It’s no longer much of a surprise that soccer’s richest teams have leveraged their on-field performances into multi-billion dollar operations.
***
Free insurance quote...click here
***
There may be no better example of how a team’s success gets monetized than the rich kit and shirt sponsorship deals teams have negotiated in recent years.
For the sport’s most valuable teams, those two partnerships – kit deals are with manufacturers like Adidas and Nike that make the jerseys, while shirt sponsors are companies that pay to have their logo put on them – can be worth well over $75 million per year.
Far and away the best example is Manchester United. Despite a falling value, down 11% to $2.81 billion this year, no other team compares when it comes to rich jersey deals.
The Red Devils originally set the bar on kit deals with a 2002 agreement with Nike, worth over $35 million per year as the English Premier League’s most valuable kit deal until just two years ago. That kit agreement will soon expire and be replaced with a new one that’s expected to be worth a massive $1 billion over ten years.
Tack on a jersey sponsorship from General Motors GM -1.01% that’s worth $559 million over seven years and you’ve got a team that’s set to collect an average $180 million annually just from its gameday shirts.
To put that into perspective, consider that only 16 soccer teams currently make that much in total annual revenue.
Complete Coverage: The Business of Soccer
That’s what happens when a team succeeds on the field like Manchester United has in recent seasons. Since signing its 2002 kit deal with Nike, Manchester United has won six Premier League titles and has cracked the league’s top three teams in every season except the current one. In that time the Red Devils also picked up a Champions League title in 2007-08, plus other wins in the FIFA Club World Cup and FA Cup.
And while no team comes close to Manchester United in jersey sponsorship income, many have been trying to close the gap. More importantly, they have been following the same blueprint of turning on-field success and subsequent fan fervor into massive sponsorship deals.
Source : forbes.com
Tags : Bafana, soccer, football, kit, sponsorship
Links : salovesfootball.mobi