Peruvian club Deportivo Municipal has devised an unprecedented way to confront its financial crisis, after turning the team's jersey into a platform for fan support that includes a thousand advertising spaces for sponsors.
The club launched an initiative called “A Thousand Sponsors for the Money,” where the shirt was divided into 1,000 small spaces, and any fan, company, or business could buy one of them for an amount starting from 200 Peruvian Sol, so that their name or logo would appear within the official team shirt.
Three months after the campaign was launched, the club announced that it had successfully sold out all available slots, a move that reflected the fans' connection to the club and their desire to help it overcome its economic crisis.
The club said at the launch of the initiative: "We have launched the 1000 Sponsors for Money initiative, a shirt that will help us return to where we deserve to be. We need your support to achieve this, join us and be part of the club's history."
This move comes at a difficult time for Deportivo Municipal, which has faced financial and administrative crises that have affected its sporting status, after losing its place in the higher divisions and moving to compete in lower levels of Peruvian football.
The club, which is one of the oldest teams in Peru and the first team from the country to participate in a continental championship, hopes that this initiative will be the beginning of a road back to competing at the highest levels, through a funding model that relies on community and fan participation rather than depending on a single sponsor.
