U-Berkeley California Signs 10-year, $86-million Sponsorship Deal With Under Armour

Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank (left) and University of
Berkeley Athletics Director Mike Williams

Like Stephen Curry and Buster Posey before, Cal has signed a lucrative sponsorship deal with the Under Armour athletic wear company.

The 10-year contract is worth approximately $86 million in cash and product, according to a university spokesman. The deal also features a $3 million signing bonus, $3.5 million in cash per year and an average annual product allowance of $4.76 million.

The new deal, which will go into effect on July 1, 2017, is a significant improvement from the Bears’ previous sponsorship contract with Nike. In its final year with Nike, Cal will receive $150,000 in cash and $2 million in product.

“UC Berkeley is one of the world’s top universities and a standard bearer for academic excellence and athletic achievement,” Kevin Plank, Under Armour’s founder and CEO, said in a news release. “It’s an honor to bring our mission for making athletes better to the Golden Bears.”

This is the first sponsorship pact in college athletics to feature a comprehensive, campus-wide relationship. In addition to supplying the Cal athletics gear, Under Armour will provide student internships, employment opportunities for Berkeley graduates, charitable partnerships and exclusive product discounts for campus departments.

“They’ve really proven to us that they understand Cal, they understand the campus and they understand our students,” athletic director Mike Williams said. “That’s just extraordinary.”

The contract with Cal furthers Under Armour’s efforts to work with a variety of schools. In January, it signed a sponsorship deal with Yale. The brand has worked with Northwestern athletes since 2013.

The deal also deepens Under Armour’s roots in the Bay Area. The headquarters for MyFitnessPal, a health and fitness system owned by the company, is in San Francisco. Curry and Posey are two of the most recognizable Under Armour-sponsored athletes. Now Cal will serve as Under Armour’s biggest athletic department contract on the West Coast.

“I want everyone to understand how important this is as we continue to turn the page on this next chapter for Under Armour,” Plank said. “I like our team, and we truly are just getting started.”

Over the next 14 months, Cal will work with Under Armour to redesign all team uniforms. The Bears will keep ownership of the roaring Bear logo, typeface and colors that Nike designed.

The Under Armour contract will reportedly put the Bears among the top 10 nationally in sponsorship deals, just behind elite athletic departments such as Ohio State’s and Kansas’. The deal is the largest of its kind in the Pac-12 — at least until UCLA signs its next sponsorship contract in the coming months.

The financial windfall from the deal could be crucial for Cal, which will join Utah as the only Under Armour schools in the Pac-12.

The Chronicle reported in February that the university was facing a projected budget deficit this year of $150 million. In a statement sent at the time to faculty, staff and students, Cal Chancellor Nicholas Dirks called for re-examining athletic department spending in an effort “to reduce administrative costs and other team expenses.”

Campus records show that the athletic department faced a $9 million deficit last year. Athletics brought in $9 million, but the $18 million annual fee needed to help pay for the Memorial Stadium renovation more than wiped that out.

The overall athletics deficit is in the $17 million to $20 million range, according to a source with knowledge of the budget who requested anonymity, lacking authority to speak publicly on the matter. A number of factors have made an immediate fix difficult, including a four-year UC system tuition freeze, minimal increases in state funding and the ballooning cost of doing business.

Cal’s Under Armour deal comes two days after former Bears quarterback Jared Goff, the possible No. 1 pick in the NFL draft, signed with Nike.