Aon CEO Greg Case shakes hands with Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson after they unveiled the teams new uniform in Chicago. (AP)
The new Manchester United home jersey featuring the logo of Chicago-based Aon Corp. was revealed last night at an event at Chicago’s Niketown store on Michigan Avenue.
“The Manchester United shirt is an iconic image in the world of sport, and we are honored to appear on it,” said Greg Case, president and chief executive officer of Aon. “Starting today millions of people worldwide will begin to know yet another leading team: Aon.”
Manchester United stars Ryan Giggs, Gabriel Obertan, Wes Brown, John O’Shea and Dimitar Berbatov and manager Sir Alex Ferguson were on hand to present the jerseys that will be worn by the Manchester United Football Club for four years.
Case said that in honor of this historic occasion, every one of Aon’s 36,000 global colleagues will receive a Manchester United team shirt.
The Aon logo is featured on the front of the shirt. Inside the shirt on the back of the club crest is the mantra of Manchester United: “Believe.” The symbolic Red Devil rests on the sleeve of the shirt.
Nike said every shirt has been made from recycled polyester, created from up to eight plastic water bottles as part of its “Considered Design” program.
David Gill, Chief Executive Officer of Manchester United, said, “We’re delighted to be launching our latest Manchester United shirt and the first to bear the Aon logo. We’re incredibly proud of our association with Aon and look forward to achieving great things, both on and off the pitch, through our partnership with them.”
In Chicago, Aon will host a series of events today at Millennium Park to support children of the Chicago Park District and Special Olympics Chicago, as well as LifeSource Blood Center.
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- The lower half of the new Manchester United uniform.
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- Ryan Giggs models the new jersey. (AP)
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- Manchester United’s manager Alex Ferguson, right, is interviewed by the voice of Manchester United Alan Keegan in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
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As in “It’s been AONs since Berbatov had a sniff of a goal!”
WOW… they look terrible!
It’s better than the big “AIG” that was on the jerseys before!
That’s always been one thing that’s bothered me about soccer. It feels like your cheering for a bunch of corporate tools. At least with US team sports, it’s the team logo that’s the main feature, even if there are smaller forms of advertising on the uniforms (i.e., Nike swoosh). It was pathetic that while we were bailing out AIG, the most famous soccer team on the planet was running around with AIG on their jerseys. Of course most Americans are clueless about international soccer, so very few people were aware of the AIG/ManU connection.
@Mark
It’s not just soccer; it’s a global thing with sponsor logos. Basketball, hockey, cricket . . . you name it.
I wonder if Europeans laugh at our team names. While a lot of football clubs do have nicknames (ManU being the Red Devils, for instance), they don’t have to deal with the Wild, Heat, Mighty Ducks, etc. Their team crests are vastly more dignified than what’s on a lot of our jerseys, too.
I like my BAYERN MUNICH jersey much better….:)
I’m a bigger fan of Barcelona’s jersey. It didn’t have a name on the front until a few years ago and even then, it is more of a promotion and support of Unicef, to which Barca donates money rather than receives.
http://waittilnextcentury.blogspot.com
i like man united
@Mark
You’re actually onto something more than you know, and this story is kind of weak for not mentioning it.
When the ARRA/bailout was announced in the Fall of 2008, and Congress said that AIG would no longer be able to sponsor Manchester United (made sense that if they accepted $millions of tax dollars, we can’t be subsidizing sports teams especially not English ones, right?). Well, I’m not sure if that requirement was thrown away like so many other facets of ARRA, or if this was the result of the forceibly-tossed deal with AIG, or if the old contract simply expired entirely, but I think the story should have mentioned the ARRA/AIG bailout (again, only because Man-United’s relationship w/ their former sponsor was specificaly targetted.)
Not to mention the fact that this is called a business article and we don’t even see how much the deal was worth. AIG’s was $100 million w/ Man U when they made their deal in 2006. That probably would have been worth a mention.
Nothing is better than the black & white stripes of Newcastle United. Go Toon -
YNWA!!
Newcastle would be a much better fit for Chicago because of the Cubs; both teams are perennial losers.
I like how the photo calls those players “stars.” Giggs is 87 years old; no Rooney (crying his World Cup away), Ferdinand, Evra, Park,
Wow! I’m impressed! Their logo on a shirt. That’s all it takes for me. Man,I’m going to go right out and buy some Ion. Oh, wait, what the heck is Ion?
I meant Aon. But what the heck is Aon?
Actually, I don’t care, ’cause whatever it is, I’m gonna go buy some. “Cause, heck, it’s ON A SHIRT!!!!!!!
Well, almost any corporate logo would improve ManUre shirts. Of course, if you go far enough back, you’ll see that Liverpool are to blame for starting the whole shirt advertising craze with Hitachi back in the late 1970s.
Give me a Chicago Fire shirt any day. Walking around with a small rendition of the shirt manufacturer’s logo is quite enough advertising for me. I have limits to my willingness to be used as a billboard.
Being a former AON employee, here’ the scoope:
AIG is one of Aon’s big clients, as a favour Aon bailed out AIG for the sponsorship gig with Manu, henece Aon’s logo on thier shirts.
This was noted last year as the biggist sports sponsorship contract in the world at $120US for 4 years of having the AON brand name on the Manu jersey.
I can’t speak for all Aon employees, but coincidentally there were no raises last year in fact we got a 4% pay cut, and some like me got the boot with the excuse that the US economy wasn’t doing too good. What a bunch of BS, Aon was doing just fine and still are.
Being a former AON employee, here’ the scoope:
AIG is one of Aon’s big clients, as a favour Aon bailed out AIG for the sponsorship gig with Manu, henece Aon’s logo on thier shirts.
This was noted last year as the biggist sports sponsorship contract in the world at $120US ‘MILLION’ for 4 years of having the AON brand name on the Manu jersey.
I can’t speak for all Aon employees, but coincidentally there were no raises last year in fact we got a 4% pay cut, and some like me got the boot with the excuse that the US economy wasn’t doing too good. What a bunch of BS, Aon was doing just fine and still are.
The AIG contract ended. They had no obligation what-so-ever to renew the sponsorship. Also if you understood the industry you would know that Aon does not need to suck up to AIG, they just give them bids on insurance policies.
Aon in no way bailed out AIG
the shirts look terrible. I’m glad ManU got another strong sponsor. I like the company logos on the shirts and not having any commercials during a football match and a 15minute half time. American football has commercials every other minute so people shouldn’t complain about adverts on shirts when American sports are completely bought out by fast food companies and beer brewers. I agree Aon isn’t a the best company with being caught making bribes in the UK and payoffs in the US, but it’s been around for around 90 years and played the capitalist game very well. They had 80£ million to invest in the team, and still provide insurance to companies globally. I’m happy about the sponsership but saddened by the ugly design from the 80’s