São Paulo – Football club Manchester City and airline Etihad Airways announced on Friday (8) an extension of the sponsorship contract the company from the United Arab Emirates has with the English team. Starting now, the team stadium, City of Manchester Stadium, will be called Etihad Stadium. The value of the deal was not announced. The agreement will be extended for the coming ten years.
Apart from the renaming of the stadium, other actions are forecasted. The team’s sports centre, an entertainment area and the stadium are part of the complex of installations that are now named Etihad Campus. The airline should include scenes from the team’s matches and Manchester City films on the onboard entertainment system. An Etihad aircraft painted in the Manchester City colour (light blue) will fly between Manchester and Abu Dhabi to celebrate the deal.
The sponsorship on the team shirt will continue, as the airline is evaluating that its brand exhibition rose in the 2010-2011 season. Manchester City and Etihad hope for the stadium to receive two million spectators in the 2011-2012 season. The team belongs to Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, of the royal family of Abu Dhabi. Etihad is the emirate’s state-owned airline.
Manchester City CEO Garry Cook said he is “delighted” with the partnership extension. “Most importantly, in addition to delivering significant revenue at a key stage in the Club’s evolution, the agreement creates exciting opportunities for our two organisations to cooperate more deeply commercially and on media and [Manchester City] community initiatives in the future”, said Cook, according to the team’s site.
To Etihad CEO James Hogan, in turn, the airline has a new “sports sponsorship paradigm”. “It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for two iconic brands that share the same vision to promote far-reaching global awareness and business growth,” said Hogan, according to the company site.
*Translated by Mark Ament
