United obtain new Sponsor deal while City risks loan
The increasing diversity between the Top 4 Clubs and the rest of the EPL can be easily seen in the City of Manchester.
Manchester United just procured a new lucrative deal with one of the largest cellular companies in the Middle East, Saudi Telecom. The deal was worth approximately €10 million over 5 years. It allows Saudi Telecom to utilize the United logo in marketing for Saudi Arabia. Mobile devices will also have the option of streaming live news, highlights, and goals. This deal is about as great as it gets for a club team: United gets paid money, lots of money, to advertise for Manchester United. What a great way to obtain new fans in locations which are not exposed to the EPL. United also signed a strong 13 year deal in 2000 with Nike worth €300 million, and a 4 year €56 million deal with AIG signed in 2006.
Manchester City on the other hand, just borrowed around €30 million in future TV contract revenues. Why? City owner Thaksin Shinawatra, a Thai billionaire, is now seeking asylum in the UK (see related articles on this site). City thought that they would have about €800 million in available revenues from Thaksin but all his assets have been frozen. City managers have seen the recent string of defeats for City (UEFA Cup loss against FC Midtjylland) and decided that they needed to beef up their team.
What is interesting is that the every year each EPL team receives €45 million from the 3 year Premier League deal with TV networks (the 3 years deal started in 2007/2008 season and was worth €2.7 billion for the entire Premier League). The club may have even borrowed up to €2 million from a former City chairman (John Wardle).
EPL club teams aren’t the only ones changing how their finances are working. Sky, the corporation which has a monopoly over Premier League TV subscriptions in the UK, has increased its costs for annual subscriptions to €15,000 resulting in over 20% of pubs dropping their memberships.
With about 2 weeks left in the transfer season the amount of money spent on players seems to be much lower than last year. Last year about €570 million was spent on players; as of now €300 million has been spent. This could be caused by the consistent increase in player salaries: during the 2004/2005 season clubs spent a total of €785 million, to €1 billion during the 2007/2008 season. Reportedly, near 75% of EPL teams are establishing benchmarks for some members of first string teams to make sure they play up to standards.
the diversity is more apparent than ever, its like the difference between the rich and poor in the US thanks to G Bush… adebayor is one of arsenals strongest players now, and ive always thought that hes been kind of scrappy and rustic in his playing style, kind of like drogba before he became more refined