Bonza? Victory partners with Turkish Airlines
Melbourne Victory’s new partnership with Turkish Airlines will benefit all parties new and existing, says Managing Director Caroline Carnegie, with a home for its women and academy still a priority.
On Monday morning, A-Leagues’ giant Melbourne Victory announced that it had signed a new, three-year deal with Turkish Airlines. It will see the carrier become its principal partner for three years commencing from the 2024/25 A-Leagues season, as well as become the front-of-shirt partner for its men’s, women’s, and academy sides and take up a prominent position in the club’s physical and digital presence.
Ranked as the eighth biggest public airline company in the world by Forbes in 2023, servicing more countries than any other airline, and, according to its chairman Prof. Dr. Ahmet Bolat on Monday’s, flying 95 million people per year, it appears a rather strong deal for Victory – the club benefiting from the airline selecting Melbourne as the initial launching point for its new routes between Australia and Istanbul.
In addition to the A-Leagues heavyweights, Turkish Airlines also sponsors the UEFA Champions League, Türkiye’s national football teams, and the EuroLeague basketball competition, placing them in pretty good company. Dr Bolat said that Victory games and highlights would now find a place amongst the in-flight entertainment offerings of the Airline, amongst other initiatives, to increase the club’s global reach.
“To partner with such an esteemed business, which is also connected with the likes of the UEFA Champions League and the Türkiye National Football Team as well as some of Türkiye’s domestic footballing giants is significant for Melbourne Victory,” Victory managing director Caroline Carnegie said in a statement.
Of course, while this is all very promising, there are questions.
It was just a year and a half ago that Victory was announcing that new budget airline Bonza had agreed to “the biggest deal for [a] principal partner in the club’s history,” – one that is now being replaced less than halfway through its lifespan. The low-cost carrier has provided below-average reliability and a high rate of cancellations since it launched, at the same time its owner 777 Partners faces ongoing legal action over alleged unpaid aircraft leasing fees and damages. A 777 Partners spokesperson told the ABC that the ongoing legal proceedings have not affected Bonza.
And pertinently, Victory are themselves a part of 777 Partners’ football group arm, the Miami-based private investment company taking a minority stake in the club at the same time as the Bonza deal.
The group has attempted to add a majority stake in Premier League side Everton since that deal was completed, however, it has still yet to receive approval from the league 24 weeks and counting after it was initially announced – double the period initially projected. The Athletic this week reported that 777 Partners was about to lose a significant source of its funding after A-Cap, a New York-based financial services and insurance company, signalled its intention to exit its relationship with 777 Partners' reinsurance subsidiary, 777 Re. Investigative outlet Josimar has also published multiple investigations into the group and their dealings in the footballing world.
So, is it a case of 777 Partners and/or Bonza sneezes and Victory catches a cold? Not according to Carnegie
777 Partners were and remain a minority investor in Victory and Carnegie has previously assured ESPN Australia that, while enthusiastic about the potential benefits of being in a global football group, it is independently strong. Bonza, meanwhile, will be continuing with the club as a key sponsor, as will telecommunications company MATE, who are the present front-of-shirt sponsor for its A-League Women's side.
“We had an opportunity with Turkish Airlines, when they knew that they were going to launch their route into Melbourne and come to Australia, that presented itself to us,” Carnegie told JDL Media on the change.
“We went to both Bonza and MATE and asked them whether they would be prepared to continue in partnership with us but to look at a different asset. To their credit, both of them have said yes, so they'll both remain major partners of the club. They'll focus on slightly different things. And I think in Bonza's case, there are probably some more aligned opportunities with different assets for them too, given that they're a regional domestic-based airline. So they'll look more at a community focus moving forward.
“There'll be slightly different assets, of course. And you would imagine the front of the shirt and principal partnership will be the highest, so we're not offering them the same level of asset as they currently have. But we're really pleased with where we've landed with both [Bonza and MATE] and the fact that they have allowed us to do this deal. So this was us going to both Bonza and MATE and saying this is an opportunity. Are you prepared to allow this to occur? And to their credit, they were.
“[777 Partners] are still a strong backer of ours and no doubt, you'd have to talk to Bonza, but they are of theirs as well. And for that reason, there's always going to be that connection piece between the two of us as well and no doubt that probably helped us also get to a position that is really good for the club – that we've now got three strong partners [Turkish Airlines, Bonza, and MATE] instead of two.”
Under the terms of their arrival back in 2022, 777 Partners agreed a deal that would allow them to take on a 70% stake of Victory in various stages in exchange for an investment of up to AU$30m. If it opted not to proceed, it could depart while being refunded any additional investment beyond its initial 19.9% stake with a compounding interest of 10% per year.
“19.9%, the same as they did on entry in October 2022,” Carnegie said when asked what 777 Partners’ current stake was in Victory.
“We're kind of still in the infancy of our relationship. So I expect [them taking a greater stake] will probably occur. There are a couple of other deals that they're working on at the moment that they're probably focused on. But from our perspective, things are going well.
“They're doing what they say they're going to do. [Victory director of football John Didulica] works with them from a football perspective to see whether we can get some advantages and look at how we can work on player movements in the future. They're doing what we thought they would do when they came in.”
According to Carnegie, the arrival of Turkish Airlines will allow Victory to continue to invest across its entire operations as well as open up further in-kind and partnership opportunities.
“Without talking about numbers, it's not just about the dollars associated with this partnership. It's about all of those other opportunities… the chairman of Turkish Airlines [has said] Melbourne Victory will be on our planes and I've got 95 million people who take my planes every year. So that sort of exposure and connection along with the other partners that they have in the market that we've already sort of spoken about working together to sort of amplify for us, gets us a long way down the track.”
One of the key areas for investment, both Carnegie and chairman John Dovaston confirmed, was the much-anticipated construction of a home for the club’s A-League Women and academy programs.
In contrast to its local rivals Melbourne City and Western United, who are both in the process of moving into newly built training bases, Victory has long lacked a home for its academy and women’s sides – despite its years-long head start in the Melbourne A-League scene. After the infamous collapse of plans to build a home at Footscray Park after a NIMBY-led push in 2019, a report from last June floated that the club was examining Sunshine Energy Park as a potential home, only for there to be no public developments since.
“There isn't because if there was I would absolutely love to be the first person sitting here talking to you about it,” Carnegie said when asked about updates on a new home.
“We spoke at the start of the season about a couple of opportunities that we're exploring. Unfortunately, none of those are things that we can just walk into without a third party being part of that conversation.
“So we're down a path and we absolutely as a priority want to make sure we bed down where that is, but we're just not close enough for me to share those details.”
Header Image:Melbourne Victory