Everton announced their new stadium naming rights partner on Friday and the Liverpool Echo has explained why the deal is a win for the club and its owners
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The newly-named Hill Dickinson stadium
Everton's new stadium is set to be known as the Hill Dickinson stadium
Goodison Park played host to Everton’s men’s team for one final time on Sunday. But Friday saw the club’s new home finally get a name.
Liverpool-based global law firm Hill Dickinson were announced to have acquired the stadium naming rights for the 52,888-seater stadium where the Toffees will take residence from the start of next season.
The deal saw a near three-year search for a naming rights partner finally come to fruition, with the club having engaged the services of US-based company Elevate Sports Ventures back in 2022 to complement their own in-house commercial efforts when it came to new partnership sales, as well as helping drive forward the search for a naming rights partner for the new stadium, the piece of sponsorship inventory that was the most lucrative the football club had to sell.
Before Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Everton had inked a deal with USM Holdings, the company belonging to Uzbek billionaire and former business associate of ex-Toffees owner Farhad Moshiri, Alisher Usmanov. That deal was a £30m sum to secure the first option on stadium naming rights.
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Of course, the Russia/Ukraine conflict and the sanctioning of Russian business and individuals with alleged ties to the Kremlin meant that deal was never going to be viable, with the Russian businesses that had been commercial partners of Everton all exiting.
The commercial department had much work to do, a job not aided by major tumult behind the scenes amid financial issues, points deductions that threatened relegation, and Moshiri’s attempts to sell the club to the long-doomed 777 Partners investment firm.
With all of those factors bubbling away it created uncertainty in the market, with the value of rights impacted significantly when brand reputation is at risk, as well as the potential for relegation to the Championship, where the value of commercial partnerships is diminished due to lack of exposure globally.
Everton had to bide their time, and the successful takeover of the club by The Friedkin Group in December, followed by moves to clean up the club’s balance sheet and hire David Moyes to lead it to safety and ensure they started their first season at their new home as Premier League club meant that they have been able, according to sources the ECHO have spoken to, secure the deal that they were hoping for.
The Hill Dickinson Stadium it is, then. While some corners of social media may not have been totally enamoured with the name, it is a reputable, global law firm, one that has roots in Liverpool dating back to its founding in the city in 1810, one that doesn’t offer up any difficult questions around morals or sensitivities. They are also understood to have engaged on what the club wanted financially and in terms of longevity.
Elevate had been instructed by TFG to prioritise brand alignment when it came to securing a new stadium naming rights partner, as well as a minimum ten-year contract as they raced to find a partner before the start of next season.
Over the past three years Elevate have delivered stadium naming rights success in the US, securing a ten-year deal for the San Jose Earthquakes MLS side for their home to be known as PayPal Park, while the Pittsburgh Steelers NFL team landed a new stadium naming rights deal over 15 years with financial technology firm Acrisure. TFG had wanted a decade-long partnership to be in place, and they had good reason to think that would be achievable at a good price.
The trend in America has for some time been around longer term deals, particularly for new stadiums. The importance of getting it right from a naming rights perspective for a newly-built arena cannot be overstated, from both a value and a brand perspective. Stadiums can become synonymous with brands reasonably quickly, and that can be hard to shake, meaning that the value of the first deal is often higher than a renaming due to the fact that such things are factored in and that the ability to cut through may have been impacted.
Figures of £10m per year over ten years have been widely reported, although the actual terms of the deal have not been made public. Those reports are believed to be close to the mark, though. The club have described it as ‘long term’ and ‘one of the largest football stadium naming rights deals in Europe’.
That is likely very true, although the Premier League are light on stadium naming rights partners for the biggest clubs, save for Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium and Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium, with Liverpool, Spurs, Chelsea, Newcastle United, Manchester United and Aston Villa all retaining traditional names or holding names. That means that, Arsenal and City aside, the market has very much been focused on naming rights deals in smaller markets in terms of commercial activity such as Italy, Germany and France.
But Everton have done well. If it is, as likely, a near £100m deal over a decade, that is guaranteed revenue, it is greater financial security, and it carries no reputational risk. It is with a legal firm that is 215 years old, and one that has its roots in Liverpool.
Fans can still call the stadium what they wish. It might not roll off the tongue but its value for Hill Dickinson will be through enormous brand recognition, which it's already started to achieve, as well as exposure for the long term across all mediums. With major events away from football also to be held there, it gives the company even greater visibility.
For Everton it gives them more financial strength, and more reasons to be cheerful around what the future holds in terms of how the club can grow its revenue streams and filter that back into being able to invest to greater levels on the pitch. There was competition for the rights, too, meaning that the club had leverage when it came to sealing the deal it wanted.
Keeping it called Bramley-Moore Dock or Everton Stadium might have been the preference for some, and that is understandable given that Everton are leaving behind something so steeped in football tradition as Goodison and stepping into the bold and the new. But the reality is that football is a cold, hard business behind the scenes and to achieve success it has to be paid for. TFG do seem to have secured what they desired, and that should be chalked up for another success so far for TFG in what has been an impressive first six months as custodians of the football club.