Manchester United Buy Back Training Kit Sponsorship Rights
October 26, 2012
In a bold move, cure Manchester United have bought back the rights to their training kit from DHL because they believe they can negotiate a better deal with other sponsors.
When United announced they had done a deal with DHL in 2010 worth £40m over four years, most experts were astonished at the sum as it exceeded all the actual kit deals of their Premier League rivals outside of the elite group of present and past Champions League qualifiers.
Since then though, United have done the $559m (£350m) shirt deal with General Motors, who are paying a world record sum to replace AON as shirt sponsors in 2014.
Now the Glazer family have taken the unusual step of buying out DHL, so certain are they of negotiating even greater revenue.
“We have successfully negotiated an early buy-out of our training kit agreement with DHL effective 30 June 2013,” the club said. “DHL will then continue as our global logistics sponsor.
“The significantly increased value of agreements concluded since entering into this agreement, such as our recent $559 million world record shirt sponsorship with General Motors, leads us to believe that there should be strategic opportunities to further optimise the value of these rights.”