What are Man City really worth to sponsors? The answer could be fascinating ... and cast previous deals in a bad light
Ensuring any extension of their partnership with Etihad complies with rules may highlight the inflated nature of previous sponsorship packages
Manchester City are in the process of extending their most important and lucrative sponsorship deal, with Etihad; and to make sure any such deal isn’t challenged by the Premier League, it makes sense for City to seek external guidance on the maximum ‘market rate’ they can attract from the Abu Dhabi-based airline.
The new annual figure will be doubly fascinating, both as an indication of what City are really worth to sponsors these days, but also in highlighting how absurdly high their deal was with Etihad a decade ago.
This is the conundrum City face.
They need to maintain or increase current revenues while staying within the rules. Independent market validation may assist that.
But 2024 “market rates” will be compared to previous deals between City and Etihad, not least a major deal done in 2011.
That 2011 deal was barely defensible back then, yet we now know within two years it had doubled; such anomalies contributed to “the 115 charges”.