US stadium deal shows importance of sports branding

Crypto.com this month paid USD700mn in a 20-year deal for the naming rights to the main basketball arena in Los Angeles

The toponymy of sporting venues: A multinomial logistic regression analysis of football stadium names

Extant scholarship on football stadium names is almost exclusively restricted to discussing naming rights deals as expressions of toponymic commodification. Departing from this rather strict focus, this paper sets out to examine the patterns of stadium names from a quantitative perspective that is based on a dataset comprising football stadiums from around the world ( n=1485). Drawing on this empirical material, the paper conducts a multinomial logistic regression analysis focused on determining the factors that influence a stadium’s name as: (a) being neutral (names carrying generic, local and/or descriptive connotations); (b) being political (names celebrating ideological values, historical dates and/or political personalities); (c) representing sports figures (names commemorating sportspersons, either former players or club officials); and (d) representing sponsorship (corporate names). The model points out that variations in stadium names are accounted for mostly by the football continental confederation, but are also influenced by a stadium’s features such as capacity, year of construction and the status of being a shared venue or designated as the national stadium.

Toponymic commodification and the neoliberal city

After being practiced for nearly three decades in the city of São Paulo for privately-owned venues such as cinemas, theaters and, more recently, sports stadiums, the sale of naming rights is being applied to state-owned spaces: in April 2020, the Companhia do Metropolitano de São Paulo (Cia. do Metrô) announced a plan to grant to private exploitation the right to name its stations. This article analyzes this plan, its premises and expectations. It concludes that, while a series of conflicts related to the memory of the city and its spatial landmarks have been identified by recent studies on toponymic commodification and suggested by the city’s antecedents on this matter, such conflicts do not seem to be considered in the plan’s agenda.

Uncelebrated Sports Officials in the Middle East & Africa

<p>While research shows that investment in sports has started shifting from the North to South and West to East, it has been observed that the latter has been more active than the former as far as sports-related activity is concerned. This is especially the case with popular sports such as football where Middle East investments have been active from outright team purchases (e.g., Manchester City and Paris Saint Germain), stadium naming rights (Etihad Stadium and Emirates Stadium), sponsorships (FC Barcelona/Qatar Airways), and the prized hosting of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. In all these, however, the regions have had very limited, if any, impact in terms accredited officialdom. This study highlights this a potential area for research with implications for Sports Management in particular, and Business & Management more broadly.</p>

Uncelebrated Sports Officials in the Middle East & Africa

<p>While research shows that investment in sports has started shifting from the North to South and West to East, it has been observed that the latter has been more active than the former as far as sports-related activity is concerned. This is especially the case with popular sports such as football where Middle East investments have been active from outright team purchases (e.g., Manchester City and Paris Saint Germain), stadium naming rights (Etihad Stadium and Emirates Stadium), sponsorships (FC Barcelona/Qatar Airways), and the prized hosting of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. In all these, however, the regions have had very limited, if any, impact in terms accredited officialdom. This study highlights this a potential area for research with implications for Sports Management in particular, and Business & Management more broadly.</p>

A EXPLORAÇÃO ECONÔMICA DE BENS PÚBLICOS POR MEIO DA CESSÃO ONEROSA DE NAMING RIGHTS

O presente artigo analisa a possibilidade jurídica de exploração econômica de bens públicos mediante cessão onerosa do direito de denominação. Para tanto, a metodologia utilizada foi qualitativa e teórica, com emprego dos métodos indutivo e comparativo, uma vez que foram analisados casos concretos de cessão onerosa de naming rights de bens públicos, especialmente da experiência estrangeira. No primeiro tópico, analisa-se a forma de gerenciamento de bens públicos em um novo contexto da Administração Pública, considerando o princípio da eficiência e a funcionalidade dos bens públicos. Posteriormente, contextualiza-se a questão da comercialização dos naming rights para fins publicitários. No terceiro tópico, reflete-se acerca da viabilidade de utilização da cessão onerosa de naming rights como forma de exploração de bens públicos, observando a sua compatibilidade com as normas do direito brasileiro. Conclui-se, por fim, ser possível a aplicação dos naming rights como meio de exploração econômica de bens públicos no Brasil, em que pese a inexistência de autorização legislativa expressa para sua realização, desde que observados alguns limites e parâmetros.

Investigating sponsor decision-making: the role of schema theory, agency conflicts, and signaling theory in the persistence of naming rights agreements

PurposeNaming rights sponsorships of sport facilities are among the most highly visible marketing agreements in the world. However, factors that may lead one sponsorship to persist for decades, while others end after just a few years, have yet to be investigated. Thus, this study examines the decision-making of brand marketers by investigating the predictors of a sponsoring brand's decision to either continue or dissolve such agreements.Design/methodology/approachUtilizing a global data set of 219 naming rights agreements, an empirical approach is utilized to isolate whether a variety of factors increase or decrease the probability of sponsorship dissolution.FindingsResults indicate that agreements entered into with new, as of yet-unnamed facilities lead to a reduction in the probability of dissolution, with a high level of brand equity also reducing the probability of dissolution. Agency conflicts may also play a role, as the sponsoring firm being headquartered in the same metropolitan area as the facility also contributes to the persistence of such agreements.Originality/valueThese results are intended to assist both sides of what is ideally a long-term relationship in better understanding the factors that may either contribute to or inhibit longer-term partnerships.