German Bundesliga champion Bayern Munich has agreed a long-term extension to its shirt sponsorship deal with Deutsche Telekom.
Bayern’s main sponsor since 2002, the telecommunications giant’s existing deal was due to run until the end of the 2016-17 football season, but has been replaced by a new eight-year agreement continuing through to the 2022-23 campaign.
Under the fresh terms, Bayern Munich and Deutsche Telekom will collaborate closely on a number of mobile and technology projects, including Deutsche Telekom assuming full responsibility for IT operations at the club’s Allianz Arena.
The ‘Stadium Vision’ project will launch for the 2015-16 season and offers fans at matches a full multimedia experience. Using the Allianz Arena’s stadium-wide Wi-Fi network, supporters will be able to access additional match information, live streams of different camera angles, video replays and interactive activities relating to Bayern and its partners using their smartphone or tablet. Social networking options will be integrated into the service.
Over the past nine months, Deutsche Telekom has laid approximately 115km of fibre optic cable at the Allianz Arena and installed 940 wireless antennas to prepare for the launch of Stadium Vision.
Michael Hagspihl, managing director of private clients for Deutsche Telekom, said: “Bayern never leaves you cold, they arouse in the fans pure emotion and provide us with the most emotional marketing platform. In addition, the fan base is perfectly suited in terms of their size in order to jointly develop new products. The extension has been signed against this background – that we put together new, long-term projects. Digitisation is now indispensable for fan-building, but also in the competition for the development of new markets.”
Bayern Munich chief executive Karl-Heinz Rummenigge added: “The extension of the commitment into the next decade provides serious and strong business fundamentals and gives us long term planning security.”
Financial terms of the new deal were not disclosed, but the previous agreement was widely reported to be worth around €30m ($33m) per season. Questioned on the valuation, Hagspihl said Deutsche Telekom spends over €50m per year on sponsorship, an outgoing that for years has been dominated by its partnership with Bayern.
Earlier this month, Bayern Munich extended its partnership with automotive company and club stakeholder Audi through until 2025.