Radik Minnakhmetov: “The renaming of Kazan Arena will be followed by its complete rebranding”
The main football stadium of Kazan after the agreement with the bankers changed its name to Ak Bars Bank Arena
Kazan Arena stadium has received a new name — Ak Bars Bank Arena. The name change followed the signing of an agreement on long-term strategic partnership between the large Tatarstan bank and the main football arena of the city. When the public will see the new logo of the sports complex and the concept of its rebranding, as well as how much the deal cost, according to experts, and why the credit institution needed it — read in the material of Realnoe Vremya.
“The stadium will bear the republican name”
On 7 November, Ak Bars Bank and Kazan Arena signed an agreement on long-term strategic partnership, which was followed by the renaming of the stadium to Ak Bars Bank Arena. As the chairman of the board of the bank, Zufar Garayev, noted, despite “periodic discussions of renaming the stadium, this topic could become quite unexpected for many”.
“It's a big day for us. We have been working on this for a long time — we have been working on this issue for the last 2-3 years. Different options were considered — both international and federal companies — and thank you that the name remained to the republic. The stadium will bear the republican name. Perhaps, the Almighty helped us. Even the roof of the stadium is suitable for Ak Bars Bank — it is green,” commented on the signing of the director general of the stadium, Radik Minnakhmetov.
The agreement will be valid for three years. According to Zufar Garayev, this is the minimum period for which it makes sense to sign such documents. The speaker also suggested that “cooperation will develop successfully and in the future the contract will be prolonged”.
“The renaming will be followed by a complete rebranding of the arena,” said the director general of the stadium. “There will be a complete re-registration of the territory, the internal content of the stadium and the interior, we will also present a new logo. This is a deep enough work that the stadium turned into a real Ak Bars Bank Arena. As for the timing of the presentation — I think it will definitely happen before the end of the month.”
“The agreement is different by the amount”
Representatives of both parties refused to announce the value of the transaction, however, as specified by the board of Ak Bars Bank, the amount is different from that indicated at the conclusion of a similar agreement between Otkritie Bank and Spartak FC.
Let us remind that in 2013, the capital's football club and Otkritie signed a sponsorship agreement on a long-term strategic partnership, under which the Spartak stadium under construction at the time was named Otkritie Arena. The amount of this transaction amounted to 1 billion 208 million rubles. The terms of the contract stipulated that the stadium would carry the name Otkritie Arena for at least six years.
“We do not disclose the value of the transaction by agreement of the parties. I can only say that our agreement is designed for three years, respectively, even in this sense, it differs in amount,” said Zufar Garayev.
“We have signed a naming agreement and we will pay money for it”
The signed agreement is aimed not only at renaming the arena, but also at further deepening cooperation between the stadium and Ak Bars Bank. The chairman of the board of the bank told more about this, as well as about the benefits of the agreement for the credit institution.
“This arena is the largest sports facility of the republic, it is strongly associated with Tatarstan. In turn, Ak Bars Bank is the largest bank in the region and is also associated with the republic,” said Zufar Garayev. “In addition, the bank is actively engaged in social activities: we are sponsors of many sports — hockey, football, basketball, volleyball. We also have our own fund Ak Bars Sozidanie, which is engaged in charity. Therefore, on the one hand, this is a financial issue: we have signed a naming agreement and we will pay some money for it, but with these funds Kazan Arena together with us will develop many social projects in the republic. This fits very well into our concept of social support.”
In turn, the director general of the stadium, Radik Minnakhmetov, added that the arena and the bank “will have many interesting joint projects”.
