EPL club Manchester City has "cashed in on their emergence as a football powerhouse by striking a six-year kit deal with Nike," according to Mark Ogden of the London TELEGRAPH. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but it could earn the team up to US$19.4M a year. The club "had secured a 10-year deal with Umbro" worth US$9.7M as recently as '09, but with Umbro now owned by Nike, that agreement "has been renegotiated to reflect City's subsequent success on the pitch." Manchester City "will now wear the Nike brand from the start" of the '13-14 season. Although City has doubled the value of its kit deal by moving from Umbro to Nike, a switch "that will give the club access to the American sportswear giant’s global manufacturing and retail operation, the financial benefits of the package remain some way adrift of City’s domestic rivals." Manchester City "has yet to prove its ability to compete with Liverpool, United and Chelsea in terms of shirt sales, both in the UK and across the globe." However, the association with Nike "is likely to boost their profile and enable the club to dramatically increase its global recognition" (London TELEGRAPH, 5/5). The deal will see Nike "replacing Umbro as the designer, manufacturer and distributor of City's kit, training strip and a range of other products" (LONDON TIMES, 5/5). BLOOMBERG NEWS' Tariq Panja wrote Manchester City "has been trying to secure better commercial contracts to stem losses that may lead to a breach of European' soccer's new fiscal restrictions that seek to match expenditure to income." The club's US$312M loss announced last year "was the biggest in English soccer." The Nike contract "allows a 10-year stadium naming rights and infrastructure sponsorship agreement with Abu Dhabi's national airline Etihad worth about" US$565.7M (BLOOMBERG NEWS, 5/4).
