more than just sponsors." continued McCullers. "The team kit, the jersey, is part of the club's identity, and therefore the brand that is on that jersey is also part of our identity."
The Crew's first jersey sponsorship, with Glidden paints, was announced in late 2007 as a four-year deal. That arrangement, also billed at the time as the largest corporate sponsorship deal in team history, ended prematurely last January. Press coverage at the time indicated that Glidden "declined to renew" the arrangement, although the four-year timeframe would have seemed to run through the end of 2011.
A total of 15 teams in Major League Soccer now have some form of sponsor logo on the front of their jersey. The four holdouts are Colorado, Dallas, Kansas City and San Jose.
LED advertising coming to Crew Stadium
In addition to jersey sponsorship, another common aspect of the soccer game day experience appears poised to make its debut in Columbus this year: LED signboards. Already familiar to fans elsewhere in Major League Soccer, the team's press release about the Barbasol deal includes a reference to "field-level LED signage" among other advertising assets to be utilized through this agreement.
Comments