Saturday, October 25, 2008

City to secure new kit and shirt deals?

MANCHESTER CITY are close to completing a new kit deal worth £40million.

The mega money tie-up with sportswear giants Puma will cover the next four years.

It is largely incentive-based on the Eastlands side reaching the Champions League and is an indication of City’s marketing potential under new owner Sheikh Mansour.

The current deal with Le Coq Sportif is up at the end of the season but City want the new sponsors tied up by Christmas.

Club Executive Chairman Garry Cook is already exploring new areas to promote City’s brand and persuade Puma it is the right deal.

>>the sun.

Hat tip to regular poster 'gaga' for the suggestion on this one, and something that has been discussed over at bluemoon today as well.

It really wouldn't be a surprise to see us switch to a bigger name - and more lucrative deal of course with the le coq sportif deal expiring at the end of the season (and maybe why le coq sportif got three kits into the market this season as a sort of 'pay off'), but I thought Nike would have been the more logical fit given the links to Garry Cook and the Brazilian's we now have in the ranks.

I also imagine that we will be securing a bigger deal for shirt sponsor as well, given that the Thomas Cook deal also runs out this season and Cook has been critical of British sports merchandising before, labelling it '10 years behind the US'.

This article from The Independent in August suggests the deal with Thomas Cook is only for £1 million a season, and there have been stories ever since Thaksin took over that we would be lining up a big sponsorship deal, and with the increased profile you would imagine we should be able to dwarf the current figure.

One of the principal reasons Garry Cook was brought into the club by Thaksin was his reputation as a real 'brand' guy with Nike, and it does seem that one of his remits was to secure far better and more lucrative tie-ups with regards to the kit.

Ambitions of the top four on the pitch then, and the next six months should begin to see the first steps under the regime to match those sides off it as well.

vote it up!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

cant wait to see the kits but kits like tottenham's 3rd

Anonymous said...

Cant see a lard arse like me fitting into a puma kit...lol

Anonymous said...

I bet Richard Dunne's thinking the same

Anonymous said...

Puma? No thanks. I'd prefer Nike. Or Adidas if Nike doesn't come through.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for doin an article on it appreciate it but we signed a four year deal with le coq but like you said maybe they have accepted to knock the shirts out thick and fast to earn abit also i wonder if that deal had a clause for extension or something and its not been taken up, im like everyone else you would think nike because of gary cook and i never liked puma shirts but at least they seem to make loose ones these days and i cant see them giving us those tight ones because demand this year from the fans was to make our shirts bigger which they did, my biggest concern is getting an ugly shirt i think we got fortunate the last few years not having that thomas cook circle logo on our shirts so lets hope for the best providing this is a true story once again thanks for writing article it cleared a few things up.