Quite frankly, the answer is yes. Our club cannot afford to turn down easy cash particularly for something as painless as this. There are rules in place to prevent teams literally covering their kit in sponsor's logos but we should be looking to take as full advantage of the rules as we can. Our budget is one of the lowest in the SPL and while we have been doing well of late, it is a sad fact that those with least money to spend usually end up at or near the bottom sooner or later.
The traditionalists will no doubt complain that they want to see our shirts and shorts left as free as possible to promote our claret and amber (and white, and sometimes black) colours. But how often in recent years have we seen tradition ditched to produce a radical and supposedly populist design? Even last year we were playing in a kit that was far from traditional and contained a bright blue emblem smack in the middle. Ultimately what we need is cash to keep our squad at a level where we can compete – in the SPL, not in a fashion contest.
Note the amazing transformation for Stockholm's AIK: above - with sponsors, Below- without!
And, best of all, the selling of the shirts does have one superb bonus which would delight almost all fans. Our sales of replica shirts and shorts are so small that most potential sponsors barely care about the few people walking about Lanarkshire showing off their brand. Instead they are interested in the exposure gained from having their logo seen on television and having the club supply players and tickets for publicity events. So, cover the official shirt with sponsors galore but leave the replicas blank.
The fans will be delighted to be able to buy ‘true' ‘Well shirts free from advertising and the club will benefit from having more sponsorship income. Of course some sums would have to be done to check that the value of many sponsors would outweigh the cash lost from the previous ‘exclusive sponsor' but it works well enough in other countries so there seems little reason to suspect it can't be sorted out here.
There you go. The club makes more money and fans get traditional Motherwell strips with no garish blue bits or irrelevant writing covering the claret and amber.
Everyone's a winner, surely!?