BERLIN: Bundesliga heavyweights Borussia Dortmund are keen on negotiating a renewed deal from 2022 with its official kit suppliers Puma which is valued in the range of €20-30 million per season, marking a 2-3 times rise from its present arrangement of €10 million, Forbes reports.
Dortmund and Puma go a long way back, beginning their association in 2012. However, the club feels that now the deal is pale in comparison to its arch-rivals Bayern Munich, which is into the fourth year of its mega 15-year deal with Puma’s rivals, adidas worth €900 million.
Munich and Dortmund both have their shirt sponsors as strategic partners too with adidas owning 8.3% of shares in the champion club, while Puma owns 5% of the latter’s shares. Puma CEO Björn Gulden is a part of the Dortmund’s BOD, making a long-term, 10-year deal a sensible and agreeable option.
German magazine kicker reported on Monday that that Dortmund’s marketing value stems from the fact that it sells around 500,000 to 700,000 shirts every year.
Dortmund has been ranked in the top 11 of UEFA’s latest five-year-co-efficient rankings and 12th in the Deloitte Money League with annual revenue of €317.2 million. However, Deloitte did not consider the money earned through transfers, creating a big gap between the financial audit of the club and the actual turnover of €536 million as announced by them in August 2018.
A large chunk of that revenue was generated by selling top players such as Ousmane Dembélé to FC Barcelona and Pierre Emerick Aubameyang to Arsenal. However, lesser dependency on generating income through player sales in the long-term should help in Dortmund’s growth as a brand.
This couldn’t be highlighted better from the fact that it generated €15.4 million (5%) less than the previous year. There was a €10.4 million reduction in commercial revenue and lower merchandise sales after failures in domestic and UEFA competitions.
On the other hand, Puma’s profile grew bigger last week as it signed a 650 million pounds, 10-year deal with City Football Group’s portfolio of seven clubs. This has made Dortmund more confident of negotiating with the apparel giant before their deal is up for renewal in 2022.
