The Australian Football League's new women's league "looks likely to be packaged into a new multimillion-dollar deal with Toyota, with the competition's major sponsor expected to extend its football partnership until at least 2019 and potentially through until 2022," according to Caroline Wilson of THE AGE. With Toyota's "enthusiasm for the soon-to-be-launched eight-team female competition likely to reap a significantly expanded financial agreement, the AFL's major partner NAB is looking to replicate its strong financial support of the game's junior pathways, including a women's rising star."
Toyota's latest contract in its 13-year partnership with the AFL ends in October, "but a new deal is close to completion and is expected to be announced well before the end of the season." The prevailing view is that Toyota "will become the naming rights sponsor of the women's competition, along with the men's." AFL Commercial Operations GM Darren Birch
said, "We're currently in negotiations with Toyota and the conversation is going really well. With the new women's competition about to launch, we're obliged to talk to them about new initiatives, and they've shown strong interest. There's strong interest in the women's game with a number of our existing corporate partners."
With the AFL's major sponsorship agreements generally running in line with its broadcast media deals, the Toyota sponsorship "could potentially be broken into a three-year agreement with a further option" (THE AGE, 4/5).
