I for one am not suggesting IL is a fool, but for fans to think that sponsorship is unimportant if we continue to win trophies is a bit naive. Any main sponsorship needs to fulfil two criteria in my opinion .

A) to bring good initial money into the club
B) to deliver increased awareness of the club on a national level and build the Warriors brand therefore increasing overall revenue.

Whilst I of course do not know the actual monies involved I suspect this sponsorship will do neither.

How many sponsors have we had who fit the second criterion? None? They pay to be our sponsors to put their name out there, not the other way around.

Yes I agree sponsors pay to have their name out there, but at the same time we should get benefit as well. Sponsorship should ideally be a partnership in which we push the sponsor brand (providing it is appropriate) but at the same time, every time someone sees the sponsor name there should be some link with the club.

An example is, most people think of Arsenal when Emirates is mentioned. I'm not saying we are in that league, I just think a better more well known sponsor would help the club image more and at the same time attract more businesses to the club.

Except there is no storm. Some people aren't that impressed by the sponsorship deal. Is that really such a big deal that you have to keep squealing about "prophecies of doom" every other sentence? You know what's really yawn inducing? People trying to tell others what they should and shouldn't discuss, and doing so in such hysterical, melodramatic fashion, when if they really didn't want to discuss it they could just, you know, not do.

Really?

[urlhttp://www.amnesty.org/en/region/uae[/url

There does seem to be a degree of arrogance from some quarters who assume we should be attracting big-ticket, blue-chip companies because...well, because we're Wigan aren't we. I've no idea of the numbers (£) but I'd guess the shirt sponsor is fairly low on the pecking order in the grand scheme of things. So why not a charity or local business that can feed back directly into the borough? Some might want to look up the definition of snobbery when they've a minute or three.

Your point is different because Arsenal are massive, they have that exposure that makes it a partnership as you hear about Arsenal more than Emirates generally. We were sponsored by Mecca Bingo a few years ago. They are a big name, they have 100 bingo halls across the UK, and are ran by a group which is also the largest casino operator in the UK and did a lot of online gambling at the time as well as they owned Blue Square. Now, bearing in mind how many members of the general public they must reach every single day, do you think they improved our image, or attracted more business to the club? Did people other than SL fans think 'Wigan' when they saw Mecca Bingo? The answer to both questions is 'no', and I can't see why it would be otherwise for any other large company. There's no incentive for them to do it, we aren't paying them after all

I would much rather them do that than have a full on civil war like the rest of the middle east, Also that is a massively biased website. Ask the majority of Expats living here and they will say they have a fantastic and safe life style. But i think the poster was trying to suggest the Labour camps for unskilled Indian workers who would be live on the streets begging and stealing or starving to death back in India, which emirates as a company has nothing to do with.

God forbid we should have a bit of ambition eh? I imagine that if Warrington hadn't struck a deal with a global brand then this discussion might not have included "blue chip" companies, but there would still be a discussion because a local housing association doesn't foster the image that some of us think we should be aiming for.

Don't get me wrong, the UAE does appear to be one of the least objectionable regimes in the area (as a raging atheist, any state built & run on religious grounds does not get my vote) and I'm not going to be a flag waver for Amnesty any time soon. But you can't deny the whole area has questions to answer to one degree or another..

Anyway, back to the thread's topic.......

Ambition is one thing, but a common theme in here does seem to be that the WW brand is above some penny ha'penny outfit that nobody's heard of further away than Billinge.