$50,000 help to reevaluate the Manu Samoa brand

By Sarafina Sanerivi 19 October 2016, 12:00AM

The Samoa Rugby Union is commission an evaluation research on the Manu Samoa brand. 

This will allow the Union to reach out to the international arena for sponsorship to help develop the sport in Samoa.

Now thanks to $50,000 cheque from the government of Samoa through the Totalisator Agency Board (T.A.B) and the Gambling Control Authority, they can now get started on evaluating the Manu Samoa brand. 

The cheque was presented to the Samoa Rugby Union on Monday afternoon at the Samoa Sports Lotto office. 

The presentation was made by the Gambling Inspector of the Gambling Control Authority of Samoa, Auimatagi Fa’afetai Ah Kuoi to the Chief Executive Officer of the S.R.U, Faleomavaega Vincent Fepuleai.

Auimatagi said the S.R.U has been chosen by the board as the recipient of this donation. 

“The S.R.U was among other applicants who have applied for assistance.

“The board has given it consideration and approved $50,000 tala for the development of rugby union and the development of rugby as a whole for Samoa.”

He went on to say that the money will go towards the development of rugby in Samoa and also evaluating the marketing of the name Manu Samoa. 

“As I said, this funding is open to all sports not just rugby. But there certain criteria that they have to meet and we do the evaluation and then we make appropriate recommendations to the board. 

“And the final decision is by the board.”

In receiving the cheque, Faleomavaega thanked the board and the government of Samoa for kind donation. 

Asked about a particular area they are looking at to make good use of this money, Faleomavaega replied saying that the money will be used for marketing purposes.

“The union is looking at doing an evaluation of its brand which is the Manu Samoa brand, the 7’s brand, and all of our teams like Manu Sina, Samoa A and U20s.

“The union has been asked to try and look outside of Samoa for sponsorship.  “We’ve looked at this seriously and we have decided to do this first and I think getting an independent evaluation of what our value is and that will help us look for sponsorship overseas. And that’s the main reason why we are doing this. 

“I think for us to reach out to the international market we need to have this research first so that we know exactly what the Manu Samoa brand is.

“And we are hoping that the information we will get from this research and evaluation with all the help from facebook and social media will help us put together a proposal in order for us to get the international support and sponsorship towards the union.”

Said Faleomavaega, if they will succeed in getting international sponsorship for the union, they will no longer rely on grants from the government for funding. 

“This is done to solicit funding,” he said. 

“The union is partly funded by the World Rugby and most of it is funded by the government and government cooperation that we work with. 

“And it’s in our own interest to try and work towards a way that we can self support ourselves and instead of looking at the government to support us all the time. 

“And I think this initiative will go a long way in looking at strategically for the union over the next four year, is to try and minimize the support and grants from government and rely on ourselves to look for that money to help with our developments.”

By Sarafina Sanerivi 19 October 2016, 12:00AM

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