Adidas Renews All Blacks Deal Until 2019
adidas has renewed its long-running global sponsorship deal with the New Zealand international rugby union team for another ten years in what is thought to be the largest such contract in the sport’s history.
With the existing deal set to expire in 2011, the sports apparel manufacturer has moved early to continue its association and will retain its link with the All Blacks through to 2019.
adidas and the New Zealand Rugby Union agreed at the Beijing Olympics to begin negotiations about an extension and reached agreement faster than expected.
The value of the deal has not been revealed but NZRU chief executive Steve Tew said he would be surprised if it was not the biggest sponsorship package in world rugby.
‘There has been an uplift in the value,’ he said and then revealed that the deal was structured to deliver more cash between 2012 and 2016 with another jump again in the final three years.
The real value in signing the deal is that the NZRU now have certainty of income for the next 11 years. Having fixed the value of their foreign exchange in recent months, they even know the precise value in New Zealand dollar terms of the adidas contract through to the World Cup in 2011.
The new deal is paid in US dollars and, in previous years, the NZRU has not been able to value it due to fluctuations in the currency markets.
Replica sales of rugby jerseys are strong in Europe but adidas are looking to grow their presence in Asia. In their presentation to reveal the extension of the deal, they threw forward a scenario of the All Blacks one day playing at the Olympic Stadium in Beijing.
