By Andrew Warshaw
January 16 – Eighteen months before staging the World Cup, Brazil’s Serie A clubs are introducing a club membership scheme supported by the league’s corporate sponsors.
The scheme will provide fans with a greater level of engagement with clubs as well as encourage more fans through the turnstiles. It will also provide the league’s major sponsors with a powerful communication tool.
Currently about 350,000 fans have club membership cards, but it is hoped the new partnership, the latest initiative ahead of the first World Cup to be staged in the country for over half a century, will attract 3.5 million more supporters to sign up.
The new scheme, sponsored by brewer Ambev and supported by a raft of other sponsors, encourages fans to join their club membership schemes by offering discounts on products and services, and has the involvement of 15 of Brazil’s biggest clubs. Discounted match tickets will also be offered to club members.
“This is a big step forward for Brazilian football,” said Ronaldo, the former Barcelona and Real Madrid striker who is also playing a major role in World Cup organisation. “Fans will save much more than they spend on their season ticket.”
Brazil’s Serie A clubs have worked hard to create a marketing platform for the league through their collective marketing association, Clube dos 13 (CDT). It hasn’t always been easy.
Serie A clubs broke their collective bargaining agreement for television rights 18 months ago when broadcaster Globo convinced a number of the top clubs that they would earn more money as individual clubs by negotiating directly with them rather than as league.
The ensuing row almost led to the break-up of the CDT that was undertaking a number of initiatives to raise the profile of the Brasileirao (Serie A) internationally. International broadcast rights to the league are sold collectively.
At the heart of the debate was the requirement for the league to provide greater economic resource and firepower to its clubs.
Brazilian clubs have traditionally been an exporter of their best young talent and, partly as a result, had lagged behind the top domestic leagues in Europe in terms of attendances, income and global television deals.
As the clubs have gained economic strength they have been able to hold on to top young players like Neymar and Ganso and keep them playing in Brazil. The club membership scheme is a further indication of the increased financial and marketing power of the top league and its ability to attract top money sponsorship.
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