MANCHESTER UNITED'S £40m, four-year training kit sponsorship with logistics company DHL has rightly been described as having 'broken new ground in the English game’.
The words of United’s chief executive, David Gill, ring true since the training kit sponsorship concept, which has been borrowed from the United States, has never before been sold in the Premier League.
But the deal is all the more remarkable since United’s DHL partnership is far more lucrative than the “practice jersey” agreements struck in the USA – even though United’s counterparts from the National Basketball Association (NBA) and National Football League (NFL) are forbidden from putting logos on their playing shirt, making the training kit the sole sponsorship platform for team apparel.
The move Stateside began in 2009, when NFL teams agreed to allow the sale of sponsorship patches for their “practice jerseys”, a decision that was swiftly followed by the NBA and NHL.
But the sums paid for the rights to brand the prescribed 3.5 inches by 4.5 inches patches in NFL practice sessions are typically in the low single-digit millions per year.
The New York Giants, for example unveiled a 15-year naming-rights deal with Timex Group USA for their new training and practice facility in a deal in 2009, which included practice jersey rights, and was worth an estimated $35m in total.
The £10m per annum United deal, on the other hand, is testimony to the “global juggernaut” that is the United brand and the strength of the Premier League.
Under the deal, the company’s logo will be included on the club’s training kit worn by all first, reserve and youth team players during domestic competitions, but will not give DHL a presence at United’s Champions League training sessions, which typically offer greater access to broadcasters and print media.
The four-year deal builds upon the relationship between the club and DHL, which has been the club’s logistics partner for a year and recently supported the club on its pre-season tour of the United States.
Given the success of the DHL deal, the mooted sale of the naming rights to United’s Carrington training ground appears another opportunity for the club to ramp up its commercial revenues, which have broken the £100m mark in the last 12 months.