AFL Aussie rules football club Greater Western Sydney Giants has hailed a groundbreaking partnership that will see the naming rights to its primary home stadium reflect the team’s name.
The multi-year agreement, said to be the first of its kind in Australia, will see the Sydney Showground Stadium renamed as Giants Stadium.
The 24,000-capacity stadium in Sydney Olympic Park was previously known as Spotless Stadium and Skoda Stadium, respectively, under former naming rights deals with corporate partners.
However, a group of the club’s patron partners have joined together to acquire the rights and Giants Stadium will be the venue’s naming rights designation throughout the year.
Giants chief executive David Matthews told the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper that the multi-million dollar agreement is open-ended and leaves the club in a financially stronger position in comparison to past deals.
Matthews said between 50 and 60 people were involved in the deal, some of whom live in Canberra and Sydney, some overseas. “They don’t want any fanfare…they want the Giants brand to be the key thing that’s acknowledged and that’s the beauty of it,” Matthews added.
“The thing is for us, we’ve got a fair gap to make up because we’re only seven, eight years old playing against teams that have had 150 years to build their fanbase, some of them have gaming revenue.
“There’s no doubt over time the coterie groups from day one of this club have been instrumental in developing a financial backing that’s enabled us to compete and to pay things like up to the limit of the salary cap, up to the soft cap (on football department spending) and other things.
“This is just an extension of that in a lot of ways – a group of guys emotionally connected to the club who say, ‘well, if this is the strategy that you want to pursue we’re willing to help support it and fund it’.”