Discussion Collingwood and Viatel

[Gibbsy]

Hello good folk of the board.

I just made a massive and exciting discovery, too good to be hidden away in a lost thread! While watching Chris Tarrant's retirement speech on the Pies website I stumbled across this image in his highlights package:

Now if I'm not mistaken, that's the mysterious Viatel logo that was only worn for one (?) game in the 1998 pre-season. We all trawled through AFL Photos only to find that the one image from that game had the logo obscured!! Now I can only imagine this is from a pre-season training obviously before Viatel went bust. Reading up on it, it was a $3 million sponsorship deal which was massive at the time and would have injected a lot into the club who were struggling on-field at the time.

Three things would be great to come out of this thread:
1. A possible digital recreation of the Viatel logo
2. Some more discussion of the Viatel situation, as I'm intrigued
3. Some more pictures of the Viatel logo

Cheers!


People who I know will be interested: Mero SJ makri Silent Alarm Smeagle Hoggy Johnson#26

 

[SJ]

 

[jefffff34]

You can't tell in this image, but it is with the Viatel logo too...(I have the card).

We wore it the whole pre-season, however only one game was televised due to being knocked out of the pre season comp. I went to Princes Park to see us lose to Carlton and we had it on...remember getting excited when Frankie Raso kicked a 4 bounce goal.

 

[SJ]

The famous practice match with Viatel logo and Carlton preseason guernsey.

 

[Mero]

So going off that, it would have looked like this:

 

[Hank93]

So going off that, it would have looked like this:

Image deleted mero.

 

[Gibbsy]

Awesome work by all of you! Glad we've uncovered this "mystery".

Mero , I reckon that looks spot on, serif font and all.
SJ - did you know of that photo before my post? Hope you weren't keeping it from us!
Hoggy - Frankie Raso brings back memories, if I remember correctly there was one game in the late 90s where he had his pants pulled down (literally!)

 

[SJ]

Nope I just searched '1998 Collingwood training'.

 

[lmach]

What's the story with Viatel?

 

[cannavo]

I believe Viatel was featured in a Membership ad with Peter Daicos
I Might have it on a VHS tape

 

[makri]

Replica jumpers pop up on eBay from time to time. Quite a bit of the Adidas apparel from the time had an Emirates patch stitched over the Viatel logo which had already had the Viatel logo embroidered on to them. I've got a couple of tops somewhere, I'll see if I can dig them up and post some photos.

 

[Omegaville]

Viatel was originally created by Telstra. Here's an advertisement featuring the now-notorious Robert Hughes.

 

[cannavo]

Can't make out what's underneath "Viatel"

 

[Omegaville]

I think it was "Communications", from memory.
Definitely would have been solid bands of colour as above, not gradient, as it was a stitched patch.

For the back sponsor, if I'm not mistaken, it was the V logo on the left and a white box on the right, with VIATEL in large letters and COMMUNICATIONS below it... so a horizontal kind of arrangement of the above.

 

[Omegaville]

1980s Viatel logo

 

[cannavo]

 

[troybe]

if you google viatel footy cards and images scroll down to page 17 on the right hand side of the first line of p 17 there is a footy card of Gavin Brown it will give you a better look at the Viatel logo

 

[Gibbsy]

if you google viatel footy cards and images scroll down to page 17 on the right hand side of the first line of p 17 there is a footy card of Gavin Brown it will give you a better look at the Viatel logo

Awesome find!

Points of interest:

• Gradients on the Viatel logo
• The precursor to the current Emirates font
• Collingwood trialling that 3d logo we had going on for a bit

 

[Mero]

Image deleted mero.

I've posted it to Photobucket, but Photobucket is down.

The Viatel logo was a gradient, but they could not embroider gradients, and probably still wouldn't.
So the logo was definitely the three colours, as above.

 

[millsy29gopies]

Did see someone with the jumper on at a footy day back in primary school. Always stuck in my mind that I had never seen in before.

I thought it might've been a K-Mart one and just someone's put a random sponsor patch on it.

Very interesting about them. I guess if they didn't fold we wouldn't have Emirates who still sponsor us today!

 

[Mero]

Primus bought Viatel and honoured the contract for the 1998 season, at a reduced price.
Emirates were arranged during 1998 and took over in 1999.
Emirates were only ever the Home sponsors, with Primus being Away sponsors until 2001.

 

[Omegaville]

I can't quite pick the font in the logo. It's not Times New Roman but it's pretty close - found Palatino and Gilgamesh but they look too thin, and Palatino's bold font is too think. TNR is a decent approximation for our purposes.

 

[makri]

Primus bought Viatel and honoured the contract for the 1998 season, at a reduced price.
Emirates were arranged during 1998 and took over in 1999.
Emirates were only ever the Home sponsors, with Primus being Away sponsors until 2001.

After the Viatel folded Primus did take over with Spicers coming back on board for one final year. Emirates came on in '99 with Primus staying on until the end of the 2001 season.

 

[fabulousfill]

I found a 1998 Skills of Australian Football "guide" that was given out with Auskick registrations. It had Gavin Brown with this particular logo on the uniform. Just going from memory (until I can find it again) the V box with the orange and yellow was on the shorts, Mero's logo looks about right for the front logo spot, and the back was the v box with Viatel written beside it. Will edit post when I find it and edit again if I'm wrong.

 

[SJ]

I found a 1998 Skills of Australian Football "guide" that was given out with Auskick registrations. It had Gavin Brown with this particular logo on the uniform. Just going from memory (until I can find it again) the V box with the orange and yellow was on the shorts, Mero's logo looks about right for the front logo spot, and the back was the v box with Viatel written beside it. Will edit post when I find it and edit again if I'm wrong.

How funny, I was looking at this the other day too!