The Scottish Rugby Union is expected to confirm today that it has sold the naming rights for Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh to BT Sport for a sum estimated to be in the region of €24 Million.
The stadium will be renamed the BT Sport Murrayfield Stadium after what is believed to have been a successful campaign by traditionalists over retaining the name.
A similar campaign to retain Lansdowne Road in the renaming of the Aviva Stadium in 2010 failed to impact and the new moniker has become widely accepted.
Naming rights are always a challenge where history and commerce collide but the rewards of selling the rights to what is for many sporting organisations their primary asset are enormous.
The Scottish Rugby Union will become debt free overnight and still have over €10 million to invest in development of the professional and amateur sides of the game.
The first stadium to be built in the Edinburgh area of Murrayfield opened in 1925 and saw Scotland’s first Grand Slam with victory over England. Ireland will play their concluding match of the 2015 RBS Six Nations there on March 21st next year.
BT Sport also bought the naming rights to the famous Cardiff Arms Park earlier this year. Twickenham and the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff remain without naming rights partnerships.
The Aviva Stadium is the highest profile such a move in Ireland though Musgrave Park in Cork will be renamed as Irish Independent Park from the start of next season.
It is expected that Leinster Rugby will seek to do a deal on naming rights at their redevelopment of the RDS Showgrounds in the coming years.
