Blues boost commercial team with new appointments

, 29 September, 24comments  |  Jump to most recent

Everton FC has continued the expansion of its commercial team with the appointment of three senior personnel whose focus is to support the Clubs growth plans and increased market share aspirations in key territories.

Alan McTavish, Sam Lucas and Matt Roche have all been appointed into senior roles in the expanding commercial operation, with responsibilities including commercial partnership acquisition, management of new and existing relationships with Club partners and strategic planning for sales of hospitality opportunities and season ticket campaigns.

Alan has been appointed as Head of Commercial Partnerships with a primary responsibility to enhance Evertons commercial profile and influence as well as to help implement the Clubs commercial partnership acquisition strategy. Alan joins Everton from Watford Football Club where he held the role of Commercial Director. His previous experience is vast and varied having held roles at Rangers Football Club, Michael Page International (specialist recruitment), TAG Heuer (professional sports watches) and Wella (one of the worlds largest cosmetics companies).

The Premier League is an extremely competitive arena, not only on the field but also in terms of trying to attract and secure new partners, and Everton is one of the UKs most successful football clubs with all the key ingredients required for commercial success, Alan said. Im excited at the challenge ahead and the opportunities in front of us and Im keen to make my contribution to developing the Clubs commercial revenues while respecting its heritage and values.
Sam has joined the Club from The FA as Head of Partnerships. He was the Senior Partnerships Manager at The FA and previously worked alongside brands such as Budweiser during their sponsorship of the FA Cup and Nike, Vauxhall and Mars during their partnerships with the England team. Prior to working at The FA, Sam spent five years at Umbro, Evertons kit supplier for the past two seasons. Sams role at Everton will involve him overseeing existing Club relationships with our principal partner, Chang, Umbro and other partners as well as helping them to maximise the value of their commercial involvement with the Club.

Everton is unique in that its a huge Club with a dedicated and loyal fanbase not only locally but nationally and internationally, Sam said. The Premier Leagues popularity and the international players we have in our squad show the potential of the Club worldwide and Im really looking forward to playing a part in the Clubs future development.

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Taking up a newly-created position, Matt joins the Club as Head of Matchday Revenues. He will be responsible for overseeing the processes of all direct Everton customer transactions including hospitality, food and beverage, matchday programmes/publications and retail. In addition, Matts role will include working with other members of the commercial team to devise and implement a strategic and profitable approach to the sales of hospitality opportunities and season ticket campaigns. Matt brings a wealth of commercial experience to Everton having previously held roles at Serco (an international service company) and Bank of America as well as local employer, Merseyrail.

I was impressed by the strategic vision of the Senior Management Team and its commitment to taking a long-term approach to achieving its objectives, Matt said. Everton has a loyal and dedicated fanbase and going to the game is important to them. In my new role I look forward to working alongside Club staff and the fans to help improve their matchday experience.

The Club will be further expanding its commercial operations, with more appointments to be made shortly.

 

Reader Comments (24)

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Steve Hogan
3 Posted 29/09/2015 at 20:00:48
Who says the Everton hierarchy don't bother listening to the concerns of the 'forums criticising the commercial performance of the club?

I'd say this was pretty much a direct response by the senior management to raise additional revenues other than those already being raised via gate money and media sponorship.

Stephen Brown
4 Posted 29/09/2015 at 20:05:03
It's pleasing to know that the club is finally taking these important parts of modern football seriously! Hope they are a great success.
Peter Howard
5 Posted 29/09/2015 at 22:18:21
Can someone please provide an English translation of these job descriptions!
Eugene Ruane
7 Posted 30/09/2015 at 09:35:52
Peter (3) - ’Can someone please provide an English translation of these job descriptions!’

"I was impressed by the strategic vision of the Senior Management Team and its commitment to taking a long-term approach to achieving its objectives, Everton has a loyal and dedicated fanbase and going to the game is important to them. In my new role I look forward to working alongside Club staff and the fans to help improve their matchday experience."

Translation - ’Everton are paying me more than Merseyrail did.’

