£100m Gunners Sponsorship

beer enigma

In a deal worth £100m over the next 15 years.............

Arsenal's new stadium will be called The Emirates Stadium as part of a £100 million deal with the airline over the next 15 years.

Chelsea's main kit sponsors, as expected, have agreed a bumper contract with the North London outfit, who are leaving Highbury for the new venue in Ashburton Grove.

In addition to the Dubai-based international airline acquiring the naming rights to The Gunners' new £357 million 60,000-seater stadium, Emirates will also sponsor the club's shirt from the 2006/07 season.


"The sheer size and scale of this deal is an amazing opportunity for Arsenal," managing director Keith Edelman told the club's official website.

"We are delighted to have Emirates as our partner and sponsor."

Chairman of Emirates HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum has stated the unique deal with Arsenal is a unique opportunity.

"This is an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to sponsor such a major new stadium and club, and represents a win-win partnership for both Emirates and Arsenal," said Sheikh Ahmed.

"Arsenal Football Club has proved itself as one of the world's best, with an outstanding record in the English Premiership including, of course, being the current Premiership champions, and also remaining unbeaten for the last 48 league matches."

therecklessone

Excuse the stupid question, but that means Chelsea need a new sponsor, right? Or will they stick with Emirates as well?

RuggieBear

therecklessone wrote:

Excuse the stupid question, but that means Chelsea need a new sponsor, right? Or will they stick with Emirates as well?

Yep! They'll need a new sponser alright...probably some russian brand trying to break into the English market....perhaps LADA!

Actually, find this naming of stadiums annoying....i mean i can't blame them due to the amount of money involved but to me Asrnal will be playing in Ashburton Grove from now on, not the Emirates stadium.

Do Bolton still play in the Reebok stadium or has that contract ended....?

therecklessone

Still the Reebok as far as I know.

midget lord

chelsea are parting company with emirates at the end of this season. I think their new sponsor is going to be the KGB investment co.

RuggieBear

Maybe i'm totally wrong but i thought these sponsership names weren't perminant. Maybe its different in Britain compared to Australia where stadiums change there name every couple of years (eg.Stadium Australia, the place which held the Olympics, is now known as Telstra Stadium)

midget lord

They arent. This is for 15 years.

It all started when candlestick park was renamed 3com park.

RuggieBear

midget lord wrote:

They arent. This is for 15 years.

It all started when candlestick park was renamed 3com park.

I'd totally forgotten about all the american stadiums.....can u imagine if they tried to rename Yankee stadium or Fenway Park....

Big Nelly

RuggieBear wrote:

Yep! They'll need a new sponser alright...probably some russian brand trying to break into the English market....perhaps LADA!

Actually, find this naming of stadiums annoying....i mean i can't blame them due to the amount of money involved but to me Asrnal will be playing in Ashburton Grove from now on, not the Emirates stadium.

Do Bolton still play in the Reebok stadium or has that contract ended....?

Still named Reebok and dont forget Wigan in the JJB Stadium

Chelsea fell out with Emirates after a few months into there contract Sep 11 happened and Emirates wanted to reduce the money they payed them because of the probs wit no people flying! Chelsea told them they had to stand by the contract!

Pacifico

therecklessone wrote:

Excuse the stupid question, but that means Chelsea need a new sponsor, right? Or will they stick with Emirates as well?

Yes, their new sponsor is Orange. Dont know if it starts next year or not....

SteM

£100 mil is a lot to turn down when you're investing as much as Arsenal are in Ashburton Grove, but I hate the way clubs are just giving up any sense of tradition by naming their grounds for sponsorship reasons.

leeroybrown

It is irritating the way Stadium names are increasingly becoming commercialised but that £100m (over 15 years) is probably offsets a requirement for higher ticket prices and less player expenditure, neither of which would have been popular with fans.

It's nice to see a team of Arsenal's quality moving towards a stadium big enough to cater for supporter demands.

jesus_thats_gre

Chelsea recently stated they wanted a more high profile sponsorship, i.e. something along the lines of Vodafone, Coca Cola, Microsoft, Nokia, Siemens.....

RuggieBear

jesus_thats_gre wrote:

Chelsea recently stated they wanted a more high profile sponsorship, i.e. something along the lines of Vodafone, Coca Cola, Microsoft, Nokia, Siemens.....

Who do micro$oft sponser? (if any?)

Pigman II

Sounds like money for nothing if you ask me.

I remember when Middlesbro moved into their new ground in 1996(?) it was official called 'Cellnet Stadium' or something such .... still didn't stop everyone calling it The Riverside from day1 tho.

As such I hope the same thing happens to Arsenal and people only refer to their new ground as 'Ashburton Grove' or whatever.

