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| Lincoln Financial Field, other stadiums won’t have to cover up before soccer matches. |
FIFA has relaxed its stance against the display of commercial signs, including corporate names of stadiums, for the upcoming Women's World Cup, citing the special circumstances that forced the event's relocation to the United States.
The soccer governing body traditionally does not allow stadium names to have commercial identification, said FIFA marketing spokeswoman Regula Bleuler. FIFA also typically mandates that all interior corporate signs be covered or removed.
Bleuler said those rules were established to provide FIFA's official corporate sponsors with exclusive signage rights during games.
FIFA earlier this summer suggested that it intended to enforce the rules for this year's event, which was moved from China because of the SARS epidemic. Time constraints, feasibility of making the changes and language in certain naming-rights contracts have since forced a shift in that stand.
"The companies that are our partners deserve to have exclusive exposure ... but we have to be realistic," Bleuler said. "If there's a big neon sign [with a corporate name] outside the stadium, let's be honest: It would be stupid to paint over a 100-square-meter surface just to not have the name on it. We don't have time for that. We have to use common sense. We're three months away from the event. Everybody needs to be flexible."
Stadium officials last month said FIFA officials, during site visits, pointed out hundreds, if not thousands, of signs they wanted covered in the six venues that will be used for the WWC, which is scheduled for Sept. 20-Oct. 12. The facilities are Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass.; Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia; PGE Park in Portland; Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif.; Columbus Crew Stadium in Columbus; and RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C.
Covering the large outside signs of the corporate-named stadiums were among the initial requests, stadium officials said. FIFA now plans to allow certain types of corporate signage, including the outside signs, and, in some cases, corporate scoreboard signs that bear a facility's name.
Lincoln Financial Group has language in its naming-rights contract that allows for its stadium signs to be covered for Olympic events only. Susan Crabtree, vice president for corporate advertising and marketing for Lincoln Financial, said company officials have confirmed with FIFA that its four exterior signs, which measure 12 feet by 192 feet each, and its scoreboard signs, which measure roughly 4 feet by 56 feet, will not be covered. Two interior signs located around the stadium bowl, however, will be covered for WWC matches, Crabtree said.
