THE fall-out from the drugs scandal that has swamped the Knights in the past three months has inadvertently presented the NRL club and beer sponsor Bluetongue with an opportunity to agree to go their separate ways.
The Knights are in the final year of a five-year contract they signed with Bluetongue in January 2006. That was for a reported $4 million for the term of the deal and it is understood they stand to collect more than $600,000 this year. Given their precarious financial position, they are not about to reject whatever beer money they are entitled to.
When former forward Chris Houston was charged on March 1 with three counts of supplying ecstasy and one count of supplying cocaine, then quit the Knights two days later, worried major sponsors rightfully expressed concerns about maintaining links with the club.
More vocal than any other corporate supporter, Bluetongue frothed at the mouth.
"Bluetongue is extremely disappointed by recent developments at the Newcastle Knights and is currently reviewing our sponsorship with the club," company spokeswoman Alana Stack said on March 2.
The Knights already had a sponsorship meeting scheduled with Bluetongue later that week. But the Houston charges - coming almost three months after his former housemate and former Knights teammate Danny Wicks was charged with multiple counts of supplying and possessing illicit drugs - ensured the atmosphere was more than a little frosty.
Speaking about that meeting with The Herald on Tuesday, Knights chief executive Steve Burraston said the Bluetongue representatives expressed disappointment and said the company would "monitor the situation going forward", but gave him no reason to fear they would terminate their sponsorship.
"Dealing with the facts in front of me, there has been no indication from Bluetongue that they want to step away from our sponsorship at this point in time," Burraston said.
But if Bluetongue cut the Knights off, either before the end of this year or by not renewing the sponsorship into 2011 and beyond, the club will not have to wait long for someone else to shout.
The Knights enjoyed a long relationship with Tooheys from 1988 until 1999, then emerged from a bitter split to kick on with competitors Carlton for six years until Bluetongue took over.
Tooheys remain the market leader among Hunter punters and either Tooheys or Carlton would be warmly welcomed back, by the Knights and their fans. The majority of beer-sipping spectators who watch the Knights play at EnergyAustralia Stadium would probably prefer to drink anything other than Bluetongue. And from a marketing perspective, Bluetongue has culturally changed tack since its origins as a "little engine that could" boutique brewery established at Cameron Park in late 2003 by successful Hunter business identities Bruce Tyrrell, Ian Burford, Phillip Hele and Paul Hannan.
When advertising guru John Singleton bought into the business in January 2006, he hitched the brewer's cart to the Knights and used a knockabout ad campaign featuring former players Andrew Johns, Clint Newton, Danny Buderus and Josh Perry enjoying a few quiet ones at their local.
The people's champion of multimillionaires knew which buttons to push and the ads, and the range of Bluetongue beers, went down well.
But that cordial link with the locals has been lost since corporate giant Coca-Cola Amatil and SABMiller, the world's second-largest brewer, teamed up to acquire Bluetongue in December 2007.
Two years down the track and Bluetongue is driven towards selling its premium range of green-bottled lager, pilsener, ginger beer and light at the top end of the market.
The Knights, needing every dollar they can, want to sell more beer at EAS on their 12 game days each season and, eventually, hope to make a mid-strength brew available to fans.
So, if one green bottle should accidentally fall, don't expect the Knights or Bluetongue to cry into their beers for too long.
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