YA we've seen it, the Malaysia Airlines ad on the QPR jersey. And Air Asia having theirs on the away jersey in an arrangement where the former picks up about 60% of the tab over two seasons, which comes to about RM18 million says one report.
Apart from the deal announced by Khazanah Malaysia last month that gives Air Asia 20% of the national airline which in turns gets a 10% stake in the latter, this decision to advertise with QPR is one that is still being discussed by sports enthusiasts and others alike.
The main talking point is if it's money well spent and secondly, why MAS is paying more than its "partner" when the main publicity thrust on live TV for a newly-promoted team like QPR would be when it's playing away against the big boys in the Premier League.
QPR majority shareholder and Air Asia big boss Tony Fernandes thinks that our Astro should be showing more of QPR here -- and I'm sure he was talking about live coverage -- because he says he has received many messages which indicates a growing interest amongst Malaysians for the club. You don't expect him to say otherwise, would you?
But surely Tony knows that's not how TV coverage works, at least when the key words are commercial interests. In other words, for the TV operator, return on investments. What QPR needs to do before it can hope for more prominent media coverage here or anywhere else for that matter is to first show results. That's the way it goes.
Another point being asked: Tony the QPR controlling shareholder is also a board member of MAS following the deal under Khazanah. Is there not a conflict of interests there somewhere?
