London Stadium could soon be renamed. Photo: PA/Mike Egerton
Insurance giant Allianz is close to a long-term deal in a pending naming rights deal with the owner of London's West Ham stadium and the 560-acre park that hosted the 2012 Olympics.
In-depth negotiations are currently underway between the London Legacy Development Corporation and the German company, which is currently in pole position ahead of ticketing company Stage Front.
Under West Ham's concession agreement, the sponsorship deal at the stadium alone will have to exceed £4 million before the club receives a share of the income. Anything above this figure will be split 50-50 between the LLDC and the club.
The search for a potential naming rights partner has been ongoing for more than a decade and has at times cast doubt on the relationship between West Ham, who lease the stadium in lease for 99 years and the club's lessor.
It is reported that around £40m was lost in potential income without a sponsor, and last year Baroness Brady, the club's vice-chairman, said the club was prepared to act as an agent as she called for a “new approach” to how looks like a stadium.
Allianz, however, is now moving closer to a deal that is secured directly from LLDC. Sources said the company was impressed by the variety of events held this summer and offered encouraging views on the owner's vision for the coming years.
As first reported by industry website SportBusiness, the deal proposed by Allianz appears to be a good deal as Stage Front is not interested in sponsoring the wider Olympic Park.
Allianz is one of the world's best-known stadium sponsors and also has long-term deals with Bayern Munich, Juventus, Nice and Minnesota United .
SportBusiness reports that the company's sudden appetite for significant sponsorship assets in the UK is likely linked to the appointment of Serge Raffard as managing director of the UK division's personal lines division in June this year, whose operations were restructured following the acquisition of LV Insurance Group and Legal. and General in 2020.
The deal will help offset the costs associated with converting parts of the stadium to ensure the stadium meets UEFA requirements for all seats that will be closed. An independent review published by accounting firm Moore Global in 2017 found that the total cost of the stadium refurbishment was £323 million, exceeding the estimated budget for the transformation by £133 million.
In recent years, London Mayor Sadiq Khan offered to help end the search for a sponsor, and the saga became a regular topic of discussion at City Hall hearings.
Besides West Ham, there was Major League Baseball. at the London Stadium in recent years, while the commercial appeal of the Olympic Park as a whole has increased significantly with the likes of Sadler's Wells, the BBC and the V&A announcing new sites in Stratford.
In the past Lyn Garner, LLDC chief executive, said naming rights were worth £4 million a year, but suggested more could be made if sponsorship or a deal involving naming other sites in the Olympic Park could be secured.
“If West Ham want to pay me £4 million a year for the right to sell the naming rights, then we can talk,” Garner told a town hall meeting. “What I can't do, however, is sell the naming rights on the cheap.”
However, Baroness Brady suggested that the naming rights were only worth £2 million a year.
LLDC declined to comment, but Telegraph Sport confirmed the story from other sources.
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