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Europe is Lovely This Time of Year

I'm back from my continental excursion and other than bringing back a unknown virus, it was a wonderful three weeks. It's good to get away and I should do it more often. Since I missed both an invasion of out of towners into the city as well as a major windstorm (the remnants of Ivan) that left my house without power for about ten days, I sure picked a good time to be gone.

European sporting eyes were focused on only two major events while I was there: the opening of soccer (football) season and the Ryder Cup. The former was watched with fervor, the latter with disappointment and loud calls for Nick Faldo's scalp. Soccer season carried its share of unknowns across the Continent. While from a pure fan's perspective, most of the attention was focused on how team's new acquisition's would work out, the business side of the sport gained a great deal of attention.

The global financial crisis is being felt keenly in the soccer world, everything from the price of tickets and concessions to sponsorships to jersey contracts. It affects both teams at the bottom of the table and the powerhouses of the sport. Deal prices for teams will undoubtedly begin to be affected, when the buyers from the Middle East are no longer involved. The only cash buyers seemed to come from the oil sheikdoms of the Arabian peninsula so if a club is being sold to anyone else, then credit is inevitably a concern.

Jersey sponsorships are many team's most prominent and most lucrative sponsorship. At least two and maybe more clubs in the Premier League entered the season without a sponsor in what may be an unprecedented situation. The crisis even affects the top - Manchester United, arguably the biggest club in the world, has the largest jersey sponsorship contract in the sport, four years totaling $56.5 million with global insurance giant AIG. As most of you probably know, AIG is now 79.9% owned by the US Treasury who has had to bail it out in the last two weeks. Man U is now halfway through the contract, and there has been no word on whether it will continue. So far, there has been no change. Personally, I would love to see the "block AIG" replaced with "USA" and an American flag. It would be priceless to see the revered club playing with USA jerseys.

On a final note, posting will continue to be light this week as I recover from this virus I picked up on my home.

Full post as published by Sports Biz on September 29, 2008 (boomark / email).