Team Kent gains £14,000 worth of funding from new sponsorship deal with Leydon Lettings
It has been announced recently that Team Kent sporting clubs will now receiving sponsorship funds from letting agency Leydon Lettings.
Leydon Lettings is advertised through Home Stamp, the University of Kent’s housing website that is Kent Union recommended.
Emily Window, the Vice-President (Student Engagement), said: “The new sponsorship deal will help to support all of our 58 sports clubs and their members, help to grow our sporting community and allow Team Kent to expand its activity with an extra £14,000 worth of funding”.
The Union are planning on using the money to better teams and help them grow. Funds will be allocated towards the following:
£7,000, equipment fund (that clubs have been bidding on other the summer);
£2,000, videography (showcasing Team Kent through video content);
£5,000, Team Kent branding, events and Leydon’s renewal fund.
Although a large sum, committee members from a number of sport teams have come out critiquing the announcement. Lucy Hebden, Captain of Women’s Lacrosse 2nd Team, has stated that “I understand it’s great to have a team sponsor, but it would have been good to know about it sooner because it tampered with quite a lot of sponsorships already arranged for other teams, including ours”.
She added: “Letting agencies affects students quite closely, and many have had bad experiences with these student agencies… some students may feel they are supporting a cause that have not helped them previously.”
In regards using the funds for filming equipment to broaden sport videography, Pati Zarzhycka, Station Manager of Kent Television, has commented: “I think that this is a nice thing to do, as many sports teams already have their own equipment for training purposes and it would be a good upgrade for the teams that need it. However, if this suggests that Team Kent would not like to use KTV for future filming, that would be a shame as many teams in the past have put great effort into making sure that match live streams run smoothly, as well as to get the best possible coverage of other events than are not just the live stream.”
“We would still love to work with the teams and societies to create videos even if they decided to do their own as we are all proud of being a part of UKC and all of our achievements.”
However, other sports club committee members think that this opportunity is beneficial. Cian McGaughey from Fencing told InQuire: “I think its brilliant and a fantastic opportunity for all clubs, as well as the Union. The equipment funds as well as the additional marketing will hugely benefit clubs at competitions and their presence around campus and I'm really excited to see what happens next.”
