Bolton Wanderers partner with Sporting Group International to rename the Stadium

Bolton Wanderers has enlisted the services of a company which will arrange its next stadium’s naming rights.

The deal for the iconic stadium to be named after the town’s university is coming to an end, and Sporting Group International has been charged with the task of delivering the follow up to the University of Bolton Stadium, colloquially known as the UniBol.

The club has been located at the 28,732-seater stadium site just off M61 since 1997 after moving from Burnden Park – the club’s home since 1895.

Since opening, the stadium’s held a long-term naming rights partnership with Reebok, before agreeing a deal with Macron in 2013.

In 2018 the naming rights were transferred to the university.

The stadium has also hosted the likes of Sir Elton John, P!nk, Coldplay and Oasis in concert, and iss also a regular venue for prestigious Rugby League fixtures, including the upcoming Rugby League World Cup 2021.

Bolton Wanderers chief executive Neil Hart said: “Sporting Group International has worked with multiple global brands and we see this as an excellent opportunity to work together on the new naming rights agreement for the stadium and securing an excellent new partnership for the club.

“We’re very grateful for the ongoing support of the University of Bolton whilst we undertake this process, and we hope to continue our relationship for many more years.”

Sporting Group International has its headquarters in Birmingham, with an Asia office in New Delhi, India, and a new European operation in Dublin.

The appointment follows a very productive spring and summer for the business, after delivering six front of shirt partnerships for top tier European football clubs and several high-profile sporting appointments in its recruitment operation.

Adrian Wright, chief executive of Sporting Group International, said: “The University of Bolton Stadium is firmly established as one of the finest UK football venues outside of the Premier League and its facilities and location make it such a popular venue for high profile concerts, corporate meetings and events.

“Our team at Sporting Group International is very excited to start working on this project and we look forward to collaborating with chief executive Neil Hart and his team at Bolton Wanderers to bring a new brand to the stadium.”

https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/22323412.bolton-wanderers-partner-sporting-group-international-rename-unibol/

Sluffy wrote:Bolton Wanderers has enlisted the services of a company which will arrange its next stadium’s naming rights.

The deal for the iconic stadium to be named after the town’s university is coming to an end, and Sporting Group International has been charged with the task of delivering the follow up to the University of Bolton Stadium, colloquially known as the UniBol.

The club has been located at the 28,732-seater stadium site just off M61 since 1997 after moving from Burnden Park – the club’s home since 1895.

Since opening, the stadium’s held a long-term naming rights partnership with Reebok, before agreeing a deal with Macron in 2013.

In 2018 the naming rights were transferred to the university.

The stadium has also hosted the likes of Sir Elton John, P!nk, Coldplay and Oasis in concert, and iss also a regular venue for prestigious Rugby League fixtures, including the upcoming Rugby League World Cup 2021.

Bolton Wanderers chief executive Neil Hart said: “Sporting Group International has worked with multiple global brands and we see this as an excellent opportunity to work together on the new naming rights agreement for the stadium and securing an excellent new partnership for the club.

“We’re very grateful for the ongoing support of the University of Bolton whilst we undertake this process, and we hope to continue our relationship for many more years.”

Sporting Group International has its headquarters in Birmingham, with an Asia office in New Delhi, India, and a new European operation in Dublin.

The appointment follows a very productive spring and summer for the business, after delivering six front of shirt partnerships for top tier European football clubs and several high-profile sporting appointments in its recruitment operation.

Adrian Wright, chief executive of Sporting Group International, said: “The University of Bolton Stadium is firmly established as one of the finest UK football venues outside of the Premier League and its facilities and location make it such a popular venue for high profile concerts, corporate meetings and events.

“Our team at Sporting Group International is very excited to start working on this project and we look forward to collaborating with chief executive Neil Hart and his team at Bolton Wanderers to bring a new brand to the stadium.”

https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/22323412.bolton-wanderers-partner-sporting-group-international-rename-unibol/

Sporting Group International!!!
Doesn’t that sound impressive?
A company with TWO employees, share capital of TWO quid and accumulated losses of £400K on its last filed balance sheet.

