VfB Stuttgart has revealed it will be collaborating with sports rights marketer SPORTFIVE for an initial period of five years up to and including the 2027/28 season.
Aiming to boost its marketing strategy, the Bundesliga club will retain full responsibility for looking after existing sponsors and partners and for implementing the marketing rights, while SPORTFIVE will be jointly responsible for selling these rights in the future.
Alexander Wehrle, Chairman of the Board of Management of VfB Stuttgart, stated: “We have ambitious goals in marketing. Both in traditional sponsorship, new digital products and content formats, and the stadium as a platform for events, we need to exploit VfB’s potential more fully in order to strengthen our economic foundation.
“In SPORTFIVE, we have found a partner with outstanding expertise who wants to successfully go down a new path with us. This is the perfect solution for all sides.”
The enterprise will support the acquisition of sponsors, partners and the development of new marketing products, including in the digital and sustainability context.
“SPORTFIVE complements us excellently in a challenging market situation in line with VfB’s strategy,” added Rouven Kasper, Director of Marketing & Sales at VfB Stuttgart. “To describe this in automotive language that suits Stuttgart: We keep the steering wheel of marketing, from the product to the support and implementation of sponsors and partners fully in our hands, that is, from the bodywork, to the transmission and turning of the tires.
“However, with a new sales structure together with SPORTFIVE, we are putting in place a more powerful engine that will accelerate us much faster in marketing and move us forward. This is essential for the development of our VfB and an absolute win-win situation.”
The German club retains all marketing rights and continues to be the direct contractual partner for existing and potential sponsors, meaning it has full decision-making authority in all commercial matters.
The cooperation also gives VfB greater planning security in terms of sponsorship income as well as immediate income through an agreed signing fee.
Hendrik Schiphorst, Managing Director at SPORTFIVE Germany, added: “Here, each partner can play to its strengths: We provide additional sales power for VfB, while the club retains overall responsibility and can concentrate fully on the commercial marketing strategy as well as the support of its existing customers and partner management.
“With its history and its vision for the future, VfB Stuttgart is an absolute beacon in the region and of national importance and, in the future, increasing international relevance. We are very proud to be able to support VfB Stuttgart in the future with our sales and development perspective regionally as well as nationally and internationally.”
