Chevrolet is the current sponsor of Manchester United, Britain’s best known soccer club…er, football club. As the main sponsor, Chevrolet pays Manchester United £47 million per season and provides a fleet of cars to use for free. In April, the fleet was delivered: 15 cars, the majority of which were Corvettes and Camaros, but none of them have been used by the players themselves, but instead the training ground staff have been the ones racking up the miles on the cars. Apparently the footballers prefer their own rides, including Range Rovers and Porsches.
Chevrolet has said that the cars are part of a “voluntary drive program” and that the players are by no means obliged to use the vehicles, but it does come across as a bit of a snub to the new sponsor. Manchester United signed the £350 million, seven year deal with Chevrolet in 2012 and took over as main sponsor this year. It’s reported that the vehicles are usually sitting in a lot at the Carrington car park in London, collecting dust.
Which seems like a shame, doesn’t it? Tell you what, Chevrolet: Send a Stingray to BS HQ with “Manchester United” anywhere on it and we’ll get you the advertising you are looking for.
(Source: dailymail.uk via World Car Fans)
GM should use this to their advantage. Picture this… Joe “blue collar” with mop bucket in hand, comes out of a “shit stall” at MU’s stadium. He whips off his natty coveralls “James Bond” style to reveal on evening jacket and bow tie. He jumps in his shiny new C-7 vette and rockets off into the misty gloom of the Manchester countryside…”Kiss my Arse Leeds!!!” 🙂
As far as advertising ideas go, that might actually work.
Ok it could be a snub but they’re footballers not necessarily car guys and unless I’ve missed something the Chevy’s will all be LHD….which you’ll put up with in the UK IF you love the car (I do, not a new chevy but still LHD) but if they have a RHD super/luxury car they can hop into then they’re going to do it. …..seems fairly obvious, doesn’t it?
Hmmmm Tdice may have a very good point here. If I was offered a left hand drive Corvette here in the States to drive for free, sure, why not? But if I was offered a right hand drive Corvette here in the US, I dont think I would want to drive it very often either.
……that and they’re probably not “bling” enough.
Rooney probably can’t fit his dome in a corvette as they weren’t designed for cantaloupe heads and RVP can only use one foot, so automatics only for him.
I still don’t understand why Chevy is on the MU jersey. What a waste of cash.
OK .. so someone please explain the logic here . GM offers a bunch of Brit soccer players the use of a C7 … a car they know the athletes neither want or like ..
Not to mention dropping boatloads of cash into a team from a country who couldn’t give a rats ___ about anything GM
.. but then they give the MVP from the World Series who just set a ton of records and is now listed as the #2 best pitcher ever in the WS … a freaking goram pile of crap Chevy Colorado ?
How in the hell does any of that make even the least bit of sense ?
Oh yeah … this is GM we’re talking about … never mind … idiots
If you’re so smart Guitar Weiner then share with us the marketing success stories you are responsible for.
Being a Newcastle United fan, I hate Man United – but they can’t be all that bad as their players don’t want their asses to be polluted by that nasty Chevy virus! Chevrolet should have sponsored Sunderland instead and then it would have been two loads of crap united!
Ever talk to one of those people in the Chevy booth at SEMA. If they don’t know you and you’re not part of their inner circle or one of their media whores they won’t give you the time of day. Trade shows are like old home week for them. they spend all their time glad handing with people they already know and see frequently anyway. They pretty much ignore everyone else.