Olympic Stadium Naming-Rights Deal Could Be In Place Before Start Of '12 London Games

Naming rights for the Olympic Stadium after ’12 “could be in place by the London Games next summer,” according to Ashling O’Connor of the LONDON TIMES. The size of the sponsorship deal on the US$760M, publicly owned stadium “would depend on the choice of the main sports tenant, which will be decided by the end of May after a bidding process that opens today.” EPL club West Ham United “are still the favourites to occupy the stadium during the winter months after the collapse in October of the original deal to award the long-term lease to the East London football club.” Tenants will be “required to sign a minimum five-year contract.” The Olympic Park Legacy Company has “a call on 30 days during the year for community use.” The rest of the time the stadium “could host cricket, baseball and NFL football” (LONDON TIMES, 12/20). OPLC CEO Andrew Altman said that the 60,000-capacity stadium “could operate profitably without a major football club” (GUARDIAN, 12/20). OPLC confirmed "they will accept a ground-share bid" from a soccer and a rugby team, and that "retaining the athletics track is non-negotiable" (London INDEPENDENT, 12/20). The OPLC will assess the bids under "four main criteria: financial, deliverability, usage and legal certainty" (GUARDIAN, 12/20).

CHANGE OF COURSE: The GUARDIAN’s Owen Gibson notes LOCOG organizers have confirmed that Dow Chemical, which “has a contentious deal to sponsor the fabric wrap that will surround the Olympic Stadium, will not have any branding on it either before or during the Games.” Campaigners, who claim that “the chemical giant still has ongoing liabilities relating to the 1984 Bhopal disaster that killed an estimated 15,000 people, welcomed the move but said it was ‘inadequate’ and again called for the deal to be scrapped altogether.” The company “would not have been allowed to have its logo” on the fabric wrap at Games time due to the IOC's "clean stadia" policy. There had been a discussion “about whether Dow would have its branding on five ‘test’ panels on the outside of the stadium in the months preceding the opening ceremony but this has now been ruled out too in the face of vociferous protest.” Dow Chemical spokesperson Scot Wheeler said, "The agreement between Dow and LOCOG was limited to branding of five test panels that were to be removed in the months before the Games and were not part of the final design. However in mid-summer, LOCOG and Dow agreed that Dow would defer the rights to these five panels to allow free and full execution of the design as determined by LOCOG" (GUARDIAN, 12/20).