The renaming of the home of English rugby has been at the forefront of the rugby news this Summer, with players, coaches, pundits and fans all sharing their thoughts on the change. In case you missed it, Twickenham has changed its name to the Allianz Stadium, following a blockbuster agreement between the RFU and the global insurance company.
The agreement sees Allianz take the sponsorship of the stadium known as HQ, in return for a significant investment. However, there is no denying that England fans are taking some time to get used to the change, as Twickenham becomes the latest Home Nations stadium to agree a title sponsorship deal. ‘Twickers’ follows suit with the Principality Stadium (Wales), the Aviva Stadium (Ireland) and Scottish Gas Murrayfield Stadium (Scotland).
Such investments have proven to be part and parcel of the modern sporting landscape, and speaking to OLBG, Dr Rob Wilson, a professor of Applied Sports Finance, believes that selling Twickenham’s naming rights to Allianz might be the best deal the RFU has ever done.
“Twickenham is hallowed turf so renaming it after Allianz is going to get a huge amount of backlash and negative press – but the reality is Twickenham will always be known as Twickers to fans.
“The big thing is that rugby unions struggled during Covid and haven’t recovered in the same way that some of the other sports have. So as a union, the English RFU was one of the richest unions in the world and is now not as rich as it used to be.
“It needs an injection of cash and I think it’s a really smart move from them to do that deal because it is, it’s money in, it can develop the game, it can develop the stadium and it hopefully can propel England rugby onto the next phase of their journey.
“The results will speak for themselves but it might be one of the best deals that the English RFU has ever done despite the potential fan dismay that Twickenham is now The Allianz Stadium.”