Everton has been told that the design of its new stadium "could be key to landing a major naming rights sponsor," according to Phil Kirkbride of the LIVERPOOL ECHO. The club is "being warned that securing a multi-million pound deal will be difficult" in a "buyers' market." Everton
agreed to a deal with Peel Holdings to buy a plot of land at Bramley Moore Dock, while a Liverpool City Council-backed funding project "is set to be ratified later this week." Sports sponsorship agency Synergy CEO Tim Crow said that the search for a naming rights partner "is becoming an increasingly crowded market in the Premier League." He added that Everton's new ground needs to set the the team "apart from the rest of the field." Crow: "The actual nature of the stadium is really, really important. There is a lot of buzz around [Tottenham] Spurs' new stadium because it is so good looking and will be technologically advanced. ... You need that great experience." He added, "The sponsorship market in the U.K. is the softest it has ever been, there are a huge amount of major sponsorships unsold, it is very difficult to sell." Everton, which "may look to employ the services of a specialist naming rights agency to find a sponsor," would find it "even harder to land a naming rights deal" for its final few years at Goodison. Crow: "It is much, much harder to rename an old stadium than a new one" (
LIVERPOOL ECHO, 3/28).