It was a quite fabulous evening. The starry heights of a Championship football match on a cold, late November evening may not be everyone’s idea of a good time, but it ticked my boxes.
My firm, Fenton Elliott Solicitors, hosted 9 guests as match sponsor of Oxford United in their home match against Ipswich Town. With Oxford languishing towards to bottom of the division and Ipswich near the top, it suggested the very real possibility of an evening of frustration and disappointment – on the field at least.
The Oxford United ‘Ambassadors’ looked after us graciously and generously. We had a tour of the changing rooms and the recovery chamber set to minus 85 degrees, and got to walk onto the pitch. There was a surprisingly good 2 course dinner at which we were presented with a framed football shirt signed by all the team and at the end of the game I got to name Man of the Match. (Apparently, I chose the ‘wrong’ player. But he was happy and I was perfectly content in my ignorance that a substitute rarely does enough to qualify for the title.)
We also had advertising around the hoardings and on the scoreboard the value of which was enhanced many times over by the presence of Sky TV who were broadcasting live as their ‘Main Event’. The match was the only one being played across the top two divisions in English football that evening. Somehow our modest sponsorship was being seen all over the world.
We now have souvenirs made up of programmes, photos, a signed shirt and plenty of smiles and happy memories.
The kernel of the evening was sown at a Sterling Networking event 4 months beforehand when a representative of Oxford United Community Charity attended the breakfast meeting. A chat, a phone call and some emails later and I was in.
But on top of some cash, Oxford United needed graphics for the banners, scoreboard and match programme. These involved another Sterling member, Andrew Gale, who did a great job of making lovely looking and perfectly proportioned adverts. Two of my guests were also from the same Sterling group and they were smiling all evening.
Our very loud presence at the match was noticed by friends and business associates at the stadium and watching on TV; my phone was alive with WhatsApps and texts. It did a great deal to promote the business as an established part of the Oxfordshire business community.
All of this was down to connections made at Sterling.
And incredibly, Oxford won 2 -1 (against the run of play it has to be said, but a win is a win!)
It was a fabulous way to celebrate my birthday.