Now anyone interested in buying the rights to Dalymount Park? A cool 200million o.n.o. 'Welcome to The Microsoft Galaxybowl, Phibsborough' .... ah I can see it now!

Guy:Incognito

Pigman II wrote:

Now anyone interested in buying the rights to Dalymount Park? A cool 200million o.n.o. 'Welcome to The Microsoft Galaxybowl, Phibsborough' .... ah I can see it now!

€20 is as close as they will get to €200m so i reckon we should throw a few quid into the ring and offer to pay for the sign, I can see it now The "Boards Northside Craphole Arena of Light"

Guy:Incognito

Actually, on the subject of stadia i think we should all head down to a builders providers after closing and steal some materials, then march to tallaght and finish the poxy rovers staduim,al la the ahmish(sp?)

therecklessone

Pigman II wrote:

Now anyone interested in buying the rights to Dalymount Park?

Abrakedabra? Champion Sports maybe?

Even though I am a Spurs fan I'm surprised to see a big club with such traditions as Arsenal cheapen themselves with a sponsored ground name...

I thought they were far too snobby for that.....I dont think the fans will be happy

kida

Deleted User wrote:

Even though I am a Spurs fan I'm surprised to see a big club with such traditions as Arsenal cheapen themselves with a sponsored ground name...

I thought they were far too snobby for that.....I dont think the fans will be happy

Was actually think of something similar myself - could you imagine the uproar in the media if Old Trafford was renamed Vodafone Stadium. Seems to be 1 rule for the darlings of the media and 1 for everone else. Watch the same Arsenal fans slag off Glazier trying to buy United.

midget lord

How can the fans not be happy? Their club has got a 100m investment, quite a bit of which may make its way into their transfer kitty. As someone already pointed out, the riverside was never called the cellnet, i cant see ashburton grove being routinely called emirates park/bowl etc.

Nemici

as a gooner i think it is terrible that it will be called emirates stadium, but in the end it will be up to the TV and radio commentators and the fans whether the name sticks, ashburton grove was fine but for 100m the board would probably have let it be called :

"Alex Ferguson is a better manager than Arsene Wenger Stadium"

The Rooster

It is sad, but I dont blame Arsenal for doing it. And I wouldnt blame Liverpool if they copied it, although I believe they plan to stay with tradition and keep the name "Anfield" for their new stadium.

The next step will be a team renaming itself for masses of sponsoship money, e.g. Arsenal probably could have another £200m if they called themselves "Arsenal Emirates".

eirebhoy

Am I the the only person that thinks £100m over 15 years isn't the best? In 10-15 years time clubs will most likely be getting a lot more than £6.66m per year.

I don't know how much kit deals and sponsership deals differ but Celtic recently agreed a minimum £5m per year deal (for 5 years) with Nike. That £5m per annum is the absolute minimum, it will increase depending on sales of Celtic branded goods and the success of the team on the pitch. Celtic's current deal with Umbro is just £11m over 5 years with no additional clauses. That just shows you how much Arsenal could be losing out on with such a long term deal. The fact that Arsenal are premiership champions, favourites for almost every competition they're in and changed their stadium name they should be getting a lot more than Celtic.

As I said, I don't know how much kit deals and sponsership deals differ but Celtic's sponsorship deal with Carling (£4m per year) is currently more than their kit deal with Umbro.

jesus_thats_gre

The 5m a year is because Nike will sell thousands of shirts and can be easily quantified.. Naming rights to a stadium cannot be..

Nemici

eirebhoy wrote:

Am I the the only person that thinks £100m over 15 years isn't the best? In 10-15 years time clubs will most likely be getting a lot more than £6.66m per year.

when you put it that way It doesnt really sounds like much, if a player was on 60 grand a week for the year then 3,120,000 of the 6.66 would be gone straight away. arsenal have approx 26 players in the squad, i wonder how many are on 60 grand a week ??

midget lord

This is the biggest sponsership deal in british football history, so id imagine its probably fine!!!

eirebhoy

midget lord wrote:

This is the biggest sponsership deal in british football history, so id imagine its probably fine!!!

It is the biggest in terms of total amount over the full term of the contract but certainly not annually. Man Utd get at least £9m per annum. 15 years is way to long and in 10 years time I wouldn't bet on them having one of the worst deals in the premiership. It could all go pear shaped for Arsenal and they'll be relegated and into administration, then it will turn out to be a good deal but can you see it happening?

leeroybrown

When I looked up the story of the sponsorship it was described as "at least £100m over 15 years". Does anyone have more specific details of what factors can influence the amount?

I will agree that it represents value for moeny for Emarites.

midget lord

eirebhoy wrote:

It is the biggest in terms of total amount over the full term of the contract

that is all.