Innocent sponsorship deal brings unique name game
FOREST Green Rovers have struck a unique deal with smoothie maker innocent drinks over the name of the club’s New Lawn stadium.
Rovers’ 1-1 draw against Walsall last weekend was the first and only time a League game would be hosted at the ‘innocent [insert name here] stadium.
The sponsor has now decided to put it to the fans, who were able to make their suggestions to the club via its Twitter or Facebook account.
A panel from Forest Green Rovers, including the chairman Dale Vince, will then select a shortlist of the best names.
These will then be put to a second, final fan vote to choose the new name of the stadium.
“We’re a green company. They’re the greenest team in the world. Even the grass they play on is green. At the end of the day, it’s a match made in heaven.” said innocent’s UK Marketing Director, Anna Bateson.
“Our marketing team had the great idea to name the stadium but then had no great ideas for what to name it.
“The best they had was Greeny Mcgreenface and we’re not calling it that.
“So rather than do the work themselves, our marketing department reckoned they’d just let someone else do it. So it’s over to the fans to decide.”
Dale Vince, chairman of Forest Green Rovers, said: “This is a great idea from the innocent team to crowdsource a name.
“We can expect all sorts of suggestions, especially from fans of other clubs (this is football after all) - and it’s going to be fun.
“Meanwhile, even our interim name is good.
“What a great way to kick off our partnership with the guys from innocent.”
The competition launched on Forest Green Rovers’ and innocent’s social media pages.
Fans can vote on Facebook by simply leaving a comment on the post.
On Twitter fans simply need to tweet @Fgrfc_official and @innocent with the hashtag #insertnameherestadium.
We’re a green company. They’re the greenest team in the world. Even the grass they play on is green.
Anna Bateson