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Does anyone actually remember the official name of London’s Stratford stadium? While to most people it’s the ‘West Ham one’ or the ‘Olympic Stadium’, its real name is actually London Stadium. But that could be about to change.
West Ham is in talks with companies Allianz and Stage Front, which are both competing to get naming rights to the east London sports venue. The football club currently doesn’t have the rights to name the 60,000-capacity stadium it leases it from its landlord, the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC).
LLDC has already been criticised in the past for not securing a sponsor for the stadium, which is losing millions of pounds every year. Now it’s hoping to increase the number of events held at the venue, including Major League Baseball, in a bid to make more money and attract more visitors. The developers have already spent £500,000 trying to secure a sponsorship deal.
It’s looking likely that Allianz will take the ticket when it comes to naming the home of the 2012 Olympic Games. The German financial services company already has its name attached to the stadiums of Bayern Munich, Juventus and Nice and has been looking for an opportunity in the Premier League.
Will the sports venue be called the ‘Allianz Stadium’? It’s too soon to know, but the home of Bayern Munich is called the Allianz Arena, so it might be something like that.
More on Stratford at Time Out
Stratford has been glowing up and up over the past few years. It could be getting a swanky new train station, the V&A will be opening an outpost there soon, and UCL has just opened an east London campus in the area. Forbes even named it as London’s newest cultural centre. Who’d have thought it?
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