Arsenal’s bid to close the commercial revenue gap on Premier League rivals has stepped up in the last few months with the club announcing a range of second-tier partnerships with the likes of Hotels.com, Google Pixel, Persil and MG Motors.
Now it has been confirmed that an existing relationship with Sobha Realty – a Dubai-based luxury real estate developer – has been extended to include naming rights for Arsenal’s training complex at London Colney and branding on the club’s training gear.
Having started life in 1976 as an interior decoration firm in Oman, the company has designs on global expansion and clearly hopes it can piggyback off Arsenal’s popularity. Fair enough. