ST. JOHN’S \u2014 The Newfoundland and Labrador government’s unorthodox sponsorship of a fourth-tier soccer team in England is over, but not all marketers agree it deserved widespread scorn.<\/p>\n
Melissa James, an associate business professor at the University of Prince Edward Island, says innovative marketing strategies take risks and time to pay off.<\/p>\n
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James says every province is going to trade fairs and buying ads to attract skilled workers, and the unique sponsorship of Barrow AFC could have delivered better exposure.<\/p>\n
The former Liberal government announced in 2024 it had paid $171,000 to have the province’s name and immigration website emblazoned on Barrow AFC jerseys, in an effort to lure U.K. workers.<\/p>\n
Dan Shaw, teaching fellow with Dalhousie University’s management faculty, says it’s difficult to take risks with public money, adding that he felt the sponsorship was “a reach.”<\/p>\n
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The Progressive Conservatives have repeatedly panned the deal, and they say it won’t be renewed when it expires in June.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 24, 2026.<\/p>\n
The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. JOHN’S \u2014 The Newfoundland and Labrador government’s unorthodox sponsorship of a fourth-tier soccer team in England is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":626014,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[234737,49,48,26493,95196,234736,910,71537,561,71373,94098,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-626013","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-barrow-afc","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-dalhousie-university","12":"tag-liberal-government","13":"tag-melissa-james","14":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","15":"tag-skilled-workers","16":"tag-soccer","17":"tag-soccer-team","18":"tag-sponsorship","19":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=626013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}