Yes, Visit Detroit, via a grant from the Michigan Association of Convention and Visitor Bureaus, which itself got the money from Covid relief dollars, is spending a million plus to sponsor a football team to wear "Visit Detroit" on their jerseys.
The team? Burnley FC in Burnely, England, United Kingdom.
This idea likely came up after the Visit Detroit execs were wondering how to spend their Covid funds they received before the grant ran out, and they had just watched a few episodes of Ted Lasso.
The Detroit Free Press: Why Visit Detroit became prominent sponsor for English soccer team Burnley FC
Burnley you ask? it's a thriving metropolis of 73,000 in Lancashire, England. Currently the team is not in the top league having been relegated. Clearly Burnley is a potential source for throngs of English visitors to come visit Detroit. Maybe visitors will fly Emirates to get here. Nothing against Burnley mind you, it seems like a nice enough place, but for Detroit to burn through Covid funds to sponsor its football team is kinda bonkers.
The Clarets don't have quite the name recognition of say Manchester City or Arsenal, or such, being currently ranked 23rd, but when you've got a million plus you need to burn quickly, needs must and all that, wot?
Sounds like an absolutely great use of over a million dollars in Covid (federal taxpayer or debt sourced) funds.
2 comments:
Aaron
I'm thinking 50-75% of the money was kickbacks to the "Detroit Execs" that came up with the idea. 250-500K to the team probably is a significant chunk of change to them.
Just sayin'
juvat
juvat: I would not doubt that possibility one bit.
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