With the World Cup now over, Old Trafford is set to dominate the headlines. Yesterday, when Manchester United made their record breaking $1.3 billion dollar a year kit deal official, the became the most valuable sports franchise in the world yet again. German sports wear maker Adidas simply outspent American manufacturer Nike to acquire the rights (here’s more on that).
And it dwarfs the £21m Adidas pay to provide the kit for all the NBA teams in the United States.
Wall Street now affords United an enterprise value of $3.6 billion. Math: market value ($3.05 billion) + long term debt ($613 million) – cash ($57 million). In April, we valued Real Madrid as the world’s most valuable team, worth $3.3 billion, with United second at $3.17 billion says Forbes.
New Manager Louis van Gaal has raised the bar of expectations. His masterclass tactics in Brazil guided The Dutch to a third place tournament finish. Now the genius tactician is set to meet up with his new players on Wednesday, and have an official club “unveiling” on Thursday, followed by the squad flying out to the US for the start of its cash cow preseason tour on Friday. Oh and they set a record for fastest duration of time it took to sell out their tickets.
Anyways, here’s the top five most valuable kit deals in the world. The new Man United kit deal with Adidas is #1, with two fellow Premier League sides in the top 5. Arsenal is #2 and Liverpool is #4. The old Man United kit deal with Adidas is #7
| Top Kit (uniform) Deals | ||
| Team | Sponsor | Avg. Annual Value |
| Manchster United | Adidas1 | $130 million |
| Arsenal | Puma2 | $51 million |
| Real Madrid | Adidas | $41 million |
| Liverpool | Warrior | $39 million |
| Barcelona | Nike | $38 million |
| Bayern Munich | Adidas | $38 million |
| Manchester United | Nike | $37 million |
| 1: Begins with 2015-16 season. | ||
| 2: Begins with the 2014-15 season. | ||
| Top Shirt Deals | ||
| Team | Sponsor | Avg. Annual Value |
| Manchester United | GM (Chevrolet)1 | $80 million |
| Barcelona | Qatar Airways | $45 million |
| Bayern Munich | Deutsche Telekom | $40 million |
| Real Madrid | Emirates | $39 million |
| Liverpool | Standard Chartered | $31 million |
| Sunderland | Invest in Africa | $31 million |
| 1: Begins with 2014-15 season | ||
Paul M. Banks owns The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports and Yahoo! The Postgame. He’s been a guest on news talk shows all across the world. Banks has been featured in numerous media outlets including NFL.com, Forbes, Bleacher Report, Deadspin, ESPN, NBC, the History Channel and more. President Barack Obama follows him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)