Article published in:
AILA Review
Vol. 34:2 (2021) ► pp. 212–239

Naming rights sponsorship in Europe

Fan reactions to stadium renamings in the Premier League, Bundesliga and Ligue 1

| Saarland University
| University of Gothenburg

Football stadiums have traditionally been named after local sites (e.g. Goodison Park, Everton FC) or regions (Ruhrstadion, VfL Bochum). As big business takes increasing precedence in decision making in football at large (e.g. associations and leagues, regarding fixtures, media coverage, kick-off times, player transfers, etc.) and within individual football clubs (e.g. regarding kits and sponsorship), such toponyms are more and more being replaced by company or product names (e.g. bet365 Stadium, Stoke City). In this paper, we will consider corporate renamings from the German Bundesliga, the English Premier League and the French Ligue 1 and particularly fan reactions to controversial, badly received corporate renamings. As revealed by earlier studies, in our data here we also find the discourse and practices of the fans celebrating local identification with their city or region, often with the stadiums constituting the homestead of a tradition. Where corporate stadium renamings are badly received, this discourse clashes with the discourse of big business and thus a number of tensions are revealed. More specifically, in fans’ reactions to controversial corporate stadium renamings, we find a number of recurrent themes – for example, concerning consequences to fans’ identity to the club; in managing (anticipated) humorous retorts from rivals consequent from the stadium renaming; in resisting, but also feeling resigned to, financial pressures in selling the stadium name; etc. – some of them across our three national contexts and others specific to one national context.

Keywords: renaming, name, stadiums, football, fan reactions
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Research on stadium renamings
  • 3.Methodology
  • 4.Overview of stadium renamings in Germany, England, and France
    • 4.1The situation in Germany
    • 4.2The situation in England
    • 4.3The situation in France
  • 5.Trends in fan protests to stadium renamings
    • 5.1Linguistic considerations by fans
      • 5.1.1Irrelevance of official denominations in everyday speech
      • 5.1.2Inappropriateness of referent
      • 5.1.3Inappropriateness of name and exploitation of this for humorous purposes
    • 5.2Stadium names as part of regional identity
      • 5.2.1Club owners perceived as outsiders
    • 5.3Economic considerations by fans
      • 5.3.1Resistance to financial considerations in selling the stadium name
      • 5.3.2Resignation and acceptance of financial pressures
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 31 January 2022
https://doi.org/10.1075/aila.21005.ger
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