LONDON (Brand Republic) - The world鈥檚 richest football and most famous baseball team, Manchester United and the New York Yankees, are set this morning East Coast time to announce the biggest joint-marketing deal in the history of sport.
The news, which was broken in the Daily Mail newspaper, will create a sports cartel that will include the New Jersey Devils ice hockey team and the NBA鈥檚 New Jersey Nets alongside United and the Yankees.
News of the deal, which was leaked late last night, has sent United鈥檚 share price surging. This morning, it was up 20.25% to 233p from last night鈥檚 close of 213p.
The agreement will follow a similar deal the Yankees鈥 parent company, YankeeNets, penned with the NFL鈥檚 New York Giants. That marketing deal saw the two teams sell and promote each other鈥檚 merchandise.
According to sources close to the deal, 鈥淭his is not about United breaking into other sports. This is about two sporting icons coming together in a marketing alliance.鈥
The paper estimated that the deal could be worth a further £15m-£30m each year to United, which already has a turnover of £110m.
United sees the deal as a way of making the United brand name as familiar to Americans as it is to much of the rest of the world.