Central Coast Mariners has joined forces with the ambitious and emerging Soccer5s brand for the 2011/12 Hyundai A-League season.
The deal will see Soccer5s become the club’s front of shirt sponsor for the forthcoming campaign, as well as form a key component of the Mariners community engagement initiatives.
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Like the Mariners, the team at Soccer5s are driven to form a lasting and mutually beneficial bond with the Central Coast community, while also seeking to increase their brand awareness and reach on both a national and international scale.
Soccer5s is a fast, fun and contagious football phenomenon that began in Scotland. Soccer5s will have ten state-of-the-art pitches at the Central Coast Mariners Centre of Excellence and will soon be kicking off throughout Australia.
Soccer5s are currently preparing to open the first four of ten five-a-side pitches available to the Central Coast community before Christmas, allowing local residents the opportunity to experience the enjoyment of five-a-side football.
“There isn’t a town or city in the United Kingdom that isn’t filled with five-a-side football centres, we are over the moon to be launching in the Central Coast,” Soccer5s Operations Director, Mr John Smith, said at today’s announcement.
“Our pitches are outdoor, floodlit and constructed with 5G Astroturf, so the playing surface is equal to perfectly laid grass. We are going to provide footballers of all ages with the opportunity to play on state-of-the-art facilities.”
Mr Smith added that his company hoped the introduction of the Soccer5s format to Australian shores would ultimately aid the standard of football in the country.
“We hope that Soccer5s can be the catalyst to not only increase football participation across Australia, but also raise the bar,” he said.
“And we’re delighted to commence this journey on the Central Coast with the Mariners.”
Central Coast Mariners Chairman, Mr Peter Turnbull, added that the club’s partnership with Soccer5s fitted like a hand to a glove.
“Soccer5s have a demonstrable need to become top-of-mind and understood in our market, while gradually growing their brand around the nation,” Turnbull said.
“It was clear to them how powerful a sponsorship with the Mariners would be in delivering against those key marketing objectives, so the conversation moved quickly to assessing where, rather than if, they could fit in our sponsorship program.
“We are very pleased to have another committed partner on board, and it is a bonus that Soccer5s is a football-centric brand that plans to promote the sponsorship in a way that our fans can quickly relate to.”
At today’s announcement, five of the Mariners star players – Michael McGlinchey, Patrick Zwaanswijk, Matt Simon, Adriano Pellegrino and Mathew Ryan – challenged a group of eager, local youngsters representing five local football clubs to a game of five-a-side football on the Mariners training ground, directly adjacent to where the new Soccer5s courts are being built.
Turnbull said the inclusion of the local juniors was symbolic of the concept behind the partnership.
“Soccer5s will join us in our ongoing mission to cement football as the top leisure and entertainment option in our region, and that’s a win-win situation for both parties.”
The announcement also provided the opportunity for the filming of the new Soccer5s advertisement, which will be shown before each Mariners home game at Bluetongue Stadium this season.
