Naming Rights and Naming Wrongs. An analysis of football fan communities and their evolving attitude towards stadium branding practices

This study seeks to provide an up-to-date analysis of how fandom communities perceive the stadium naming rights phenomenon. In order to gather empirical material which includes both a hypothetical and a retrospective perspective, the research is comprised of two independent cases. Focus groups and semi-structured interviews were the selected data collection methods, while the empirical data was analysed through a combination of hermeneutics and a model developed by Richard Giulianotti (2002). The research findings unveiled an evolving attitude towards the stadium branding practices – in general terms, the fandom presents a decreasing, but conditional, element of disapproval. In order for the community to cope with a sponsor-influenced home ground name, a sponsor-stadium fit is a main prerequisite which needs to be ensured. When this requirement is considered, the majority of the community would consent to adopting a coping stance, rather than actively resisting the naming rights agreement. Despite the increasing element of acceptance, this research has discovered and developed certain elements which would be an unconditional resistance triggers - the concept of topophilia representing the strong notion of rejecting the possibility of a relocation, even when considering an infrastructural improvement