* Adidas has offered upwards of 60 mln pounds a season -source
* Adidas's 10-year deal will replace Nike from 2015
* Man Utd's commercial appeal has survived a poor season
* Its sponsorship deals are priced about twice rivals'
By Keith Weir
LONDON, July 11 (Reuters) - A wretched season and exile from European soccer's top club competition have done nothing to dim Manchester United's commercial appeal, with the team set to sign a sportswear deal with Adidas worth twice what rivals have been earning.
That partnership and a shirt sponsorship with car brand Chevrolet, which also set a new benchmark for the sport, will help to underwrite the rebuilding of the team under new manager Louis van Gaal.
Negotiations for a new kit supply deal were a test of United's marketing muscle after a season in which the team won nothing and finished too low in the Premier League even to qualify for the lucrative European Champions League.
The normally bullish Nike pulled out of contract renewal talks, saying that the price had gone too high and signalling an end to a partnership dating back to 2002.
A source with knowledge of the negotiations said rival Adidas had offered upwards of 60 million pounds ($102 million) a season for a 10-year deal that will see it replace Nike from 2015.
The current Nike deal was worth 38 million pounds to United in 2012-13, including a share of the earnings from the sale of shirts and other merchandise to fans around the world.
United, majority owned by the American Glazer family and listed on the New York Stock Exchange, are determined to ensure that last season was a one-off failure and have replaced manager David Moyes after a short and unhappy tenure.
"Brands are about the history and the promise that will continue into the future," said Peter Walshe, a global account director with marketing company Millward Brown.
"There is a lot of excitement about the future after the disastrous handover to Moyes," he added. "It shows the United brand is bigger than one decision or individual."
GLOBAL FAN BASE
English champions a record 20 times, United have built up a huge global following over the decades thanks to players like George Best, Eric Cantona and David Beckham.
Just before their stock market flotation in 2012, United produced a survey showing they had 659 million global followers - not far short of one in 10 of the population.
That appeal helped persuade General Motors to put its Chevrolet brand on the team's red shirts in a deal worth $559 million that will run until 2021. As with the sportswear sponsorship, that was double the going rate for most major European teams.