Tourism body Destination NSW has tapped into Del Piero fever in an attempt to lure international visitors to Sydney, signing as the back-of-shirt sponsor with Sydney Football Club.
The major sponsorship deal, the first since the signing of Italian superstar Alessandro Del Piero, will see the Sky Blues wearing the Sydney.com logo on the back of their home and away strip for the 2012/13 Hyundai A-League.
Destination NSW said it hoped the deal would help promote Sydney as a tourist destination across key Asian and global markets given the increased international attention on the football club since Del Piero's arrival.
Sydney FC chief executive Tony Pignata said: "We are proud to be able to help attract visitors to Sydney and we believe that with the Sydney FC brand and the arrival of Alessandro Del Piero we will be able to work together with Destination NSW to achieve that goal."
The announcement was made yesterday by Destination NSW chief executive Sandra Chipchase at Allianz Stadium as the players were presented with their 2012/13 strip.
"The huge interest being shown by all major sports broadcasters, Italian TV and football fans around the world following Sydney FC's signing of Alessandro Del Piero means the Sydney.com brand has even more access to an instant global audience,” she said.
"Having signed Italian legend Alessandro Del Piero for the next two seasons makes Sydney FC one of the hottest brands in town.
"He has more than 3.2 million Facebook fans, 327,000 followers on Twitter and has scored more than 750,000 views on his own YouTube site. Add these to the millions of TV viewers throughout Europe, Australia and Asia who will watch him play, and we have achieved a phenomenal promotional opportunity to grow traffic to Australia’s premier online destination and events website."
Destination NSW joins Webjet and Caltex as major sponsors. Sydney FC said it is still looking for further sponsors for other opportunities within the club.
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