Peter Morris
8 Posted 30/09/2015 at 13:38:43
Okay, we will see. For the time being, all the club have done is load a few quid onto the salary line, but you have to speculate to accumulate. We’ll probably see price increase of matchday food now... ho hum.
Barry McNally
9 Posted 30/09/2015 at 14:22:29
How long will these boys last when they realise what’s going on behind the scenes?
Colin Glassar
11 Posted 30/09/2015 at 14:27:43
Twenty years behind most other clubs but at least it's a move in the right direction. If we can dump Chang and kitbag then that would mean we are taking this essential part of the business seriously at last.
Ernie Baywood
12 Posted 30/09/2015 at 14:35:05
Not clear what Sam's doing. Working for Alan?

All 3 seem reasonable senior people but largely insignificant roles. Strange reading it on ToffeeWeb.

Kevin Tully
13 Posted 30/09/2015 at 15:03:12
Funny appointments really. The ’experts’ in the commercial arena were quite insistent we were already doing as well as could be expected. Why on earth would we require not one, but three new senior personnel?

Could it possibly be the case we have finally recognised these long-term deals with Chang, Kitbag et al are not the only options out there? Not to mention the recently exposed Power 8 deal!

It’s good to see the club are trying to address the obvious shortfall in our commercial performance, but why it’s taken so long is anyone’s guess.

Jamie Crowley
14 Posted 30/09/2015 at 15:20:19
Have to, absolutely have to, dump Chang and Kitbag. Glassar is spot on.

These deals are archaic, and hold Everton back.

This Club deserves a larger sponsorship benefit and presence. Chang is shit beer based in a country where our Club will not realize any growth whatsoever from the Chang profile. Kitbag is a horrific landscape, limiting the ability of fans to acquire team gear (terrible retail presence) and rep our brand on a grassroots level.

Time to get to work all you new upper management studs and former MerseyRail employees.

The only direction is up, and if they can’t get it done they are useless.

Winston Williamson
16 Posted 30/09/2015 at 15:43:39
Well, I've been critical of the club in the past regarding the need to appoint 'specialists' in this field. In fact, I had an argument with a distinguished ToffeeWeber regarding this, with him questioning how I knew we didn't already have the people in place. Evidently, we didn't.

However, we do now. I guess it is a case of 'the proof is in the pudding' and we can await to see if this is one of the clubs best signings.

They'd gather a lot of support if they bin off Chang and Kitbag...

Jay Wood
17 Posted 30/09/2015 at 16:16:44
Winston (#13),

Echoing my own thoughts, when some had the audacity to suggest ways to increase alternative income streams from sources other than the bumper TV deal to a certain TW poster.

Rather than pooh-pooh the idea as that poster did - I mean ... what did we commoners know when compared to the extremely successfully business men who make up our board and who were/are doing such a magnificent job? It would appear the club would agree with those ignorant lay people that there is a need for such appointments.

I for one will be keeping an eye on their performance and hopefully we will see improved commercial deals which will benefit the club, both financially as well as further raise our local, national and global profile.

Graham Mockford
18 Posted 30/09/2015 at 16:40:11
Guys I wouldn’t be getting too excited here. I’ve looked at the respective LinkedIn profiles and these guys are middle managers and not those going to be making strategic decisions.

Don’t get me wrong they may be good middle managers and may improve our revenues but they won’t be making decisions, I suspect that will remain with the CEO and the Board. These guys are doers and implementors.

You can see this from how the jobs are described. The biggest job and most senior role Head of Commercial Partnerships is described as ’to help implement the Club’s commercial acquisition strategy’. Not form or create but implement.

The other partnership role is ’overseeing existing relationships’. So take what we’ve got and make the best of.

The final match day revenue role will essentially be about getting more out of hospitality packages. However on a positive note I know who to complain to about the shortage of choc-chip biscuits at half-time.

Eugene Ruane
19 Posted 30/09/2015 at 16:40:34
The problem is simply with who makes these appointments.

It's not impossible that we could employ a decent marketing man (or men) with real imagination, but for anyone with real imagination to succeed, he/she/they need a boss with real imagination.

Either that or he/she/they would need to have complete autonomy.

These fellers now have a boss who, when it comes to Everton, has all the imagination of a potato and always wants to be the only star of the show (any show!)

I hope these new lads can figure out a way to be productive and successful, but If history is anything to go by, sooner rather than later, they'll be saying to themselves "What the fuck have I got myself into here!?"

Derek Leary
21 Posted 30/09/2015 at 21:48:41
Let's hope that, between the three of them, they can manage to sort the beer out at half-time in the Top Balcony to prevent it from going off every week.

