Southampton Agree New Main Sponsorship with Aap3

English League One soccer club Southampton has announced that it has agreed a new main sponsorship with Aap3.

Aap3, a business and IT solutions provider based in Southampton, has signed a three-year deal which will see its logo and branding appear on the front of the first team’s home and away shirts from next season.

Additionally, company will also get exclusive branding at the club’s St Mary’s Stadium and on the official website and match programmes.

The partnership, which will expire in June 2014, is estimated to be worth US$300,000 per season for the club hoping to regain promotion to the Championship this season.

Scott Steedman, head of sales and marketing at Southampton FC, said: “I am delighted to be able to welcome Aap3 as the new main club sponsors of Southampton. We look forward to working with them very closely over the course of the next three years in order to maximise a return on their investment in the club.

“Over the last 18 months Aap3 has been a partner of the Saints Foundation, Southampton’s official community-based fundraising organisation, which has seen them invest funds into the foundation, donate software for the foundation’s website and encourage their employees to volunteer in several of the foundation’s programmes.”

Rod Jackson, president and chief executive of Aap3, said: “Southampton Football Club is ambitious, well run and socially aware of its responsibilities as a football club and a cornerstone of the community. We are also ambitious, I believe well run, with a team of professional players and definitely socially aware of our responsibilities.

“Ultimately, we strongly believe in the vision of where this club is heading and felt that being involved with such a project was too good an opportunity to miss out on. It is for these reasons and of course to improve our own brand recognition as Saints grow ever more successful on the field that we have taken on this sponsorship opportunity.”

Nicola Cortese, Southampton’s executive chairman, added: “Any sponsorship deal needs to represent good value to the club, but of equal importance are the principles of the company, which is why it gives me great pleasure to have secured this deal with Aap3.

“Choosing a headline sponsor for the club is no easy task. We need to be able to work side by side and trust in each other, and therefore it was important for us to find the right match when picking a partner. I am convinced that Aap3 are that company and their commitment to the club over the next three years will, I am sure, coincide with an exciting period for both of us.”