Stadium to be renamed?Updated: December 20th, 2006
There’s a strong rumour doing the rounds that the naming rights to CoMS have been sold.
According to MCFC Supporters Trust “two separate reliable sources” have revealed that the naming rights to the stadium “had been sold for £3m a year to an old sponsor with the contract signed recently.”
One possibility is Eidos, whose co-founder Ian Livingstone is known to be an avid City fan. Livingstone is now product acquisition director at Eidos, and according to the McVittee newsletter was the person behind the 1999 shirt sponsorship deal.
The £3m a year price-tag does sound a bit high, though. The ten-year sponsorship deal for Leicester City’s Walkers Stadium was only worth a “seven figure sum” and according to this table at ESPN, naming rights for US stadiums typically go for much less than £3m a year.
It’s also unclear whether any sponsorship money would go to the club or Manchester City Council, or for how long the deal is supposed to be for.
Admittedly this is still only a rumour, and like the “Tuesday press conference” could yet turn out to be another non-event.
Playing the name game
There’s been no shortage of suggestions for what CoMS could be called, should the rumours of a sponsorship deal be correct.
Mancityfans poster Robbo hopes it will be called the Eidos Stadium, but only so he can implant himself in the Lara Croft Upper Tier. Dannyd_mcfc thinks a one word name like Murrayfield would work, and helpfully suggests Hoofitupfield.
Another poster points out that the ESPN table I linked to yesterday shows NFL stadium deals that are worth more than £3m a year. My view is that the US market is far bigger than ours, and the absence of shirt advertising over there makes stadium branding more sought after.
Bearing in mind that Arsenal’s stadium sponsorship is worth less than their shirt deal, £3m would be a great deal for us.
Few fans seem bothered about a name change, just as long as a new name is reasonably dignified. For me, the stadium has already gone through three name changes - from “Main- er…Eastlands” in the first season to City of Manchester Stadium to CoMS - so anything that settles the name and brings in cash would be welcomed.
Hopefully, Man United will sell their stadium name soon. The day that Old Trafford is renamed the Kentucky Fried Chicken Bowl will be a happy one indeed.
Anyway, that’s all I’ll be writing about the sponsorship deal rumour until it’s either officially confirmed or denied.