Everton have already started the process of searching for a naming rights partners for their new stadium.
Having initially received £30m from former sponsors USM for first refusal on the naming rights for the 52,888-seater build at Bramley Moore Dock back in 2020, the ending of the partnership with the Russian firm, due to the sanctions that followed the military invasion by Russia of neighbouring Ukraine, meant that the search would need to begin again.
Last month the club entered into an agreement with US-based Elevate Sports Ventures LLC, the firm tasked with aiding the effort from within to secure lucrative rights that will be of huge importance to the Toffees. With a CV that has recently included nailing down stadium sponsorship for both the San Jose Earthquakes MLS team and the Pittsburgh Steelers NFL outfit, the Elevate partnership will be expected to open some doors when it comes to getting a lucrative stadium naming rights partner on board by the time the club move into its new home ahead of the 2024/25 season.
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Knowing the market value of these kind of deals is key, and Everton may find that looking at the current situation at Premier League rivals Tottenham Hotspur offers up some clues as to what they may be able to achieve.
Spurs took residence in their state-of-the-art £1bn stadium back in 2019, but with the impact of the pandemic shuttering stadiums to fans through 2020 and 2021, they were unable to leverage its power.
The ground is still called the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, with Spurs chairman Daniel Levy sticking to his guns over the kind of deal he wants, with some reports suggesting he wants £25m per year, as a minimum, over a long period.
Having been linked with names such as Nike and Amazon previously with regards to potential partners, The Athletic report that Tottenham have been in talks with global tech giant Google over the rights.
The location, scale, modern approach and multi-purpose nature of Spurs' 62,85- seater stadium appeals to blue chip companies, with it able seamlessly to host lucrative NFL games thanks to its retractable pitch, and now a world-leading venue when it comes to hosting a whole manner of other events. Its position at the vanguard of cashless modern stadiums, where there is the ability to monetise to a greater extent, is something that firms will be willing to pay good money for.
Everton will themselves have a world class stadium by 2024, although at half the cost of Tottenham's, they likely not be able to command the same kind of sums from would-be partners.
But there will be lessons that can be learned around how the Spurs naming rights situation plays out in the coming months. Knowing the true value proposition of something like stadium naming rights, buoyed by a recent deal struck by a club in the same league, will be a boon to the Toffees. The new stadium will be in an attractive location in a major UK city with a large population, and it will be bespoke and designed to make the most of modern technology as well as being able to be used for a number of different events away from football.
What Spurs might get from any potential deal will provide Elevate and Everton's commercial department with a greater idea of just how valuable the partnership should be. US sport tends to deal in lengthy naming rights deals, often for more than 10 years, with Elevate having bagged the Steelers' deal with Acrisure over 15 years. Looking for blue chip brands that can not only pay handsomely but commit to the longer term would provide the kind of financial security, and boost, from their new stadium that will aid Everton as they pivot from a period of heavy spend, which outstripped commercial gains, to one where they want to be able to invest sustainably at a consistently high level.
But it might not be just who pays the most is the best partner. Levy has been choosy, the Tottenham chief believed to want a partnership with a firm that is not only financially strong but also gives the club the ability to tap into a knowledge base and grow their commercial revenues through leveraging a sponsor/club relationship. A partnership with a firm like Google is something that would hand Spurs an advantage when it comes to continually modernising and creating new ways to monetise the matchday experience as technology around football and how fans consume the game continues to advance.
Everton are likely to want something similar, where a big money deal is also backed up by the ability to mine the knowledge of firms whose insight and expertise may help them grow their revenues to much greater levels.
As the Toffees have done with Elevate, Spurs hired former Miami Dolphins executive Todd Kline to look after their big ticket commercial deals, vis-a-vis the stadium. That is something that could come to fruition over the coming months.
US sport has typically succeeded to a far greater level when selling naming rights for stadiums, with the most valuable deal to date being the Toronto Maple Leafs' and Toronto Raptors Arena in 2018, when Scotiabank paid £527m for the privilege. In 2019 ,the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers bagged a 20-year deal with Social Finance worth £361m for their home to be renamed the SoFi Stadium.
In football, Barcelona sold their naming rights for the Nou Camp earlier this year to Swedish streaming giant Spotify in a deal worth a reported £272m, over a number of years, although that deal also included the front-of-shirt sponsorship for the men's and women's teams.
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