League must not budge an inch if cinch penny-pinch
It’s understandable if there are a few sweaty armpit patches on the suits running Scottish football clubs.
The cost of living crisis doesn’t just bite ordinary Joes like you and me. Everyone and anyone is getting hit in the pocket and club chiefs are no different, with rocketing prices for everything from the wifi bills to the diesel in the team bus.
The pay-per-view streaming deal during Covid is going, hard-hit companies are reining in their marketing budgets and we’ve also got VAR on the way, which might not look much but will hurt clubs already stretching the budget spread sheets to breaking point.
Season-ticket sales are going be interesting this summer too. We’ve had the post pandemic boom but the money saved when the pyjama brigade were on furlough and stuck in the house has well and truly gone by now and the pain is just starting.
No wonder Scottish chairmen get a bit nervous every time Rangers poke league sponsors cinch with a big stick.
The £8m naming rights deal might be buttons in the grand scheme but a lot of clubs don’t want to contemplate a six-figure cheque they were banking on getting held up in the post.
They shouldn’t worry though. In fact, they should be asking cinch to cough up a little bit more.
Their sponsorship of Scottish football could not have worked out any better if it had been dreamed up by Don Draper from Mad Men.
The big, suave advertising dude from the old TV show would have lapped up a season-long story involving his clients – even if it wasn’t the one they imagined.
Cinch have spent more time on the back page than any league sponsor in history. It might be because Rangers don’t want to play ball with them but so what?
The less Ibrox wants to do with them, the more publicity they’ve had.
This is a rebranded company making an aggressive move in what’s a fierce market.
A lot of folk hadn’t even heard of cinch last summer – and wondered where the capital C was hiding. But they know now. Even when Rangers and Sky folk stick duck tape over their logo for a post-match interview. That doesn’t hurt cinch – it helps them.
It’s like when you hold up a couple of clenched fists to a toddler – they want to know what’s in there.
Rangers, the SPFL and anyone else who wants to get involved can argue all day over each party’s stance.
If Rangers feel the deal should not have been done as it runs across one of their arrangements, then that’s up to them and their lawyers.
If the league reckons Gers are refusing to team up for the greater good, let their brief debate it in front of the judge. But the actual sponsors should sit back and lap it up.
The deal involved is really chump change in the global sports sponsorship market. It’s hard to believe there are many board meetings at cinch HQ worried about whether the Ibrox club are playing ball.
The £8m over five years is the equivalent of the fella from work passing round a football card to raise dosh for his kid’s team’s trip to Blackpool.
Cinch chuck huge sums to have their brand on the
Spurs sleeve, to be associated with English cricket and the Lawn Tennis Association. They also lob dough at music festivals.
They haven’t done what Ladbrokes did before them, putting up ex-players to talk on their behalf and holding media days involving players to make sure their brand is front and centre.
That’s because they haven’t needed to. Every week this dispute has rumbled on has given them the prominence and column inches required to justify their modest outlay.
Heck, this column is another freebie. I take cheques, bank transfers or even just payment in biscuits, chaps.
Brass tacks – if cinch try to pinch a penny on the back of the Rangers row then the SPFL should just show them the coverage and send them on their way.
There will be plenty companies who might now be happy to hook up with Scottish football’s mad men.
£8m over five years is like chump change in the global sporting sponsorship market