For a long time, Londoners and English citizens have come to Orlando in droves. According to Visit Orlando, visitors from the United Kingdom make up the second most frequent visitors to the City Beautiful (surpassed only recently by Brazil).
A partnership between Orlando, Central Florida, Florida and London is both natural and inevitable.
And now it is in print . . . on a jersey. Of a soccer team, the largest growing sport in Central Florida.
Fulham FC confirmed rumors from the past week by announcing their jersey will be sponsored by Visit Florida. For the 2016 season, Fulham will have “Visit Florida” emblazoned across their chests (jerseys are about $70 through FulhamFC.com with the exchange rate, but note your credit card might have some issues running through).
Who is Fulham?
If you follow soccer you probably remember them as the “Fulhamericans” as they had at one point several American players on their Barclays Premiere League roster including Brian McBride, Eddie Johnson and Clint Dempsey. McBride actually has a restaurant named after him inside Craven Cottage and Dempsey is the leading scorer in Premiere League history for the club.
Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shahid Khan bought the team about two years ago and they have partnered with the Jaguars on several initiatives — with the Jaguars visiting Craven Cottage on their trips to London and Fulham playing a game at EverBank Stadium before last season.
The partnership because of Fulham’s connection to the United States and to Florida makes a lot of sense as Khan hopes to grow the international branding of his team.
“I love Fulham and I love Florida, so naturally it brings me a lot of satisfaction to see two of my personal passions become one,” said Fulham Chairman Shahid Khan. “But what’s most important is how much this partnership makes strategic sense for both Fulham and VISIT FLORIDA. One of my stated goals has long been the expansion and development of Fulham as an international brand, particularly in the U.S. VISIT FLORIDA has a great tourism and leisure story to tell in the competitive London and UK market, and I don’t think there can be a better way of communicating all Florida has to offer than through the power and following of Fulham Football Club. This will be an outstanding partnership. Plus, the kit looks fantastic.”
Fulham has fallen on some hard times of late though.
This season will be their second consecutive year in the Championship after 15 years in the Premiere League. For those that are not aware, the bottom three teams in the Premiere League get relegated to a lower division while the top three teams in the second division get promoted to the Premiere League.
So the exposure from this jersey will not be great. You will not be seeing them play each week on NBC for Premiere League play.
Still, it is nice to see Florida actively engaging a target audience. Not that the state or the region needs a lot of help attracting tourists. It is an interesting partnership for sure.
The Magic have more actively engaged fans in Brazil with specific touring packages to Orlando that include tickets to Magic games. The team will also have a game in Brazil in October during the preseason.
Orlando City has also actively engaged Brazilian and English fans too. In addition to playing Brazilian team Ponte Pedra, the Lions played West Bromwich Albion earlier this year. They have played several English teams since their beginning thanks to Phil Rawlins’ connections to the United Kingdom. And Orlando City has played Brazilian teams in the past too thanks to Flavio de Silva’s connections in Brazil.
Orlando is going to continue attracting those tourists. A little more visible advertising should only help the cause.
