What were they thinking? – expert after sponsorship deal fiasco

The Parramatta City Council has knocked a major sponsorship opportunity on the head.

It involved NRL club, the Eels and a local government sponsorship expert could not fathom why it gained management approval, let alone making it to councillors for consideration.

Details of the deal surfaced in December and one of the mooted arrangements would see a potential $2.4 million deal struck.  The first stage would see the council spend $380k to support the club's NRLW team, home stadium signage and community programs.

A sponsorship professional with another major local council followed the story and was stunned that the deal was not struck down by senior management.  The contact said it didn’t conform with spending priorities for the council, especially considering the magnitude of the spend.

Sponsorship News understands that during the process the council was given a range of options including some that the insider considered outside the scope of spending for local councils.

It should be noted that some of the sponsorship options recommended to councillors were rejected as they did not align with spending objectives.  Furthermore, some of the confidential options were leaked to the mainstream media resulting in further uncertainty about the situation.

The insider said that council spending is mandated to improve the lives of its constituents through services and infrastructure. They added it would be difficult to get the deals beyond an early conversation with management – even if it had a positive impact on the area.

Furthermore, there are other avenues within government through tourism or similar agencies at state and federal levels.

“My jaw dropped when I heard about the size of the possible deal”, the insider said.

They work for a major city council that has a reasonably sized events sponsorship portfolio. They told Sponsorship News there are plenty of challenges around using local government assets for commercial purposes and have often turned away lucrative opportunities.

We had some solid sponsor interest in our new year’s eve event and what is planned for the lunar new year but as a result of council regulations around the commercialisation of local government assets, we had to let the opportunities go.

If they were in Parramatta’s position, consideration would be given to passing the ball to higher level governments, targeting tourism and similar agencies that have budgets and mandates that match the deal.

The Parramatta Eels already have a ten-year relationship with the Norther Territory government through its major events agency. 

Editor's note: This article has been edited from its original form.

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