United Shirt Deal With Chevy Worth A Reported £357million

Manchester United’s new shirt sponsorship deal with American carmakers Chevrolet is worth an “incredible” £357million between now and 2021, according to reports.

When the seven-year deal was announced earlier this week, it was reported it would see the Old Trafford side rake in around £28m per season.

Now however, reports originating in the US, where United are in the process of selling 10% of the club on the New York Stock Exchange, suggest that those figures were a massive underestimate.

While Chevrolet won’t replace insurers Aon as United’s shirt sponsors until the 2014-15 season, figures presented to the US Securities and Exchange Commission by the club are said to claim they will receive ‘fees’ of about $18.6m (around £11m at current exchange rates) from them in the coming season and the 2013-14 campaign.

Then, in 2014-15, United will receive a whopping $70m (£44.75m) in return for carrying the Chevrolet logo on their shirts, with the amount paid rising by 2.1 per cent in each following season until 2020-2021.

The reports add that the news comes against the backdrop of the resignation of Joel Ewanick, who was chief marketing officer of Chevrolet’s parent firm, General Motors, and had been involved in negotiating the deal, because he “failed to meet the company’s expectations of an employee.”

Ewanick’s departure was announced last Sunday night, the reports continue – just hours before news of the United/Chevrolet deal broke.

One marketing sector expert, who the story says was involved in negotiating one of United’s previous shirt sponsorship deal, with Vodafone, marvelled at the sums involved in the Chevrolet deal.

“It’s incredible, unbelievable,” he said.