EPL club Manchester United and HR company Aon today announced an eight-year extension of their sponsorship worth an approximate $240M (all figures U.S.). The renewed deal, which goes until '21, includes naming rights to the club's training facility, which becomes the Aon Training Complex. ManU players and coaches will wear Aon-branded training kits at matches and practice sessions, and Aon also will serve as presenting partner of all ManU preseason tours, including Tour 2013 presented by Aon in Asia Pacific. Aon is the club's current shirt sponsor but will be replaced in that role by GM's Chevrolet brand for the '14-15 season (THE DAILY). The FINANCIAL TIMES' Duncan Robinson reports Aon “replaces DHL” as the club’s training kit sponsor. The deal also “includes branding surrounding the club’s tours abroad.” It comes “within months of the club securing a record” seven-year, $559M shirt sponsorship deal with GM, “more than double its previous deal with Aon," whose contract ends next year. Aon’s new deal is "worth almost double" the $120M it spent on the four-year deal to sponsor ManU’s shirts in '09. Aon President & CEO Greg Case said that the two parties had “discussed renewing Aon’s shirt deal, but opted instead for the training ground deal.” As part of the agreement, Aon’s HR group will provide ManU with "advice on everything from player data analysis to risk management” (FINANCIAL TIMES, 4/8). The AP’s Rob Harris noted ManU bought out its previous training kit deal with DHL "early in a bid to secure more cash, with that agreement having been worth” around $65M over four years. Although the team is now selling the naming rights to its training center, ManU "has no plans to sell the rights to its main stadium” (AP, 4/7). In London, Simon Stone writes the fact that ManU has “added friendly matches” into the contract is “intriguing as it means from their 2014 tour, they will be wearing two different companies on their kit” (London INDEPENDENT, 4/8).
TAKING FLIGHT? In London, Mark Ogden reports ManU is “also understood to be close to announcing a deal worth” $153.2M with a "leading airline following the end of their agreement” with Turkish Airlines (London TELEGRAPH, 4/8).
