Sports Marketing & Sponsorship - FIFA/CIES International University ...

Interview with Orlando SalvestriniINTERVIEWreceived 800,000 visitors in about 5 years. We alsohave a co-branding agreement with Warner Bros soeven Bugs Bunny is a Boca supporter and wears aBoca Juniors shirt. As I said earlier, we are planningto further develop our merchandising.NW: There has clearly been a significant increase inyour revenue, but how are you faring in your battleagainst piracy?OS: It is sometimes difficult for people to understandthe scale of the problem that we face in Argentina. Itis possible that for every official product sold there is acounterfeit good sold. We saw this as a problemwhich we had to tackle. We launched an advertisingcampaign in which we pointed out to fans thatcounterfeit goods cost the club lost revenue, andasked them to make us aware of any counterfeitingoperations. We appealed to their love of the club andgave them a dedicated number for them to reportpirated goods. We knew that it was better to educateour fans about counterfeiting rather than simply tellthem not to buy it. We also pointed out that profitsmade from merchandise are used to buy new players.Our fans have become our ‘brand guardians’, or putanother way, we have 17 million spotters in Argentina.We have had some success but the battle continues. Itappears to be a much bigger problem than clubsencounter in Europe and the rest of the world.NW: How important is sponsorship to Boca Juniors?OS: It is very important, just as it is for all sportingorganisations. Sponsors want to work with attractivefootball brands and are interested in the mediaexposure they receive. We are entering a new phase insponsorship. It is noticeable how many clubs in theUK now call their sponsorship managers ‘relationshipmanagers’, which reflects these changingrelationships. We have had success with sponsors butwithout a greater media presence it is harder toleverage the size of our sponsorship deals. As we“We have had success with sponsorsbut without a greater media presence itis harder to leverage the size of oursponsorship deals.”increase our global presence, we are sure that we willbe able to increase sponsorship revenues. Our biggestpartner is Nike, and while we attract big shirtsponsors our income from these deals is much lowerthan those secured in more developed economies. Weare aware of what we could achieve. So watch thisspace.NW: What do you think the future holds for footballclubs around the world?OS: I think that the biggest challenge is to maximiseTV revenue, while at the same time selling every ticketin the stadium. There are very few clubs who seemable to do that at present, and certainly ManchesterUnited is one of those teams. I think that increased TVexposure will lead to a fall in attendances at games aswe have witnessed in Spain, Italy and Germany and toa certain extent in the United Kingdom.The new stadia of the future will probably holdaround 40 to 50,000 people. There might come atime when people are admitted for very low entrancefees to make the game more of a spectacle for theglobal TV viewer. I know that some Premier leaguesides already offer heavily discounted tickets for someof their less attractive league games and I expect thistrend to continue. We can’t rule out the possibility ofan international club competition similar to theEuropean Champions League and the CopaLibertadores in South America, but again this is likelyto be driven by TV companies. I am amazed at thenumber of live games that are shown on TV everyweekend just in the UK. I wonder if this will have animpact on live attendances.202International Journal of Sports Marketing & Sponsorship ● APRIL 2009 ●