Citeh Rename Stadium

[James 5,199]

Manchester City have confirmed the City of Manchester Stadium will be renamed the Etihad Stadium after signing a 10-year deal with the airline.

The Abu Dhabi-based company is already the club's shirt sponsor.

"We are delighted to be expanding our relationship with Etihad Airways through this partnership agreement," said City chief executive Garry Cook.

City, who won the FA Cup in May, were taken over by a consortium from Abu Dhabi in 2008.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/14080388.stm

[SarahCFC 1]

Hope this won't be happening to us.

How do you even pronounce etiad anway LOL

[Wilson 358]

It's better than Eastlands lol.

[Corlett 202]

Easy way around FFP if you ask me...

City sell stadium name for record £150m

Manchester City will today announce the richest stadium naming rights deal in English football history - worth £150million.

City have struck the extraordinary deal with their shirt sponsors Etihad, to rename the City of Manchester Stadium the Etihad Airways stadium from next season.

Etihad, the Abu Dhabi-based airline which already pays £2.3million a year to have its name emblazoned on City's shirts, have signed up for the naming rights for 15 years.

The deal is understood to be worth around £10m a year and is a significant step towards City complying with UEFA's imminent introduction of financial fair play rules.

City owner Sheikh Mansour has spent £1billion since buying the club in September 2008 and the club's exorbitant wage bill, combined with their huge outlay on transfers, made precarious their potential to comply with UEFA's new rulings.

As such, the City hierarchy have been working on ways to increase the club's revenue to meet the strict new regulations laid down by European football's governing body or face the prospect of being exiled from the Champions League.

City's last published accounts show it lost £121.3m, a 31 per cent increase on the previous year, with wages like the £200,000-a-week paid to stars like Carlos Tevez and Yaya Toure a major factor in the rise, as well as their transfer market spending.

Under UEFA's new financial fair play rules, clubs must not spend more money than they earn. More specifically, they must not spend more money on wages and other expenses than they earn in ticket, media and commercial income in any one of the monitoring periods laid down by UEFA.

The lucrative naming rights deal eclipses that of Arsanal, who signed a £100m agreement over 15 years with Emirates when in 2006 they moved from Highbury to their new state-of-the-art 60,000-seater stadium.

Although Arsanal's naming rights deal was also over 15 years, the figure of £100m also included an eight-year shirt sponsorship deal worth around £6m a year. City's stadium naming rights deal, it is understood, is wholly independent of Etihad's shirt sponsorship, making it by far the most expensive deal of its kind.

City moved to the Eastlands stadium from Maine Road in 2003 and have been paying Manchester City Council between £2m-3m a year since, with a £1billion planned redevelopment of the ground - expanding its capacity from 46,000 to 60,000 - already under way.

UEFA is certain to subject to close scrutiny City's latest agreement with Etihad, to ensure it meets its regulations and is not simply a cosy deal whereby wealthy club owners such as Sheikh Mansour can use existing sponsorship deals to inflate the balance sheets of their clubs to comply with financial fair play.

[Corlett 202]

Oh and Etihad is United in Arabic. United Stadium... Nice.

[Spike 12,049]

Oh and in Etihad is United in Arabic. United Stadium... Nice.

I laughed and than I laughed some more.:541:

They could change the name to anything but one thing will always remain; they are still wankers.

[TomCFC 356]

Selling their souls for a name which translates as "United". Nice.

[OReillyD36 311]

It means union not united. Isn't the owner of Etihad the brother of city's owner? or related in some form

[zolayes 14,489]

I laughed and than I laughed some more.:541:

They could change the name to anything but one thing will always remain; they are still wankers.

I'm NOT laughing at them . They pose an increasing threat especially in the long term . The PL will get more difficult to win than ever,and don't ignore Liverpool either.

Things are'nt looking too good for us.

[chrismada9 1,948]

Oh and in Etihad is United in Arabic. United Stadium... Nice.

:lol:

[ruggedknot 105]

I'm NOT laughing at them . They pose an increasing threat especially in the long term . The PL will get more difficult to win than ever,and don't ignore Liverpool either.

Things are'nt looking too good for us.

Every team vying for the title will be saying exactly that . Things may be looking nice and glossy as they find themselves as one of the contenders for the title but its open season as far as the title goes .

[BlueLion. 21,491]

We should rename the Bridge the Ryanair Arena for all the money we're not spending.

[zolayes 14,489]

We should rename the Bridge the Ryanair Arena for all the money we're not spending.

and Change COBHAM to BOGOF buy one get one free....our new youth policy

[Blue In Green 86]

We should rename the Bridge the Ryanair Arena for all the money we're not spending.

[Guest justin_3d]

Great piece of work done by City.

That money should help them boost the number for the FFP rule

Chelsea should follow soon.

[dave30 728]

Great piece of work done by City.

That money should help them boost the number for the FFP rule

Chelsea should follow soon.

Behave i'd rather we went bankrupt than had some Soulless name like the samsung stadium its cringe worthy just thinking about it .

[Guest justin_3d]

Behave i'd rather we went bankrupt than had some Soulless name like the samsung stadium its cringe worthy just thinking about it .

Cool, then lets get relegated to the third division if that's the case....

[dave30 728]

Cool, then lets get relegated to the third division if that's the case....

If that means we get the atmosphere and the soul of the club back then so be it ...