Chelsea to sell naming rights
CHELSEA last night took the shock step of putting the naming rights for their current stadium, Stamford Bridge, up for sale.
The move comes just days after Newcastle’s home of 117 years was re-branded sportsdirect.com@St James’ Park, to widespread derision.
Chelsea are owned by Roman Abramovich, one of the world’s richest men with an estimated fortune of £7.8bn, although he has sought to make the club self-sufficient having pumped in more than £500m.
Blues chief executive Ron Gourlay, speaking for the first time since succeeding Peter Kenyon this week, said a renaming would, like Newcastle, retain the ground’s existing identity.
“Retaining the heritage of the stadium is paramount to considering such a move but we think that is achievable and on that basis we would enter into discussions over naming rights with the right partner for Chelsea,” he said.
“We understand this is a sensitive issue for fans and that is why we would keep the name Stamford Bridge in any deal.
“What we’re not prepared to happen – and I’m sure our fans will appreciate this – is allow our rival clubs to gain a competitive advantage over us in terms of the revenue they can generate through either expanding the capacity of their existing stadia or moving to a new stadium.”
Newcastle are the most high-profile club to have re-branded their existing ground, but others have sold naming rights to new stadia.
The airline Emirates paid £100m for a 15-year deal with Arsenal that also included an eight-year kit sponsorship. It is estimated Chelsea could earn £8m a year from re-naming Stamford Bridge.
Gourlay’s admission comes just days before Chelsea host champions Manchester United in a top-of-the-table Premier League clash. Striker Wayne Rooney is set to return to the United starting line-up following the birth of his son Kai.