Is renaming our major sporting stadiums such a Marvel-lous idea?

This morning we learnt that Melbourne’s Etihad Stadium will be renamed Marvel Stadium in an eight-year deal with The Walt Disney Company.

The name change, which will take place from 1 September, is one of many the Docklands venue has undergone. Seating 53,300 football fans, it has also been known as Colonial Stadium and Telstra Dome.

Major stadiums in other capitals have also undergone several name changes over the years.

Suncorp Stadium has variously been known as Brisbane Stadium and  Lang Park.

Sydney’s Stadium Australia is another which has had a prolonged identity crisis, having once been known as Sydney Olympic Stadium, Homebush Stadium and Telstra Stadium, before settling on ANZ Stadium.

The new Perth Stadium last year succumbed to a 10-year deal which saw it rebranded as Optus Stadium.

Darwin’s TIO Stadium used to be Marrara Oval and Football Park, and Hobart’s once prettily named Bellerive Oval is today a very pedestrian-sounding Blundstone Arena.

The two silliest naming rights deals, though, go to 1300Smiles Stadium in Townsville and Manly’s precariously named Lottoland, a sponsor whose sports betting arm is under threat in Australia. To confuse things even further, for one week in April Lottoland renamed itself the McGrath Foundation Stadium for the sake of charity.

Not so in classy Victoria and South Australia where the Melbourne Cricket Ground and Adelaide Oval have only ever been known by those names? No commercially driven identity swap for two of the nation’s grandest stadiums.

Do you think it is too confusing for stadiums to be constantly renaming themselves? Doesn’t it seem that giving naming rights to sponsors over the people’s sporting venues is grubby?

4 comments

It is not just the Stadiums that continuously get renamed

.. it is also the names of countries and cities.

 

 "Doesn’t it seem that giving naming rights to sponsors over the people’s sporting venues is grubby?"

yep, it sure is!

Sporting venues are all about gambling.

I don't care what they call them commercially, it is still Docklands to me, same as Lang Park is still Lang Park, Subiaco Oval is still Subi, Bellerive is still Bellerive, and the MCG will always be 'the G'. When you mentioned 'Manly' and 'Lottoland' please do not let it be that Brookvale Oval (where I watched a few games of Rugby League (and enjoyed the leagues club) when I was based in Sydney during the 1960s) in now 'Lottoland Oval'. That is just tooooo much.

Oh, Olga, your article is a tad misleading. Yes, Melbourne and Adelaide have kept the historic names for their major cricket grounds but you forgot to mention that Sydney has done the same, it's still the SCG. Brisbane's cricket ground is still known by its historic name of "The Gabba" which is the shortened form of where it is located; Woolloongabba.

Sporting bodies in Australia are always looking for more funding including naming rights on teams' clothing and selling the naming rights to the home ground is no exception. If supporters feel as strongly about this as you do, Olga, then why aren't the grounds named ".....Supporters' Club"? Why should a private company be allowed to sponsor a sport by paying for the upkeep of the playing fields and then be denied the chance to tell people about it by naming the playing fields after their company?

4 comments



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