Spanish giants Barcelona have struck a new sponsorship deal with Spotify. This is a rather complicated deal than usual as the average football fan won't see his club selling it's stadium title rights. This would see Barcelona's home stadium to be renamed to something to the liking of Spotify all the while keeping the base name "Camp Nou". Let us have an overview of this new sponsorship deal and share some thoughts on whether it's a good thing or a bad thing.
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In the deal with Rakuten, Barca would get 55 million euros on the main shirt sponsorship. From Stanley Barca receives 3.5 million euros in women's shirts sponsorships. Barca has received 10 million euros from Beko for sleeves and training kits. As a whole, Barca would earn 68.5 million euros in these four sectors combined. Which a pretty good deal but when you take into account, how big a club Barcelona is, and their out of sorts wage structure, this money doesn't help an awful lot. But in the current deal with Spotify, Barca would receive the following estimates.
The main team's shirt, the women's team's shirts, training kits, Camp Nou title rights combined, Barcelona will get somewhere in the neighborhood of 280 million euros (93.3 million per year). In a word, this deal is positive for both parties, and a huge deal for Barcelona. There may be a question among the fans that the amount could and should have been more for the title rights of the stadium. But actually it's not the case. Spotify will get the rights for only 3 years. The name Camp Nou can't be omitted, Spotify will just be allowed to add something. And for that, many big clubs (with naming rights) are benefiting from the economic side, even in the long run. On the other hand, Barca has made a deal for only 3 years, even with just the title rights. After the Spotify Barca project, Barca will get bigger and unimaginable deals in these sectors. If we divide the 280 millions into the sectors mentioned above, let's say Barcelona might get 60 million on the men's team shirts, 4.5 million on the women's team shirts, training kits sponsorships will go for around 8.5 million. That is almost 73 millions. The rest of the 20 million is allotted for the title rights. This is not that less actually. Comparing with the clubs that have sold their naming rights on long term deals, City's deal includes 10 years of 472 million euro in shirt sponsorship and stadium naming rights (18.6 million euros). Of all clubs that have sold their stadium naming rights only Atletico Madrid have a short term deal.
In the midst of so many words, I forgot to talk about the sleeve sponsorships. Polkadot wants to give Barca a huge amount for the sleeves. If the sleeve deal closes, Barca will earn just 115+ million euros a year from these few sectors. In other words the Barca-Spotify is going to be one of the best sponsorship deals in football. Spotify's global image will work for Barca and spread Barca's name among the younger generation.
Barca has officially closed an agreement with Spotify for €280M for 3 seasons (€ 93.3M per season). The deal includes being the main sponsor of the men's and women's shirts, the training shirt and the 'title rights' of the Camp Nou.