Manchester City have agreed a huge £50m a year deal to replace current kit supplier Nike with Puma. The new deal represents another commercial win for the Premier League leaders, dwarfing their current £20m-a-year deal with Nike agreed in 2012. The Nike deal expires at the end of the current season and Manchester City have moved quickly to exploit their growing global presence after a strong start to the season.
The deal represents a coup for Puma who continue their dominance of premier league kit deals, with Manchester City being the 6th club to don the Puma logo, with Arsenal being the other big team as well as Newcastle, Leicester, Burnley and Huddersfield. This means that next season, Puma will potentially spend more than £85m on sponsoring current premier league clubs, unless Arsenal decide to leave …
Talking of Arsenal the deal will be of some annoyance, as their own Puma deal is at £20m significantly less. However there is substantial rumours of a deal set to be agreed with Adidas that will bring them in line with their title rivals. Liverpool and Tottenham will also want to renegotiate deals to avoid falling behind in commercial terms to their rivals.
The deal also means that the Premier league top 6 represent around 90% of the kit deal revenue brought into the league, further showcasing the gulf in spending power available. It makes sense for kit manufacturers such as Puma and Nike to invest in clubs like Manchester City due to their global nature and growing fan base, something smaller clubs cannot offer and as such, won’t bring in the kit sales that would make a larger investment profitable.
The deal shows the continued commercial awareness of Manchester City as they build on their early season success. Guardiola’s attractive brand of football is making the team great to watch and as such, attracts global brands to invest in them to build and maintain their own global presence.
It will be interesting to see where Nike go next, with only Chelsea and Tottenham being sponsored by them currently, they may look to Arsenal, Liverpool as potential sponsorship opportunities should they look to build their revenue to be in line with the deals of Manchester United, Chelsea and most recently, Manchester City.
