www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/sunderlands-stadium-light-could-new-16116518Sunderland's Stadium of Light could have a new name next season, confirms Charlie Methven
Sunderland director Charlie Methven (Image: Sunderland AFC via Getty Images)
Sunderland are in 'late-stage negotiations' with a national company over a multi-year sponsorship deal which could see the Stadium of Light renamed next season.
Executive director Charlie Methven has confirmed Sunderland is in talks with a company about an agreement which could net the Black Cats an annual sum significantly higher than the six-figure amount that the club currently receives from shirt sponsor Betdaq.
Methven refused to identify the company at this stage but says it is neither a betting company nor a payday loan firm - and revealed that the club has ruled out allowing a payday loan company attach their name to the stadium.
"We are in late-stage negotiations with a potential stadium sponsor which is neither a betting company nor a payday lender, and we are hopeful that those negotiations will conclude at some point in the next two or three weeks and an announcement can be made," said Methven.
"But like all commercial negotiations, it is also entirely possible that they could fall over at a late stage when it gets down to the fine print because sometimes that's when the significant issues appear which either side can't get over.
"We've been clear from the start of our tenure at the club, securing a sponsor for the stadium is part of the picture of making the club sustainable in the medium-term.
"There are two sides to this coin - one the one side there is the financial sustainability, then on the other side there is the sense that we are trying to build with the fans that this is their club and they have a say in the running of it.
"The club is sensitive to the fans, the club's history, and the city's traditions.
"Hopefully we can strike the right balance of those two things and get to a point where we have a stadium sponsor, but one that the fans are comfortable with."
With managing director Tony Davison conducting the negotiations, Methven was unwilling to put either a figure nor a duration on any naming deal, but says stadium sponsorship would be the club's 'biggest-ticket item' and any contract would have to last for a number of seasons.
He said: "I can't put a figure on it because we are in negotiations and it wouldn't be respectful, and it wouldn't be commercially sensible.
Sunderland's Stadium of Light (Image: Sunderland AFC via Getty Images)
"The way these things are worked out is sometimes a bit more complex than that as well, with different triggers and ways in which the sum changes.
"But it would need to be significantly larger, per year, than our shirt sponsorship deal.
"And if the current negotiations drop to a level where that's not the case, we wouldn't do it - we wouldn't go through with it.
"It's only part of the jigsaw - I'm not going to claim it is any more than that - however we would not be doing it unless it was a big enough amount to make a significant difference.
"It's different to a back-of-shirt sponsor. In that case, even if you don't get quite the amount you want, you might do the deal anyway because it is a question of having a sponsor or not - there's no moral high-ground there.
"When it comes to stadium naming right you are giving away a bit more and you know that, rightly or wrongly, there will be supporters who don't like it and that means it comes at a cost, and therefore the price has to be higher.
"If we do it, it will be the single biggest-ticket item we sell in a season - bigger than any single match, bigger than any other bit of sponsorship, bigger than any hospitality, bigger than any revenue we might get from a concert.
"It will be something significant, something which makes a proper difference.
"The length of time is also a point of negotiation but the reality is that, for these things to work, it would have to be over a number of years.
"As a club, you don't want to be changing the name of your stadium every year.
"Again, there's a threshold there and if it drops below that threshold then, even if the amount per year is decent, you say 'sorry, that's probably not going to work'.
"We're in a negotiation and for us it needs to be a certain amount of money over a certain amount of years for it to work, but of course the other side wants to make it as flexible and as cheap as possible - that's business.
"It's a case of trying to arrive at something that works for both parties and that's what Tony Davison is trying to do."
The Stadium of Light has remained unsponsored since it was built in 1997 but the issue has been on the agenda since Stewart Donald bought the club last summer.
Methven accepts that some fans will not be keen on the idea of the ground being renamed as part of a commercial deal, but has at least moved to reassure supporters that the club would choose any potential partner with care.
He said: "We felt it was one of the assets that could help the club become more sustainable.
"We have to be very mindful of the sensitivities that surround anything we do commercially and it is pretty clear to us that any companies involved in activities that a majority of supporters would consider not to be ideal, we would have to consider that very carefully whatever the financial rewards might be.
"Betting companies fall somewhere in the middle on this one.
"Obviously, we have a betting company as our shirt sponsor and we don't want to be hypocrites - I myself am an extremely keen horse-racing punter, so I'm not going to get on my soapbox and say that betting is some deep sin or evil.
"As for payday lenders, we have taken the view that that isn't the right move for us to make when it comes to naming our stadium."
