Deutsche Bank Park new name of ‘Die Adler’ home ground

Article posted by Coliseum, April 2^nd, 2020

Image: Eintracht Frankfurt

Frankfurt-based global multinational and investment bank and financial services company Deutsche Bank will replace fellow German financial services company Commerzbank as the stadium naming rights partner of Bundesliga football club Eintracht Frankfurt. This announcement was made on Wednesday. With this, Eintracht Frankfurt confirms the long-term expansion and deepening of ties with Deutsche Bank.

The retractable roof Commerzbank-Arena was so far the home stadium of football club Eintracht Frankfurt. However, as per the new deal struck, Deutsche Bank, an existing partner of Eintracht, has agreed to a seven-year contract, with an option to extend, which will run through to at least June 30, 2027. Under the deal, the stadium will be renamed Deutsche Bank Park from its present moniker of Commerzbank-Arena in the summer. Both partners have decided not to disclose the annual financial terms.

A statement on the Eintracht Frankfurt website read, “This partnership is long-term. It is not just about sports sponsorship and naming rights, but also about jointly developing new digital business models and products that play a role in people’s everyday lives far beyond today’s stadium experience.”

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The statement further read, “Eintracht Frankfurt and Deutsche Bank also confirm that the contract is valid for seven years with the option to extend it. Until June 30, 2027, all events, concerts and the games of the Bundesliga club will take place in Deutsche Bank Park. Both parties have agreed not to disclose the amount of the annual sponsorship costs.”

The statement added, “Due to the current coronavirus crisis, Eintracht Frankfurt and Deutsche Bank will provide more comprehensive information at a later date about the cornerstones of the partnership and the concept of the Deutsche Bank Park. Eintracht Frankfurt is also grateful for the extraordinarily good cooperation with Commerzbank over the past 15 years.”

Media reports stated that the contract would bring the Frankfurt Bundesliga club around 38 million euros over the next seven years.

Eintracht Frankfurt has played in the Commerzbank-Arena since 2005. Since the renovation for the 2006 World Cup, which was completed in summer 2005, the stadium has been called the Commerzbank-Arena.

Eintracht Frankfurt is a German professional sports club based in Frankfurt, Germany, and currently plays in Bundesliga, the top tier of the German football league system.

Deutsche Bank stated that the alliance will extend beyond sports sponsorship activities and naming rights. Both the parties will examine new business models and products that “transcend the stadium experience of today and make their way into people’s everyday lives”. Amid the coronavirus bane, the two parties said they will jointly disclose the details of the partnership and the concept for Deutsche Bank Park in due course.

In March 2015, Commerzbank agreed to a five-year extension to its naming rights deal for the Eintracht home ground, along with signing new terms for its association with the club. The present contract was due to expire in 2016, but was extended through to June 30, 2020. Commerzbank has been collaborating with Eintracht since the 2002-03 seasons, but the association is now all set to come to a close.

Deutsche Bank entered into a partnership with Eintracht way back in December 2017. That agreement was set to run through to the end of the current 2019-20 seasons, with the company serving as a premium partner of the team and working with the club to develop new digital-business models.

Both Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank, which are based in Frankfurt, the financial fulcrum of Germany, ended talks in 2019 over a potential merger. After facing losses for several years, Deutsche Bank is currently devoted to strategic overhaul, with the focus more on its European and German markets.

In November last year, Eintracht unveiled plans to expand the capacity of the Commerzbank-Arena to around 60,000 as part of an agreement to become the operator of its home stadium. Eintracht and the City of Frankfurt, owner of the Commerzbank-Arena, agreed on the key terms for the future use and development of the facility from July 1, 2020.

Since it first went on stream in 1925, Commerzbank-Arena has undergone several reconfiguration works, the most recent one being – ahead of its status as a venue for Germany’s staging of the 2026 FIFA World Cup™. It presently holds 51,500 spectators for football matches and the City has committed to expand this to around 60,000 seats by the 2023-24 seasons at the latest.

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