By A Correspondent- CAPS United have clinched a three-year partnership deal with a local beverage company, Coover.
The three-year deal is worth $30 000 a year.
Coover will be sponsoring beverages and t-shirts to players, coaches and administrators.
Speaking at an event held in the capital yesterday, CAPS United head of marketing, Raymond Gonte said its high time sport is taken as a business.
“CAPS are undoubtedly a big club with a large and disciplined support base. One cannot talk of local football and omit the club, our great matches, our rivalries and certainly not our talent.
“But the said success has to be spurred on so that the great name of the Green Machine lives on. In modern football, that can only be done by thinking, implementing and pushing for ‘sport as a business.
“We were the first club to turn professional and today through this partnership and more to come, we will be the first to wholesomely implement the ‘sport is business’ mantra in Zimbabwe.
“Despite challenges around us, Coover Bottlers was formed and even in its formative years, has managed to have readily available beverages across Zimbabwe.
They’re geared for growth, more so now that they have joined hands with a successful and well-supported sporting brand like CAPS United,” he said.
He added: “Coover is an outstanding fit for CAPS. The partnership brings a good mix of and a young (Coover) and a mature (CAPS) brand, entertainment and refreshment, football and business.
“The team aims to be a commercial role model for all the local football clubs, and Coover as a mass-market brand is an ideal partner as one of Zimbabwe’s most successful clubs.
“Coover has unlocked the one door whose key everyone thought was forever lost.
“With the door now wide open, we look forward to the many new partners that CAPS and sport need. No partnership is too big or too small and we can also promise that all brands including Coover that partner with us will get their full due in mileage that the club can provide.”
Coover managing director Faraimose Kutadzaushe said they want to make sure that the players are well taken care of at the same time marketing their brand.
“The idea behind partnership between Coover and CAPS, is we want to ensure that players are well taken care of, know what is around their revitalisation and their refreshments so that as a company we have inherited that responsibility and be the key sponsor of CAPS.”
-State media