Wankhede Stadium which hosted the famous 2011 World Cup final is all set to get a new name. A change of branding is all set to happen after the corporates have shown their interest in getting their name attached to the cricket ground. While branding association with different football grounds are pretty standard but this might well be a “technical” first in the country. Meanwhile, the Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium in Pune has been renamed as the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium. Roy was imprisonment for criminal involvements and scams and hence any dealership about him was cancelled.
During an interaction with Cricket Next, a senior Mumbai Cricket Association official stated that though the talks are only in the initial stage rebranding of the Wankhede Stadium is definitely in the process.
“We have got requests from a few corporates like IMG-Reliance and DDB Mudra and while talks are on, rechristening is definitely in the pipeline this time around. The rights will be sold for a 5-year span and it should help in raking in money to promote the game at the grassroots level. We will have a transparent bidding process to hand over the right. Things didn’t fall in place when Mudra proposed using their name as prefix or suffix, but this time around we are confident of going ahead and getting the deal finalised with one of the corporates after looking into the financial viability and other areas,” he said.
The decision on this matter is likely to be taken by the members of the association next week. The deal could be around Rs. 100 crore which will be paid over a period of 5 years. The exact amount will only be known when the bidding process is held.
Incidentally, it was back in December 2015 when Reliance had expressed their eagerness in tying up with Eden Gardens. If the changes were implemented, then the stadium would have been renamed as Eden Gardens Reliance Arena, and though CAB President Sourav Ganguly proposed the idea, it was turned down by the other members.
It was learnt that if the idea were implemented, then the CAB would have been richer by Rs. 16 crores but the members feel that the historical value of the stadium might be ruined just for monetary gains. It is a known fact that the Eden Gardens has an enormous heritage value among all the fans across the globe and is considered one of the greatest ever stadiums in the world.
“Eden has a special place in the hearts of Indians and more than anything, it has a heritage value. So, we need to be very cautious before taking any such step. Eden Gardens was not a property of CAB but belonged to the Indian Army. It is all good to make lofty plans, but one has to understand that one cannot enter into sponsorship deals with a third party when the property in question is given to you on the lease,” an official was quoted as saying by CricNext.