Didn’t FV employ some commercial geezer to negotiate these deals. What does he do?

Ten Bobsworth wrote:
Sporting Group International!!!
Doesn’t that sound impressive?
A company with TWO employees, share capital of TWO quid and accumulated losses of £400K on its last filed balance sheet.

Didn’t FV employ some commercial geezer to negotiate these deals. What does he do?

This seems to be their web site it looks quite impressive really!

https://www.sportinggi.com/who

The Chief Executive is shown to be Adrian Wright - who is also shown as one of the Directors of the company at Companies House -

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/09998942/officers

Interestingly (to me anyway) is that all of the Directors and the company live/is register in West Bromwich and that they seem only to have two clients - Cazoo and Betting.Bet

see here -

https://www.sportinggi.com/work

That isn't to say they have acquired more recent ones and to be fair to Sporting Group International they have apparently achieved this...

Midlands based Sporting Group International (SGI) are delighted to announce they have secured their client Cazoo, the UK’s leading online car retailer, a multi-year agreement to become an Official Partner of the EFL.



https://www.sportinggi.com/work?page=2

As betting firms seem to be unwelcome by FV it would seem to me at at this very early stage that Cazoo are the early front runners to be our next sponsor of the 'Reebok' stadium.

Doesn't look as though it is going to be called the Petty Little Thing Stadium though, does it?

Great meeting with Sharon Brittan yesterday at @OfficialBWFC hopefully have some exciting news to share soon but 1st GOOD LUCK today #bwfc #boltonwanderers pic.twitter.com/eHbiykiJBo

— Adam Kamani (@AdamKamani) May 1, 2021

Sluffy wrote:

This seems to be their web site it looks quite impressive really!

https://www.sportinggi.com/who

The Chief Executive is shown to be Adrian Wright - who is also shown as one of the Directors of the company at Companies House -

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/09998942/officers

Interestingly (to me anyway) is that all of the Directors and the company live/is register in West Bromwich and that they seem only to have two clients - Cazoo and Betting.Bet

see here -

https://www.sportinggi.com/work

That isn't to say they have acquired more recent ones and to be fair to Sporting Group International they have apparently achieved this...

Midlands based Sporting Group International (SGI) are delighted to announce they have secured their client Cazoo, the UK’s leading online car retailer, a multi-year agreement to become an Official Partner of the EFL.



https://www.sportinggi.com/work?page=2

As betting firms seem to be unwelcome by FV it would seem to me at at this very early stage that Cazoo are the early front runners to be our next sponsor of the 'Reebok' stadium.

Cazoo were already being identified elsewhere as front runners but if they are clients of SGI wouldn’t that be a conflict of interest?
They wouldn’t be in cazoots with both parties to any deal, would they?

The Cazoo Stadium? No thanks! Could be worse i suppose, i had a feeling it was going to be called the BooHoo Stadium for a while which would have been dreadful

SGI may have a glossy website and done a deal with Trevor Birch at the EFL, Sluffy, but their accounts still say they are a two-bit outfit.

Neil Hart’s been told that he can tell the Beeno about this SGI arrangement because Beeno readers will lap up any old twaddle but nobody’s supposed to know and the Beeno doesn’t ask who owns the FV shares, whose paid for them or why PBP haven’t been repaid.

Ten Bobsworth wrote:SGI may have a glossy website and done a deal with Trevor Birch at the EFL, Sluffy, but their accounts still say they are a two-bit outfit.

Neil Hart’s been told that he can tell the Beeno about this SGI arrangement because Beeno readers will lap up any old twaddle but nobody’s supposed to know and the Beeno doesn’t ask who owns the FV shares, whose paid for them or why PBP haven’t been repaid.

