FA hopes to reap £30m from FA Cup sponsorship

The Football Association has commissioned a German sports research company to value sponsorship of the FA Cup - and have been informed by Sport&Markt that it is valued at £30 million-a-season.

The FA is embracing new ideas, and opted for an "independent report" by "the most respected sports research company in the world" which has "valued The FA Cup Lead Sponsorship globally at £30 million per annum, mainly because of the sheer number of games broadcast each year".

E.ON is bowing out as lead sponsor after this season as its aim was to raise public awareness and after four years feels it has achieved this.

The FA is currently in talks with a number of leading blue chip companies wanting to sponsor the FA Cup, which hits the Third Round this weekend.

The FA, meanwhile, does have a long term strategy of developing its own TV network and utalising the internet. On the net, FA Cup games have already been broadcast on its website under the guise of FAtv.

Round One, it was Oldham Athletic v Leeds United, plus the replay of Stevenage Borough v Port Vale. Round Two it was Carlisle United v Norwich City and the replay Staines Town v Millwall.

The total streams have exceeded 312,000 with the most popular game being the Leeds match at over 150,000. Games for the Third Round this weekend are Bristol City v Cardiff and Tranmere v Wolves.

The FA expects to have over 200,000 people watching these games. An FA spokesman said: "We're delighted with response to the online FA Cup matches so far - FAtv is embracing new ground in online broadcasting."

Ukraine v England was broadcast online earlier this year but as an FA spokesman commented: "This was the Ukrainian FA's to sell and they put it out via the Perform agency."

England games, home Euro qualifiers and all friendlies, are on ITV until 2012. The FA's aim is to ultimately get the broadcast and sponsorship in tandem in four year World Cup cycles from 2010 to 2014.

In 2014 the FA expects a major internet broadcaster to be in the mix. An FA spokesman added: "In the meantime, FAtv for FA Cup games is a good way for us to assess the impact of the medium."

And the FA will start 2010 by exploring one of the hottest issues in football, how to maximise income from the branding of Wembley Stadium.

Wembley cost £850 million to rebuild and the FA has £500 million worth of debt, mostly linked to bank loans on the new national stadium with a 25 year mortgage.

ESPN broke the story of how the FA will explore the contentious issue of an acceptable form of branding of Wembley Stadium. Now new chief executive Ian Watmore concedes that the FA urgently needs to maximise income.

The FA is reviewing, probably for the first time at its board meetings at the end of January, how it is possible to sublimely brand Wembley without incurring the repayment of a £120 million Government grant, and not to upset fans already irate about how clubs like Newcastle United crassly handled their stadium sponsoring projects.

The FA's contributions to Wembley's loan repayments and other costs helped turn a £24 million profit into a £15 million loss in 2008, which has exercised minds within the FA's organisation about its revenue streams.

Watmore has identified the four-year period between the World Cup in South Africa and that in Brazil four years later as the "critical" period for sorting out the FA's finances.

The need for more cash has led the FA into new territories, and in an interview with the Guardian over the holiday period Watmore confirmed the ESPN Soccernet news breaking story that Wembley is on the agenda for branding in some shape or form.

Watmore commented: "We'd have to work it out precisely but we won't be calling this the x, y, z Wembley stadium or the Somethingorother.com Wembley. Wembley will remain Wembley, the national stadium."

Watmore estimates the FA's contribution to Wembley is £20 million-a-year until 2014, when it will break even and "a different kind of arrangement" can be reached.

An FA insider told me: "There is a Wembley Board meeting at the end of January, and there is also an FA board meeting around the same time.

"The agenda has yet to be drawn up but in the light of Ian's comments, the subject of Wembley and how it could be branded might well be on the agenda.

"But everyone is clear that Wembley will not be renamed. It will not be, for example, The Emirates, so how it will be done, if it can be done, will require some thought on the FA's part."