The City of Manchester Stadium is now Etihad Stadium as a result of a
sponsorship deal worth up to £400 million ($642.4 million) -- a new world record for this kind of sports sponsorship -- between Sheikh Mansour's Man City and Etihad Airways. Man City chief executive Garry Cook is calling it, "one of the most important arrangements in the history of world football." Conveniently, it will also go a long way in helping big-spending Man City work toward breaking even to adhere to UEFA's new financial fair play rules.
The Guardian puts this number in perspective:
The 10-year agreement, which means City's ground is renamed the Etihad Stadium, will be worth more than twice the previous record, JP Morgan Chase's $300m (£187m) [partnership over 10 years with] Madison Square Garden, while simultaneously demonstrating the growing disparity between the top clubs in English football.
To put it into context, the deal Arsenal struck with Emirates in 2004 was valued at £90m [$144.5m] over 15 years. Around £48m of that came via shirt sponsorship, with the naming rights worth only £2.8m a year. Chelsea and Tottenham have both scoured the market for a deal in the region of £10-15m [$16.1-24.1m] a year but found no serious interest. Newcastle have also been unable to find a sponsor since the club's owner, Mike Ashley, tested the waters with a short-term arrangement in the 2009-10 season that resulted in their ground taking the name of his sportswear business as the sportsdirect.com@St James' Park Stadium.
