Olympic Stadium Naming rights delayed
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.