German Bundesliga football club TSG 1899 Hoffenheim has agreed a new stadium naming rights partnership with waste management specialist PreZero.
With renewable energy company Wirsol having previously held the rights, Hoffenheim’s home stadium will now be known as the PreZero Arena. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the Kicker website said it will run for an initial five-year term with an option of a further five-year extension.
The deal will reportedly be worth a basic €4.5m ($5.1m) per season with the new look for the stadium to be revealed as Hoffenheim resumes its Bundesliga campaign following the winter break with a home match against Bayern Munich tomorrow (Friday).
PreZero will aid Hoffenheim in enhancing its sustainability vision with research conducted by the company concluding that of the average of four tonnes of waste produced per home match, at least 60 per cent could be recycled.
Hoffenheim managing director Peter Görlich said: “Together we want to turn our stadium into a pioneering location for sustainability and resource efficiency.
“As a successful association in one of the most important leagues in Europe, we are aware of our exemplary impact away from the field as well. With our partners from PreZero, we conserve resources and set an additional signal for sustainable development.
“PreZero’s team has given us an impressive list of items that we can put into practice, from waste-sorting systems, to exchanging styrofoam cups for reusable plastic cups, to using our grass clippings as raw materials for producing autograph cards printed on grass paper.”
Dietmar Böhm, managing director of PreZero, added: “Our approach is transparency: we show the potential of waste as recyclable material.
“This is why we have set up a glass container in front of the stadium for the return round, in which we will display the waste from the last home match against Mainz. We want to show that a closer look is definitely worthwhile.”