According to chairman Jeremy Peace, West Brom Albion shirts are likely to remain sponsor-less until the end of the season.
Sign in or create an account to earn points for voting, keep track of your reviews, edit them, and more.
He said: “We were close in October to a foreign international company.
“But for the credit crunch over a weekend when Lehman Brothers bank went bust, we would have signed that and got the value we wanted.
“We looked at a charity and Villa probably can afford to do that but we, commercially, want to get the best value out of our shirt.
“At the moment it is going to be a struggle this season because of the environment we are in. People are not spending money.
” They were close to landing van maker LDV as their new sponsors on the eve of the season but talks broke down, leaving them without a corporate logo on their shirts.
Peace insists a small amount of the income lost on sponsorship deals has been negated by extra sales of shirts, which have become popular collectors’ items for supporters.
He maintains that he is unwilling to set a precedent for under-valuing the value of the Baggies’ shirts by striking a cut-price deal.
He said: “You could take the view ‘let’s get anyone on the shirt’ but we didn’t want to do that. A TV game in the Premier League is worth a lot, so I would rather get the right one that will enjoy the international exposure.
“We don’t want to be seen to be giving it away.”
“We had T-Mobile on board for four years they were an international brand and a very good partner, and we still have them as an associate partner.
“We wanted to get someone in at that sort of level, given that we are a Premier League club with 670 million viewers.”
