Soccer: Waikato desperate to capitalise on playoff appearance

The Waikato Football Club's board is pulling out all the stops to capitalise on its team's playoff appearance.

Waikato meet Waitakere United on Sunday in the New Zealand Football Championship (NZFC) elimination final at Trusts Stadium, Waitakere.

The game will be broadcast live to a national pay-TV audience on Sky Sport 1.

The board is offering businesses and companies an opportunity to jump on the bandwagon.

For $5000 a corporate sponsor could have its brand across the shoulders of the team's playing strips.

If Waikato advance to the grand final against Auckland City on March 12, again on Sky, another $7500 would secure the same space.

"We believe this is a terrific commercial opportunity for a business to get huge value for their name/brand at a very inexpensive cost," general manager Keith Ward said.

Earlier this week suggestions were that Waikato were $15,000 short of their first-season budget.

However, chairman Clive Morgan said that amount corresponded with the budgeted figure to sell the space on the back of the uniforms.

No corporate sponsor was found before or during the season and Morgan hoped the exposure of Sunday's playoff game would encourage corporates to get on board.

"For whatever reasons it's proved to be quite difficult," Morgan said.

Waikato had a $200,000 budget, believed to be one of the smallest in the NZFC. It included the annual licence fee of $45,000 to Soccer New Zealand.

Other major costs include home venue Waikato Stadium, hiring training facilities and travel costs for Tauranga-based players.

The franchise got $145,000 from charitable trusts, about $45,000 from the pocket of board director Grant Stantiall and a volunteer general manager.

- NZPA