Shorts sponsor completes Bulldogs’ kit comeback

Australian rugby league club, the Canterbury Bulldogs, has sold all branding inventory on its playing kit just three months after leading sponsors quit the club because of the so-called ‘Mad Monday’ scandal.

The scandal refers to the notorious end-of-season drinking session that resulted in a AU$250,000 ($180,000/€159,000) fine for the club and individual fines for four players.

As a consequence of the incident, back-of-jersey sponsor Jaycar and shorts sponsor Wicked Sister terminated deals worth a combined AU$850,000.

This week, however, back-of-shorts sponsor CPE signed a one-year deal, completing the on-kit sales process and taking the total worth of the club’s kit sponsorship to nearly AU$4m, according to The Sporting News.

“We now want to repay the faith shown in us by our sponsors with continued growth on and off the field,” Bulldogs chief executive Andrew Hill said.

The main front-of-shirt sponsor is Korean car brand Kia in a multi-million dollar, three-year deal from 2017 to 2019.