All true Bob but in respect of SGI it looks to me as though they've had an 'up tick' (I quite like that phrase that seems to have become popular in the last year or two) in growth which may well be reflected in their accounts for the year to 31st March, 2022 - in that the EPL/Cazoo deal to become (note not happened at that point) a sponsor to the EFL was announced on the 12th March, 2021, so settlement for their work obtaining the deal may well run into their March 2022 accounts and that their staffing levels on their website shows at least six employees which suggests the business has grown from the publication of their last accounts for 2021 which only stated they had an average of two.

As for Iles not asking questions of FV and leaving his and the papers followers in the dark (as per usual), I highly suspect that there is another more pressing issue that Iles isn't investigating into, which if I'm correct, the FA very much is!

So now there are six of them, Sluffy, one of which was taken on a few days ago. Big deal, that’s about the same number employed at my local chippy.

Sharon does seem to have a close relationship with Trevor Birch though and that’s maybe where this has come from. SGI appears to be an Indian outfit employing a Brummie partial to teeth whitener.

I know about the other thing but would rather steer clear.

Ten Bobsworth wrote:So now there are six of them, Sluffy, one of which was taken on a few days ago. Big deal, that’s about the same number employed at my local chippy.

Sharon does seem to have a close relationship with Trevor Birch though and that’s maybe where this has come from. SGI appears to be an Indian outfit employing a Brummie partial to teeth whitener.

I know about the other thing but would rather steer clear.

Yes, I've kept quiet about the other thing for months but there's a thread vert recently on it on another site and it has been all over the Twitter world for the best part of the year, maybe even longer.

As always there are two sides to every story, and we've not heard them both - so best to let due process take place rather than make wild and utterly stupid assertions as some do - remember for instance someone screaming at us all that Anderson was raping the club to pocket £168m for himself...

As for your chippy analogy, do they employ and pay staff who are not needed, I doubt it, and therefore the employment of new staff at SGI at least superficially suggests to me that they have been expanding their business over the last year.

Also, and I don't mean anything by this other than just an observation, but had anyone else noted that there seems to be a pattern (maybe just coincidentally) of known Asian involvement / possible investment in regard to the club?

We first had Adam Kamani's (Pretty Little Thing) tweet with Sharon, then the shirt sponsors from Daubhill/Dubai and now SGI.

I wonder if FV are specifically seeking financial investment from that part of the world?

Looks like this mega story wasn’t written by the esteemed one but by a Junior Reporter.

Mike Pink, the commercial geezer whose major coup was Service My Car, has apparently left the Reebok for pastures new and Cazoo are now advertising on the club website.

Ten Bobsworth wrote:Looks like this mega story wasn’t written by the esteemed one but by a Junior Reporter.

Mike Pink, the commercial geezer whose major coup was Service My Car, has apparently left the Reebok for pastures new and Cazoo are now advertising on the club website.

Worse than that Bob - it was a trainee reporter!

By Lewis Finney
@lewisfinney18
Trainee reporter

See the link to the original article in the opening post of this thread.

The article in the Bolton News was 'prompted' from this press release from SGI - in fact it is just a copy and paste of it!!!

https://www.sportinggi.com/news/sporting-group-international-appointed-on-bolton-stadium-naming-rights

And as you say Mike Pink has left the club after just a year (there seems to be a constantly very high turnover of senior staff to me - or at least it seems that?) note well however the 'sting in the tail' to the BWFC news release of him leaving.

Mike Pink Moves On
Chief Commercial Officer ends productive Wanderers' stay

Wanderers can confirm that Mike Pink is to leave his role as Chief Commercial Officer at the end of August.

Mike (above left) ends a productive 12-month stay at the University of Bolton Stadium to re-locate nearer his London home and take up a similar position with Leyton Orient.

Wanderers Chief Executive Officer, Neil Hart, said: “We would like to thank Mike for his hard work and contribution to the business over the past year. Mike has been a popular member of staff and will be missed.

“He has played a key role in helping to increase commercial revenue for the club and develop key partnerships with new and existing business partners.

