News ISC to leave the AFL in 2020 (Confirmed)

[TheLoungeLizard]

Hey all,

I feel that the rumour of ISC going under, similar to BLK a few years ago is starting to gain legs.
I've heard it from two respected posters, one seemingly in the know and another poster now suggesting the Essendon deal is gone.

It deserves it's own thread as it develops.

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ISC Teams:
Adelaide: contract status (signed) contract until: 2021
Collingwood: contract status (signed) contract until: 2021
Essendon: contract status (signed) contract until: 2023
Fremantle: contract status (signed) contract until: ?
Port Adelaide: contract status (signed) contract until: ?
Sydney: contract status (signed) contract until: ?
West Coast Eagles: contract status (signed) contract until: ?

Key: signed / rumoured to be out / gone

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RUMOUR FILE:
- ISC are under financial crisis and may have contracts taken over by a Chinese sportswear brand.
- Essendon have already broken away from ISC and the 7 year deal, worth $7mil after 2 seasons.
- Sydney have ended their partnership with ISC to with rumoured links to Nike and Adidas.

 

[Red Crow]

ISC have often kept the lengths of their deals secret, there are only a few that are known:

Adelaide - end of 2021 (five-year deal)
Collingwood - end of 2021 (five-year deal)
Essendon - end of 2023 (seven-year deal)

I've never been able to find a source for deal lengths for Fremantle, Port Adelaide, Sydney or West Coast. The first three have obviously been with them for a while though, so could potentially be coming up to the end of a contract. West Coast are only new so based on the lengthy contracts given to the above three clubs, could have a number of years remaining.

Will very much watch this with interest.

 

[TheLoungeLizard]

Word is Sydney are out for a while

 

[The_torpedo]

Haven't Sydney been linked with Nike as well?

 

[its been done]

As I've stated on the Rugby League/Union kits thread (post below), ISC are starting to have Nike style quality issues such as completely or partially missing sponsors such as on South Sydney's jerseys last week against the Wests Tigers.

Dane Gagai and at least one other Souths player are missing the sponsor on the back top red hoop tonight, others are partially missing that said sponsor (Cody Walker)
View attachment 699411

And you would think any company sponsoring Collingwood at the moment would be rolling in the money.

Haven't Sydney been linked with Nike as well?

Please no with what they're producing for Carlton right now

 

[Silent Alarm]

Fremantle is one of the most image-based clubs in the competition (we stick to our Indigenous strips for so long we just flip the colours four times, our insipid coach being a sign of 'stability') so I hope we get Adidas or Nike back but I'm cringing of us with Blades or some other shit kickers. I rate Majestic tbh, own a baseball tees of theirs from an oppy and it fits real well.

Otherwise I'd take, uh, I reckon we'd be okay with New Balance?

 

[TheLoungeLizard]

Edited the Rumour File

 

[TheLoungeLizard]

Fremantle is one of the most image-based clubs in the competition (we stick to our Indigenous strips for so long we just flip the colours four times, our insipid coach being a sign of 'stability') so I hope we get Adidas or Nike back but I'm cringing of us with Blades or some other s**t kickers. I rate Majestic tbh, own a baseball tees of theirs from an oppy and it fits real well.

Otherwise I'd take, uh, I reckon we'd be okay with New Balance?

What exactly is the appeal of Nike right now?

 

[Sparkle]

Am I going crazy, or were there rumours around 2008-09 (when ISC sponsored the Cats and Saints) that ISC had gone into liquidation? Wonder if this rumour will turn out the same, although I have a feeling that the FJGD board could be onto something

 

[Klim]

What exactly is the appeal of Nike right now?

It’s mostly about marketing. Their product isn't necessarily better than its competitors, but they have achieved a lot of success in other sports.

 

[kid_a]

we should never have let puma go, NEVER!

 

[Mero]

Please be true...please be true.


