26/08/2026
Today, Shooting Stars of Ibadan announced Chowdeck as its front-of-shirt sponsor.
It is good news for the club, but there is a commercial lesson worth examining.
A lot has gone on behind the scenes to make the partnership happen. We may not have visibility into all of it, but one element of the alignment is clear.
Ibadan is one of Chowdeck’s biggest cities, alongside Lagos and Abuja.
That brings us to two things sponsors look at when assessing commercial alignment: audience and geography.
When a sports property is prospecting for partners, the question should not simply be, “Which companies can sponsor us?”
A better question is:
Which companies are trying to reach the audience we already have, and where are they trying to reach them?
This is where commercially mature sports properties need to become more deliberate.
If your club, league, tournament or academy has a meaningful audience in a particular market, that geography is a commercial asset.
You should therefore be looking for companies that are actively targeting that same market.
If the sponsor wants to reach people in your region and you already have access to an audience there, you have established one important area of alignment before the first commercial conversation begins.
This is one of the foundations of better sponsorship prospecting.
Know your audience.
Know where your audience is.
Then identify organisations that have a commercial reason to reach them.
Geography and Audience.
Two simple variables that can significantly improve the quality of a sports property's prospecting.
Chidi J. Myles | Sports Commercial Consultant
