Hopefully you have all worked out by now that Ann Summers will not be the new naming parter of the Olympic Stadium and it was our poor attempt at an April Fools joke.
Sorry but in reality no naming rights partner will be revealed in the near future. When Claret and Hugh spoke to the London Legacy Development Corporation press office earlier this week on whether there were any time scales to make an announcement on the OS naming rights parter we given a flat “Not at the moment!”
The announcement of a naming rights partner was expected to unveiled after the Rugby World Cup but we have been left in limbo with four months until West Ham’s first match kicks off at the unnamed stadium. When a company is finally announced it is likely to be a blue chip company with a global brand.
Pure speculation but a mobile phone company or an airline would be the most obvious contenders for a sponsorship deal for the former Olympic Stadium.
Mobile operator EE already sponsor Wembley stadium in a deal worth £25m over six years and O2 are long time sponsors of the Millennium dome for a reported £6m per year. BT have recently taken over EE while O2 and Three are looking to merge which makes them unlikely naming partners.
That would leave the global giant, Vodafone as the most obvious mobile operator to bid for the OS naming rights. Vodafone has already completed a sponsorship in Turkey to name Beşiktaş’s new stadium is named the Vodafone arena.
The other likely candidates is a global airline. Emirates are the naming rights partner of Arsenal as part of an overall deal worth £150m over five years. Manchester City have a £400m deal over 10 years with Airline Etihad for the stadium naming rights, shirt sponsorship.
When you consider the connection with the previous London 2012 Olympic’s a great fit might be British Airways or Virgin Atlantic. Pure speculation at this stage but I wouldn’t be surprised to find the Virgin Atlantic, British Airways or Vodafone stadium when the news is finally unveiled.
It’s a shame Olympic Airlines went out of business, as that would have been ideal…
Coming soon ? Watch this space !!! Duracell have a chance ?
I was told The Thai Tourist Board were going to bid & get the naming rights & wanted to call it The Phuket Arena 😉
DOOOOH I fell right for it lol nearly had a heart attack with the Ann summers thing
Now this would of been fantastic, The Virgin Arena with an Ann Summers shop inside. Could not make it up! Oh I just did! 🙂
I think as its a new stadium for us The Virgin Stadium sounds ok LOL
The San Miguel Coliseum
The Amstel Arena
Only joking
The National Lotery Stadium totally English home to the winners of the best ever bidding war in London
What ever we call it some mugs from south London will get up a group to ask for full disclosure of how it was chosen
The San Miguel Coliseum,haha bubs.You would move in to it if it was called that.
The Virgin Anne Summers Arena sounds good
Anything to do with beer is ok by me.
I wish it could be left as ‘The Olympic Stadium’ without corporate associations. A company claiming naming rights is temporary and doesn’t give a sense of place or history. At the very least it should be called ‘The *corporate name* Olympic Stadium’ so that it can comfortably revert back when there are no advertisers. How can such a significant place be known as anything else?