Been there, done that, got the shirt.... Yep, this post is about Beckham as well...sorta...

At the end of last season there was an announcement by MLS that teams could sell shirt sponsorships on their jerseys as long as it was worth at least $500,000 per year.

Well, I'm guessing that the addition of Beckham to the roster had a lot to do with this but it looks like CitiBank are getting it's checkbook out.

A more likely blockbuster announcement from MLS is the jersey sponsorship for David Beckham's Los Angeles Galaxy. Two sources have confirmed that the bidding is down to Citibank and Herbalife (and, interestingly, not Beckham sponsor adidas). The Citibank offer to have its name across the front of Galaxy shirt, the sources said, is a monster: five years, $49 million. A decision is expected any day.

Now, first of all, this is only a rumor but Mark Zeigler is one of the better soccer writers in this country and I consider him pretty reliable.

Second, remember all those editorials on both sides of the Atlantic saying how crazy AEG and the Galaxy were to pay Beckham that much money? Well, I've already posted a more realistic look at how the deal is worked. And if that is even close to being accurate, then it looks to me like LA are getting Beckham for nothing. Citibank will pay his salary and the rest is all endorsements. What an incredible deal for LA and MLS.

Of course, LA would have probably only got about $1 million/year if Beckham hadn't joined the team.

...European soccer giant Manchester United, which signed a four-year contract
with AIG to put the U.S. insurance company's name on its shirts for about $25
million.

Wow! LA have a better paying shirt deal than ManU? What is happening to this world?

UPDATE: According to Ives Galarcep, the Citibank/LAG deal is for 10 years. Not sure which is correct (if either is) but gotta post this version as well.

Labels: Adidas, Citibank, David Beckham, Herbalife, LA Galaxy, Manchester United, MLS

  ¶ 3:21 PM