Birmingham City to sell shirt sponsorship match-by-match
Birmingham City Football Club will sell the space on the front of its playing shirts on a match-by-match basis having failed to secure a sponsor for the new season.
In the wake of its costly relegation from the Premier League, the club has admitted that it has been unable to find a company willing to put up the cost of sponsoring its shirts for the full Championship campaign which begins on 6 August.
Instead it said the unusual game-by-game offer would "help the club to maximise commercial revenue while also building strong relationships with a wider range of local, national and international businesses".
Commercial manager Ian Dutton said: "The commercial team have been working hard since relegation to find a suitable brand to work with the football club and unfortunately we had a number of offers that didn't match the price that we valued our shirt sponsorship to be.
"We didn't want to devalue that by accepting an offer that wasn't suitable so after some careful consideration we opted to bring a new and unique approach to Birmingham City."
Dutton revealed that City had made the decision after sounding out fellow clubs West Bromwich Albion and Middlesbrough, which have had similar shirt sponsorship arrangements in the past.
"This will give brands the opportunity to test the water into shirt sponsorship rather than taking a leap of faith by taking the full season," Dutton said.
For the past five seasons Birmingham has been sponsored by F&C Investments.