Manchester United’s new £235m shirt-sponsor

Manchester United sign the “biggest sports deal in the pandemic” in new 5year-£235m/€275m shirt-sponsor deal with German SaaS company TeamViewer. We get into the specifics here.

Last week Manchester United agreed to replace the American Chevrolet logo on their shirts with a new deal with German tech company TeamViewer.

The details were not made public, but a source from The Telegraph revealed it to be worth close to €55m/year for five years starting from the end of the current footballing season. 

Those of you knowledgeable about the sponsorship arena in the UK will know that this is still the most lucrative deal in the Premier League with Manchester City’s Etihad deal closest in a per-season value at ~£45m, but sees a decline on the per-season amount previously given by Chevrolet to Manchester United.

My take?

Manchester United can be considered unlucky that their seven-year deal with automobile giant Chevrolet ended in the middle of the global pandemic. 

Reports have suggested that the financial losses from the past twelve months will exceed £100m for the club. 

The Manchester club tends to lose between £4m-5m every time a match is staged behind closed doors and with over 15 matches so far in absence of fans, the loss in earnings is accumulating rapidly.

Securing however, a healthy sponsorship for 5 years from one of Europe’s most encouraging startups is a healthy sign of their pulling power in the commercial arena. 

TeamViewer boast that their software platform is used by over 600,000 subscribers and as part of the deal they vow to work closely with Manchester United fans through AR Solutions bringing the Theatre of Dreams experience to peoples homes.

I’m feeling that for sure.

Whilst this has very little impact on the choice of sponsor, many United fans have had issues with Chevrolet’s logo on shirts. Click here to see some mockups of some potential new designs next season.

More next week as always.