Barcelona remain the world’s number one club for sponsorship deals. The club signed a new 10-year kit deal with Nike last month which is expected to bring in €150m-€155m each year, compared with the current €60m. When it starts in 2018, it will be football’s most lucrative kit deal ever, far outstripping Manchester United’s £75m a year deal with Adidas.
Barcelona remain the world’s number one club for sponsorship deals. The club signed a new 10-year kit deal with Nike last month which is expected to bring in €150m-€155m each year, compared with the current €60m. When it starts in 2018, it will be football’s most lucrative kit deal ever, far outstripping Manchester United’s £75m a year deal with Adidas.
Barcelona soon expects to become the world’s top club for shirt sponsorship as well. At present Manchester United is thanks to its £47m a year deal with Chevrolet. However, Barcelona are in advanced talks with several companies, including Qatar Airways whose deal expires this year. The sale of naming rights for Camp Nou is also envisaged.
The club hopes to become the first with annual revenues of €1bn. Aside from Nike and Qatar Airways, the club’s main partners, it also has a further five ‘Premium Partners’, 10 ‘Official Partners’ and 23 ‘Regional Partners’. The names range from global brands Coca Cola and Gillette to local Catalan companies La Caixa bank and Estrella Damm beer.
There are also far flung sponsors such as Brazilian foot deodorant Tenys Pé and Chinese smartphone maker Oppo. The club has an office in Hong Kong, another in New York and plans for a third in Sao Paolo.
Revenue from marketing, principally sponsorship, rose by a third in the 2014-15 season to €225m. Media rights and match day revenue rose at a much slower pace. Marketing, at 37 per cent of the total, is the largest revenue source for the club.
In social media the club has 2.3m YouTube subscribers and 18m Twitter followers.