And order enough Mars bars and Twixes so they don’t run out when we have two home matches in a week. If they can, I’m sure they’ll have earned their money.

James Marshall
24 Posted 01/10/2015 at 17:01:52
A lot of people talk about Chang being a shit beer, but I live in Thailand and Chang is a big company here. They make a lot more than just beer and Chang itself is merely a brand name of the company ThaiBev which makes Chang beer, Mekhong and Sang Som rum. They also make and distribute water here in massive amounts so you see the logo all the time.

The problem is that Chang, even here, is seen as a little downmarket (it’s cheap) – Everton would have been better off being sponsored by ThaiBev though the problem there is that ’ThaiBev’ is probably working her arse off (quite literally) in one of the more seedy districts here in Bangkok as we speak, and it wouldn’t have looked good on shirts.

Also, do you know there’s even a town in Thailand called Everton-Chang? No, seriously. After the Tsunami it was renamed that as we sent them loads of money to rebuild the town of Ban Naan Khem down south.

ThaiBev is a huge company, with enormous assets (much like ThaiBev herself) and they also sponsor loads of Thai football teams here – every day I see people wearing football shirts that I do a double-take on thinking they’re Everton shirts, but they’re usually Buriram United shirts.

Paul Jeronovich
25 Posted 01/10/2015 at 20:08:36
Can’t even shift more shirts than Buriram Utd, god help us!!

All joking aside, what difference does this make? Contracts are signed and we’re stuck with them. If they can get Nike back as kit manufacturer though then I’ll be made up; Umbro is cheap shite.

Nicholas Ryan
26 Posted 02/10/2015 at 12:22:05
So, now we're paying THREE people to do nothing!
John Otway
27 Posted 02/10/2015 at 13:32:01
Well I’ve said it before and, undoubtedly, I’ll say it again but that high profile Evertonian, Sir Terry Leahy, who was CEO of Tesco in its heyday, when £1 of every £7 spent in the High Street went through its tills, has forgotten more about marketing than Elstone and Co will ever know. Why the club don’t get him to undertake an audit of its marketing and commercial operations is beyond me.
Dave Kelly
28 Posted 02/10/2015 at 14:00:50
John, Terry Leahy was and still is an extremely successful businessman. Therein lays the problem. Why would our current CEO look to appoint someone who could buy and sell him. Do turkeys really vote for Christmas?

Are you really advocating that Robert appoints his own successor? Leahy will never be anyone’s number two.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that, by us appointing a "Blue", all in the garden will be rosy. The trick will always be to appoint someone with a cool and calm persona who respects and understands our history and traditions.

Terry Leahy actively looked to promote the corporate greed of his paymasters, Tesco, to the determent of Evertonians. Destination Kirkby would have benefitted the few, not the many.

Our problem always will be that far too many people have vested interests and personal agendas. We need a Chairman/Owner with money, vision and a plan. Unfortunately the present incumbents don’t have any

John Raftery
30 Posted 02/10/2015 at 15:13:35
It may be coincidental but possibly the club is boosting its commercial team to capitalise on the success we may achieve on the field later in the season.

Manchester United employ 150 people in their commercial team which brings in millions. We do not have anything like that potential but we need to be ready to make the most of any opportunities which arise if we gain silverware and/or Champions League qualification.

Simon Smith
31 Posted 02/10/2015 at 16:49:17
Those 3 extra cars at the local boot fairs are going to make the world of difference just a shame we are about 20 years behind in the rest of our commercial dealings
John Otway
32 Posted 03/10/2015 at 18:12:09
Dave, I don't think I suggested that Elstone should invite Terry Leahy to undertake an audit of the marketing and commercial operations. I would expect it to be the board who would authorise this.

The idea that Leahy wants to take Elstone's job is ludicrous. Again I don't believe that I suggested that.

Re appointing a "Blue", I think Leahy understands the concept of objectivity after a highly successful lifetime in business.

During the Destination Kirkby period, Leahy was CEO of Tesco. He is no longer. Your comments re corporate greed are purely subjective.

Can't disagree with a word in your final paragraph.

Colin Glassar
33 Posted 03/10/2015 at 18:27:00
Derek Leary, can you keep us updated with the Mars bars and Twixes saga in the Top Balcony? Absolutely gobsmacked that a club of our size can’t guarantee our fans a fucking bar of chocolate on match day. Kenwright out!!!

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