The LA Rams NFL franchise is using its run to this year’s Super Bowl to market the Naming Rights to the team’s $5bn (€4.4bn) new stadium, currently under construction in Hollywood Park, Los Angeles.
On Sunday, one week before the trip to Atlanta for Super Bowl LIII against the New England Patriots, the Rams held a rally at the ‘LA Stadium’ to publicise the new build, its Naming Rights and season-seat licenses.
Members of the public and media were allowed on the construction site with players and staff to view the stadium.
The franchise is reportedly asking for a record-breaking annual fee of $30m per year over 20 years for the Naming Rights.
This is more than the annual €25m over 20 years currently being demanded by Spanish soccer giants Barcelona for its ‘Espai Barça’ stadium and campus project, as reported in SportBusiness Sponsorship this month.
Comparisons between the two are not just price-related. The LA Stadium site includes a 70,240-seat stadium and 6,000-seat performance centre under one roof, and a 298-acre complex of office buildings, shops, restaurants, residential units, hotels and parks.
The ‘Espai Barça’ includes a 105,000-capacity revamp of the Camp Nou stadium’s 12,500-capacity indoor sports arena, a four-star hotel, plaza, park, retail store and Barcelona football club museum, which already attracts 2 million visitors per year.
The LA Stadium is expected to open in 2020 and will host the Super Bowl in 2022.
Camp Nou stadium is set to be completed by 2023, providing funding is available.