Budweiser's three-year sponsorship of the FA Cup will help promotion of the competition overseas
What links Stanley Matthews with "wassup", talking frogs with the Wembley white horse and the romance of the Cup with the king of beers? You might not think there are many immediately apparent similarities between Budweiser, that all-American beer brand, and the world's oldest Cup competition.
But the FA general secretary, Alex Horne, has got news for you. "Like the FA Cup, Budweiser has a proud heritage and a long history of being involved in football," he said today, announcing a well-trailed three-year sponsorship deal that will, from next season, see the competition become "the FA Cup with Budweiser". Shortening last season's "in association with" to "with" was a key consideration for the new sponsor.
It is a theme that Budweiser executives were keen to ram home during an event at Wembley today to unveil the partnership, understood to be worth �8m a year to the FA. As a film played behind them splicing magic FA Cup moments with glistening bottles of ice cold Bud, they insisted that their brand was not "American" but espoused "American values". And whaddyaknow? Those values can also be found in the pluck, courage and optimism of the early rounds of the Cup. "It's optimism in a bottle," said its chief marketing man. Those who are less keen on the fizzy lager might beg to differ.
This is a road that ESPN, which shares the rights to the FA Cup with ITV, has already travelled. It dealt with the problem of marrying an all-American brand with an old English tradition by hiring Ray Stubbs and Kevin Keegan. It remains to be seen what Budweiser's approach will be ? but the presence of Trevor Brooking (always handy to have an FA Cup legend in the building on these occasions), Gary Pallister and Ray Wilkins at the launch suggested that former players won't be on the breadline any time soon.
The men from Budweiser also underlined the fact it has been "the Official Beer of the Fifa World Cup(?)" for the past 25 years. Not that it's necessarily the best time to be shouting about an association with Sepp Blatter's crisis-hit body, but needs must. And, according to the press release, the deal is part of Belgian-based parent company AB InBev's "dream to be the Best Beer Company in a Better World". As such, fans will also be treated to a bespoke campaign to encourage them to drink more sensibly.
For the FA, there are eight million other reasons to accept Budweiser's sponsorship dollars. After the FA quietly dropped an ineffective tie-up with IMG, acting director of marketing and broadcasting Stuart Turner deserves credit for tying up Vauxhall as a national team sponsor at a time when Fabio Capello's men have not exactly covered themselves in glory and coming up with a replacement for E.ON at much the same value despite the ongoing debate about whether the FA Cup is losing its lustre.
Indeed, Budweiser's global appeal ? and the fact it's a high-profile consumer brand the world over rather than an obscure utility or insurer ? will actually help the FA when it comes to selling the FA Cup abroad and bringing in broadcasting income. Its skills in shifting beer might also come in handy when considering ways to refresh the FA Cup, it suggested.
The Cup's overseas appeal will be even more vital than ever, given the uphill challenge the FA faces in selling the domestic TV rights in a market where the incumbent ITV won't pay anywhere near what it does at the moment and the BBC is slashing its sports rights budget.
While it might jar more clangingly with some, in truth there's not much difference between a multinational brewer, a multinational bank and a multinational utility when it comes to selling the sponsorship to a national institution. And in a globalised age ? when clubs are preparing to scatter for annual pilgrimages to Boston and Beijing in the name of broadening their brand, when Manchester United is perfecting the model of flogging sponsorship abroad, five of last year's top six have overseas owners (three of them American) and overseas broadcasting income is tipped to soon overtake domestic fees, perhaps Budweiser is, for good or ill, the most apt brand to associate the FA Cup "with" after all.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/jun/16/budweiser-fa-cup-sponsorship
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