Disappearing sponsors

It's unusual for me to be out of the house before 9am these days, but today I was up and out to get to Sparrows Lane to join the protest outside Charlton's training ground.

Organised with very short notice, the protest was intended to warn potential sponsors of the risks involved in being associated with the club these days. Sponsors were due to visit the training ground in the morning, before going to the Valley for a lunch. We expected sponsors to arrive from 10am onwards, and by then there were about 30 of us gathered outside the gates.

We saw lots of players arrive, nearly all in similar oversized cars with tinted windows (footballers have no imagination when it comes to choosing a car). A few waved as they passed. Jason Euell stopped for a slightly longer conversation. But only four sponsors showed up. Two of them stopped and chatted on their way in, and shared the concerns they had, saying they would be raising questions with the management.

It felt disappointing, in a way. I was carrying an A4 sheet with TOXIC BRAND on it and I would have wanted more people to see it. But I suppose the low turn-out was evidence that sponsors already know how toxic the club is. Like season ticket holders, they don't need encouragement to cancel.

Talking of which, a season ticket renewal form was waiting for me when I got home. Like a lot of people on my twitter feed, I probably won't be using it - at least not in the intended way. And it was later confirmed that Andrew Sykes, one of the club's major sponsors, will not be sponsoring the team next season. It's terrible that we now want the club to face these short-term setbacks, but it honestly seems the only way we'll get rid of this awful ownership and give the club a future.