Introducing: Ethiad Stadium
Posted on the 08 July 2011 by Thetoaststaff
Manchester City earn even more money (although a fee is not yet reported) through what is likely a lucrative stadium naming rights deal with their current shirt sponsor: Ethiad Airways. City have been flirting with the upcoming UEFA Financial Fair Play rules, reporting a $193M deficit in recent reports (a far cry from UEFA's debt allowance of $61.7M). The Financial Fair Play rules will be implemented in their entirety at the start of the 2013-14 season, which will impose sanctions against teams operating, essentially, under what UEFA determines to be an excessive level of debt. City becomes one of only six EPL clubs with a corporate stadium sponsor, joining Arsenal (Emirates Stadium), Bolton (Reebok Stadium), Stoke (Britannia Stadium), Swansea (Liberty Stadium), and Wigan (DW Stadium). By comparison, only seven out of 30 Major League Baseball teams in the United States do not have corporate-sponsored names, so I think we can expect this trend to continue in the EPL in the coming years.