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(NewsNation) — Major North American stadiums are getting a name change for the next month during the World Cup due to FIFA’s sponsorship rules.
FIFA has required all World Cup stadiums to be free of references to corporations that aren’t FIFA sponsors, meaning the stadiums must be “debranded.” MetLife Stadium is now New York New Jersey Stadium; SoFi Stadium is now Los Angeles Stadium. This change has proved to be challenging given the need to completely “clean” the stadiums of marks and logos.
Stadiums are having to set aside huge amounts of money to “debrand.” Chris Canetti, president of the Houston 2026 World Cup Host Committee, told Sports Business Journal that his committee is budgeting more than $1 million to meet FIFA’s guidelines.
Despite frustrations, one corporation capitalized on the name change. Lumen Technologies is the sponsor of Lumen Stadium, now known as Seattle Stadium. They saw their logo being covered as an opportunity and turned their blacked-out name into a trend, garnering social media attention.
The top marketing and strategy officer for Lumen Technologies, Ryan Asdouriansaid, told the Washington Post, “You can cover our name, but you can’t cover our network.”
