By Samindra Kunti
May 15 – Ajax Amsterdam failed to win the Dutch title this season, finishing second behind champions PSV, but the club wants to reestablish itself as Holland’s number one team through the construction of Ajax City, a state of the art training complex. At the same time the Amsterdam Arena may seek a stadium naming rights deal.
The Amsterdam Arena, inaugurated in 1996, is Holland’s largest stadium with a capacity of 53,346 seats and came at a cost of €140 million. In 2013 Chelsea defeated Benfica at the Arena in the UEFA Europa League final thanks to a late header from Branislav Ivanovic.
Stadium naming rights may generate up to €4 million, according to the Arena’s CEO Henk Markerink. “There are many stadiums in the world with a sponsor,” said Markerink. “This brings money. The money is usable for investment in property, such as the stadium which should be updated continuously.”
The limited partnership ‘Amsterdam Arena’ owns the stadium with the city and ‘Stadion Amsterdam’ as managing partners. The limited partnership has eight sleeping partners, including Philips, Grolsch, KPN, ABN Amro and Coca Cola International. Ajax, who own 13% of the Arena and have previously considered buying out a majority stake, would benefit marginally from stadium naming rights.
There is political opposition against changing the name of the iconic venue. “For a moment, I really thought it was April Fool’s Day,” said D66 Amsterdam politician Jan Paternotte, ridiculing the suggestion that Amsterdam would have to pay for the naming rights.
“If they prefer to call it the Kentucky Fried Chicken Arena, they really need to do so,” continued Paternotte. “We are not going to pay the airport to call it the ‘Amsterdam Airport Schiphol.’ I think Schiphol has a very strong interest to keep the name of the city in place; it is very well known all over the world. And that goes for the Arena.”
The club’s plan to demolish their current training complex ‘De Toekomst’, home to the famous Ajax youth academy, and replace it with a state-of-the-art ‘Ajax City’ complex in order to match ‘La Masia’ of FC Barcelona is also facing an uphill struggle.
‘De Toekomst’ is outdated and by 2025 Ajax wants to open its new complex adjacent to the Amsterdam Arena, but the city of Amsterdam and the municipality of Ouder-Amstel intend to build 4,500 new homes in the area of the stadium. Ajax has no choice but to negotiate a solution with the city. ‘Ajax City’ would have a price tag running well into tens of millions of euros.
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