Ellis Park has lost Emirates as its naming rights sponsor with the airline ending its agreement with both the rugby stadium and South African United Rugby Championship (URC) side The Lions.
Emirates’ 10-year title sponsorship of the Lions and Ellis Park will now conclude at the end of June.
A Facebook post said the airline has decided to focus more on sports like basketball after increasing its number of flights to the USA.
There have also been personnel changes at Emirates that influenced the decision not to renew the sponsorship, which began in 2015.
Ellis Park Stadium (known as Emirates Airline Park for sponsorship reasons) is a rugby union and association football stadium in Johannesburg, Gauteng Province, South Africa.
It hosted the final of the 1995 Rugby World Cup, which was won by the country’s national team, the Springboks. The stadium was the country’s most modern when it was upgraded in 1982 to accommodate almost 60,000 people.
The Lions is a South African professional rugby union team based in Johannesburg in the Gauteng province. They competed in the Super Rugby competition until 2020, and have competed in the URC since 2021.
Ellis Park MD Pieter Burger told Rapport the Lions were in talks with six potential title sponsors, for the team and stadium, including local and international companies.
“Unfortunately, nothing lasts forever. We owe a lot to Emirates. Even though it is not fun and it is stressful [to lose a sponsor], it offers new opportunities and is exciting at the same time.
“In rugby [compared to other sports], you get by far the best [value] for what you put in. Your business gets incredibly good mileage,” he added.
“Emirates got incredible exposure with the Test at Ellis Park last year [between the Springboks and All Blacks]. We even shot a documentary of the flight over the stadium, which gave them incredible exposure on SuperSport.
“We know what we offer as the Lions to the title sponsor.”
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