Barclays Buys Naming Rights to Nets Stadium
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
The English financial powerhouse Barclays PLC has purchased the naming rights to the future Nets stadium in Brooklyn for between $300 and $400 million, a move that will increase its brand exposure in the city.
Barclays Global PLC already has a presence in America, with an investment banking division that has offices in the city, an asset management company with offices in San Francisco, and a credit card company in Delaware. The New York State Common Pension Fund paid Barclays Global Investors about $23 million in managerial fees in fiscal year 2006, about four times more than the fund paid any other asset manager, according to the New York State and Local Retirement Systems’s 2006 annual financial report.
With 25 million clients and retail banks around the world, Barclays has yet to open a retail bank in America.
At the press conference in Brooklyn yesterday, the president of Barclays PLC, Robert Diamond Jr., said the deal with the Nets is a great way for the company to grow in America and that the stadium will give Barclays much greater exposure in the city. When asked if the move signified that the company wanted to open retail banks in New York, a spokesman for Barclays, Peter Truell, said the company was not willing to comment on its business strategies.
In 1994, the Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson bought the naming rights to the National Football League’s Carolina Panthers stadium in order to build consumer awareness of its products in America, according to a report by CNN. Ericsson pulled out of the deal eight years later.
Although the Barclays Center will be the company’s first stadium in America, the bank sponsors a PGA tour golf event in Westchester. Barclays also sponsors professional golf tournaments in Scotland and Singapore, and is the namesake sponsor of the Barclays Premiership soccer league in England, one of the top soccer leagues in the world.
The deal will give Barclays naming rights to the planned 20,000-seat stadium for 20 years.
During the Nets’ off-season and between games, the Barclays Center will hold more than 200 other sporting and entertainment events, according to Mr. Truell.
The owner of the Nets and the mind behind the team’s move from New Jersey to Brooklyn, Bruce Ratner, said yesterday that the partnership marks an important moment in Brooklyn’s history and its place on the international stage.
