On 29 April, The Stadium Business reported that Orange’s 10-year naming rights deal at the Stade Vélodrome in Marseille is ending. There is no equivalent-length replacement on the table. The story is a real one, and it sits inside a broader set of signals about how long-tenor naming rights are being priced today.
The first reading is wrong
A first reading might be that the long-term anchor deal is in trouble. That reading would be wrong. Long-term deals are getting signed. In the last 18 months alone, Aviva committed to long-term naming rights on YTL Live’s new Bristol arena, announced on 16 February 2026. Allianz extended its partnership with Twickenham at a reported £100m over 10 years. Hill Dickinson took naming rights at Everton’s Bramley-Moore Dock at around £10m a year. Barcelona extended its Spotify partnership through 2034. Atlético Madrid’s Metropolitano now runs as a Riyadh Air-named venue through 2033.
What has changed is not the deal type. It is who signs it.
Why the old anchor categories stepped back
For two decades, the canonical long-tenor anchor was a telecoms operator, a Western airline, or a major bank. Emirates at Arsenal, Etihad at Manchester City, Allianz at the Munich venue that bears its name. These deals priced naming rights against broadcast distribution and national-brand consumer reach. Several of those categories have stepped back from new commitments at the same scale. Streaming distribution now fragments every two to three years, which has changed how telecoms and broadcast-adjacent brands underwrite long bets. The Saudi Public Investment Fund’s withdrawal from sport, confirmed on 29 April when it ended LIV Golf funding and omitted sport from its 2026 to 2030 strategy, removes a category of patron-class buyer that had been holding up pricing at the top end.
The new fit logic
The deals being signed today have a different fit logic. Aviva for Bristol works because a UK insurer matches a UK regional entertainment venue and the cross-sell into both consumer and corporate audiences is direct. Hill Dickinson for Everton works because a Liverpool law firm taking the Liverpool waterfront venue is a corporate-fit deal as much as a brand-reach deal. Spotify and Barcelona sit at the intersection of music and football audience. The brands now writing long-tenor anchor agreements are insurers, law firms, fintech, streamers, and non-Western aviation. The fit logic is more targeted, and the activation expectations come with it.
What the next pitch document looks like
For Premier League clubs and major venues currently inside a stadium project window, this is encouraging rather than troubling. The Arsenal expansion work, the long-term thinking at Newcastle, the redevelopment conversations at Stamford Bridge and in Manchester, all have a viable pool of long-tenor anchor partners. The pitch document looks different from the one that built the Emirates. The argument is now about audience fit, geographic alignment, corporate environment overlap and joint activation capacity, rather than purely about national brand reach.
Where we come in
This is part of the work we do at Earl with Premier League clubs and their stadium campuses. The starting point is usually mapping the natural anchor pool against the specific venue, audience and corporate footprint, then designing the activation layer that lets that partner commit at length. The deals that are getting done show what a 2026 brief looks like in practice.
The 10-year anchor deal is alive. It looks slightly different from the one that was on the table in 2018, and the brands signing it are not always the brands that signed it last cycle. That is a market evolving, not a market closing.