If for no other reason that ISC are the apparel sponsor most likely to design jumpers with photos or weird designs that don't belong on footy jumpers

 

[Freight Train]

What exactly is the appeal of Nike right now?

perth boomers baby

 

[Storm20]

So just for reference, my source is a manufacturer of sports gear in SA. However he also pointed out that one of the biggest problems is the contracts that the AFL put on, which makes it incredibly hard to turn a profit and requires a lot of work. That's why a lot of bigger companies are getting out because it's all too hard.

BLK's deal of 600k with the Crows is essentially what crippled them, thing is when ISC came along, they have an even bigger deal which seems crazy. From what i'm lead to believe, ISC's debt is somewhere around the $17m mark.

 

[magpienato]

Humongous if factual...

No clue who Collingwood would go with. My first guess would be reuniting with Adidas seeming we are somewhat back to prominence on the field (can't say that for last week).

Perhaps we will have a go at making our own manufacturer again... boy I can't wait to see what shit it will go on to produce.

 

[TheLoungeLizard]

However he also pointed out that one of the biggest problems is the contracts that the AFL put on, which makes it incredibly hard to turn a profit and requires a lot of work. That's why a lot of bigger companies are getting out because it's all too hard.

Can you elaborate at all?

 

[Storm20]

Bit hard to as I didn't get all the details, but my understanding is that essentially the AFL want too much of the pie. Consider apparel deals as a revenue stream, not a marketing stream.

 

[TheLoungeLizard]

Interesting

 

[Red Crow]

If thats all true, and I have no reason to doubt it, then the AFL surely have to look at their model and make some adjustments going forward. It does nobody any good - league, clubs or sponsors - if they keep going bust because the AFL are taking too much of the pie.

 

[Sparkle]

If the AFL are keen on having a big slice of the pie is there a possibility that they're looking at following the NFL/NBA/NHL/MLB/BBL/AFLW model of having a league-wide manufacturer deal?

Because they own all of the teams and their licenses they'd be able to implement the deal (like with the AFLW), but the problem would be convincing the clubs to dump their current manufacturers. Wouldn't surprise me if they went down that path with Cotton On, seeing as they've got the AFLW, the Cats, and have started releasing licensed AFL merchandise

 

[Storm20]

That's what I'm thinking it'll become

 

[TheLoungeLizard]

There was a rumour that the AFL dangled that idea a few years ago when a bunch of manufacturers signed 5+ year deals

 

[SC26]

Hardly surprised if that is true. Mass signing up sporting clubs on huge deals was BLK-esque.

Asics, Under Armour and Majestic would be the companies that I think would pick up some contracts.
- Asics were linked to us before we signed with ISC back in early 2017, rumour even made it to Adelaide radio.
- Under Armour are now partnered with the AFL again like they were back from 2011-2014 or so. And they just signed up Sydney FC, so they do have interest in Australian sport. I remember reading about rumours here of how the Crows were meant to be sponsored by them after Reebok left, but dropped out late, which would explain us getting that abnormally crappy Puma deal that only lasted a couple of years (Puma historically stay on board for a long time with their AFL teams).
- Wasn't there talk of Majestic wanting to build up their AFL portfolio back in 2017 when they signed up the Lions?

 

[Silent Alarm]

This BLK/ISC model of sponsoring top level clubs to sell teamwear is ludicrous. It's such a pointless market. Local clubs are just going to go for whoever is cheapest – they don't care if they sponsor Collingwood or West Coast. And the other thing is, even at that low level, there's just package deals: buy 100 jumpers and get 20 tracksuits thrown in for free.

So dumb.

 

[Freight Train]

This BLK/ISC model of sponsoring top level clubs to sell teamwear is ludicrous. It's such a pointless market. Local clubs are just going to go for whoever is cheapest – they don't care if they sponsor Collingwood or West Coast. And the other thing is, even at that low level, there's just package deals: buy 100 jumpers and get 20 tracksuits thrown in for free.

So dumb.

this guy knows what’s up.