Kiernan Maguire: Everton could now bank £200m-plus cash injection after Qatari talks
Qatar Airways could pay Everton in excess of £200million over the course of a 20-year Bramley-Moore Dock naming rights deal.
That is the view of finance guru Kieran Maguire, speaking exclusively to Football Insider about the Toffees’ ongoing hunt for a blue-chip sponsor for the 52,888-seater stadium due to open in time for the 2024-25 campaign.
The Merseysiders have commissioned commercial agency Elevate Sports to engineer a branding deal which most analysts estimate will be worth upwards of £10m per year.
The Daily Mail reported earlier this month (6 December) that owner Farhad Moshiri, who was pictured in Doha during the World Cup, has held talks with state-financed airline Qatar Airways over a potential partnership.
Maguire predicted how much such an arrangement might be worth but warned struggling Everton that relegation would severely weaken their negotiating position.
“Everton would probably be looking for somewhere in the region of at least £10m per year for the Bramley-Moore Dock naming rights project and ideally substantially more,” he told Football Insider’s Adam Williams.
“The important thing when it comes to naming rights is that the new ground is synonymous with the name of the sponsor.
“They will therefore be looking for a very long-term deal such as we have seen at places such as The Emirates, Etihad and Amex stadiums. That could be 10 to 20 years.
“Fans of those clubs use those brand names to describe the stadium. If it is only a two or three-year deal, fans might refer to it as Bramley-Moore.
“Second or third-tier naming rights deals don’t tend to work particularly well. We have seen that at the Coventry Building Society Arena or Bolton’s stadium, which is no longer The Reebok but now the University of Bolton Stadium.“
In other news, pundit issues emphatic verdict on Wayne Rooney replacing Frank Lampard at Everton after source’s update.