Brighton’s record £100m Amex deal will transform club – for men and women

Not a player but a 12-year sponsorship deal with long-time partners American Express which catapults them up the Premier League table in commercial terms.

Neither the club nor Amex have commented on its value, but an industry insider believes it to be in excess of £100 million ($125 million), making it one of the largest sponsorships in the league outside of the top six clubs.

It also represents a staggering 20-fold increase on the existing 10-year arrangement with the financial services firm and secures one of the longest-running sponsorship partnerships in UK football.

The new contract with American Express, the largest private-sector employer in Brighton with around 3,000 staff based in the city, is also a huge boost for Brighton’s women and girls teams.

Chief executive Paul Barber said: “The great thing about it is it’s shirt, stadium, training ground, men, women, boys’ academy, girls’ academy.

Brighton women will receive a sizeable part of the investment Photo: Arfa Griffiths via via Getty Images

“The new building for women and girls at the training ground will be named after American Express as well. Also, for the first time ever, we are going to apportion some of the money to the women and girls. For the first time there is a bonus schedule for the women and girls, so it is a diverse, equal, inclusive partnership at every level.”

The deal has been 14 months in the making. A series of meetings in Brighton, London and the US culminated in the club’s top brass presenting their future plans to the American Express hierarchy, including CEO Stephen Squeri, at their New York headquarters.

Owner-chairman Tony Bloom, who has invested more than £300 million of his own money into the club, was joined by Barber and Peter Godfrey, the president of Amex’s global network services division, when the original deal was struck. He retired in 2010 and joined Brighton’s board of directors five months later.

Brighton and American Express first teamed up when the club were in League One at Withdean, a converted athletics stadium. In June 2010 the company was announced as naming rights holders for the Amex Stadium, which the Seagulls moved into in July 2011 after winning promotion to the Championship.

The 10-year deal at that stage, worth £5 million, was consolidated when American Express became shirt sponsors in 2013-14. They have also been a partner of Albion In The Community, the club’s charitable arm, and were unveiled in June 2014 as naming rights holders for the state-of-the-art training complex and academy at Lancing.

Work has started on a £15 million upgrade of the training complex. The improvements include a players’ spa, complete with sleep pods, cryotherapy and hyperbaric chambers, plus two more pitches.

Brighton recently announced a three-year extension to their kit partnership with Nike, which began in 2014. The US sportswear brand giants supply playing and training kit for the men’s and women’s senior and junior teams, together with academy sides for boys and girls.

If they can get it right this season under new head coach Graham Potter where it matters most — on the pitch — then the Seagulls really will be soaring in all departments.

Note: This was originally published on The Athletic and written by Andy Naylor