Biggest Stadium Naming Rights Deals, and What They Hide

SoFi Stadium holds the largest stadium naming rights deal ever signed: $625 million over 20 years, agreed in September 2019. That is roughly $31 million a year — close to double the next largest.

Everything below that headline needs a caveat, because naming-rights figures are among the least comparable numbers in sports business. Some are bundled inside wider sponsorships, some escalate over the term, and some are reported as totals against others reported annually.

The largest deals, by annual value

Rank	Stadium	Sponsor	Reported deal	Approx. per year
1	SoFi Stadium	SoFi	$625m / 20 yrs	~$31m
2	Allegiant Stadium	Allegiant	~$350m / 20 yrs	$17.5m–$25m
3	MetLife Stadium	MetLife	$400m+ / 25 yrs	~$18m
4	Etihad Stadium	Etihad Airways	~$200m / 10 yrs	£15m ($19m)
5	AT&T Stadium	AT&T	~$300m / 20 yrs	~$15m
6	Allianz Stadium (Twickenham)	Allianz	£100m / 10 yrs	~£10m
7	Emirates Stadium	Emirates	~$200m / 15 yrs	~£4m–£6m

Ranked on annual value rather than headline total, because a 25-year deal and a 10-year deal are not comparable at the top line.

Why the Emirates figure looks wrong

It is the clearest illustration of the problem. Emirates’ arrangement with Arsenal is reported at around $200 million over 15 years, which would suggest roughly $13 million a year. But the naming-rights element specifically is understood to be worth only about £4 to £6 million annually.

The difference is that these are bundled deals. The headline figure covers shirt sponsorship and a package of other commercial rights, with the stadium name as one component. Etihad’s arrangement with Manchester City works the same way, though its naming element is reported far higher at around £15 million a year.

So when an English stadium deal is compared against an American one, you are often comparing a whole sponsorship portfolio against a single naming right. Check what is inside the number — the same discipline our ranking of the most expensive stadiums applies to construction costs.

SoFi’s payments are not level

The $31 million annual average is arithmetic, not a payment schedule. SoFi’s payments escalate across the term, from about $16.9 million in 2020 to $29.2 million in 2025.

That matters if you are comparing SoFi’s deal to a level-payment contract in any single year: in 2020 it was worth less annually than MetLife’s. The average only becomes representative late in the term.

Twickenham: £100m for a name that had stood 115 years

The £100 million over ten years Allianz paid to rename Twickenham in September 2024 was the ground’s first rebrand since 1909, and the most significant naming-rights event in British sport in years.

It also demonstrates the pricing logic. Allianz paid roughly £10 million a year — well below the top NFL deals — for one of the most recognised venue names in world sport. A new stadium with no history adopts a sponsor’s name instantly and completely, which is why SoFi and Allegiant commanded the most. Renaming a 115-year-old ground is a harder sell, because supporters and broadcasters keep using the old name for years afterwards, diluting exactly what the sponsor bought.

The RFU’s chief executive publicly rejected the charge that the union had sold out. Full detail is in our guide to Twickenham capacity.

The grounds that never sold

Among the largest stadiums in the world, a small group has held the line:

• Wembley — sponsored as “connected by EE”, but the name itself has never been sold. See Wembley Stadium capacity.
• Old Trafford — never sold, despite Manchester United’s commercial aggressiveness elsewhere. See Old Trafford capacity.
• Anfield — never sold.
• Croke Park — owned by the amateur GAA, and sponsor-free. See Croke Park capacity.

Barcelona took a middle path, placing the sponsor in front of the historic name at Spotify Camp Nou rather than replacing it — now the common compromise where a name carries heritage value.

UEFA strips the names anyway

There is one structural limit on what a sponsor is buying. UEFA does not recognise commercial naming rights in its own competitions, so sponsor names are removed for the duration of its tournaments.

At Euro 2028 that turns the Etihad into Manchester City Stadium, the Principality into the National Stadium of Wales, and the Aviva into Dublin Arena — see our guide to the Euro 2028 venues. Spotify Camp Nou appears in European fixtures simply as Camp Nou.

So a sponsor pays for a name that disappears at precisely the moments when the largest international audiences are watching. It is the single strongest argument against valuing these deals on exposure alone.

How we checked these numbers

Deal values are as reported by GiveMeSport’s global ranking, Sports King’s NFL-by-annual-value breakdown and Forbes’ analysis of the naming-rights market. The Twickenham figures and the RFU response are from SportsPro. The distinction between bundled sponsorship and standalone naming rights, and the SoFi escalation schedule, are drawn from the same reporting.

Figures are reported values, not audited contract terms. Naming-rights agreements are commercially confidential, most numbers reach the public through unofficial channels, and several — Allegiant’s in particular, quoted between $17.5 million and $25 million a year — vary materially by source. Ranges are given where sources disagree.

Review class: event-driven. Recheck on any new deal above roughly $15 million a year, at the expiry of a listed term, and whenever a historically unsponsored ground sells its name.