“The Board and I would like to thank Mike for his considerable efforts and wish him well in his future career.”

Mike said: “I would like to thank Neil, the Board, the staff, our partners and supporters for all their support over the last year.

“Bolton Wanderers is a wonderful community club which has real momentum behind it now.

“It’s been a fantastic experience working for Bolton. I’ve enjoyed every minute of it and I truly wish the club every success in the future.”

Due to the structures now in place, Wanderers have no plans to replace Mike at the moment.

Neil Hart will continue to work closely with club staff and our valued commercial partners to further develop Wanderers’ commercial operations.

https://www.bwfc.co.uk/news/2022/august/mike-moves-on/

FV do love their PR but you always have to remove the shroud to see what's really going on, especially when the Beeno's also involved.

Effectively it seems that FV have outsourced some of the commercial work to SGI which is bigging itself up, as a lot of organisations do these days.

Does it mean that Cazoo have got the gig? Possibly but its too early to say yet.

Wanderers have announced that we'll be selling off the stadium naming rights again so even though it will be named by the winning bidder the BN is asking fans what they'd like it to be named here

I hear this company is interested...

Would you buy a second hand car from Sharon?

Cajunboy wrote:Would you buy a second hand car from Sharon?

I haven't bought a secondhand car in the last 25 years, Cajun, and have no plans too either. I've only just got over the nightmares I had from the Golf GTI whose engine would scarily cut out without warning more times than I care to recall.

I bought it from someone I should have been able to trust.

It had less than 60,000 miles on the clock when I decided it should be scrapped except that the garage owner I entrusted to scrap it, didn't scrap it and it was back on the road again with some other unfortunate owner experiencing the same issues.

Does that answer your question?

Why "partner" with these people? If you want someone to find a sponsor why not put a commission only deal out to tender?
Just because the barmaid in my local serves beer and has a decent line in banter doesn't mean I have to marry her.

Ten Bobsworth wrote:
I haven't bought a secondhand car in the last 25 years, Cajun, and have no plans too either. I've only just got over the nightmares I had from the Golf GTI whose engine would scarily cut out without warning more times than I care to recall.

I bought it from someone I should have been able to trust.

It had less than 60,000 miles on the clock when I decided it should be scrapped except that the garage owner I entrusted to scrap it, didn't scrap it and it was back on the road again with some other unfortunate owner experiencing the same issues.

Does that answer your question?

Probably.
 
Seven years ago I bought  a Mercedes 180K C Class Estate Avantgarde Automatic. It was 10 years old with 34,000 miles on the clock, owned by a retired guy serviced by a Mercedes dealership from new and was in immaculate condition.  Sadly I had to pack in driving last year due to being unable to safely transfer in and out of the car anymore.  Due to the leap in second hand prices I got a really good deal from the garage I bought it from , the car still looked great and never once let me down.

I trawled through all these car buying firms Cazoo, Motorway,We buy Schofield etc to get some idea of value, but got a better deal from the local garage.

I guess I was fortunate.

I got a brand new Merc last year after my trusty Kia Cee'd finally succumbed to the abuse I'd given it for the previous 10 years. Then I realised the rear seats don't fold down and I can't jam 2 builder's bags of hedge trimmings in it to take to the tip when the brown bins are full. Or planks. Or an 8 ft Xmas tree. 'Kin useless for folk who like gardening and making stuff.

Obviously I hadn't thought it through, but it does match the missus' car so she's pleased.

wanderlust wrote: I got a brand new Merc last year after my trusty Kia Cee'd finally succumbed to the abuse I'd given it for the previous 10 years. Then I realised the rear seats don't fold down and I can't jam 2 builder's bags of hedge trimmings in it to take to the tip when the brown bins are full. Or planks. Or an 8 ft Xmas tree. 'Kin useless for folk who like gardening and making stuff.

Obviously I hadn't thought it through, but it does match the missus' car so she's pleased.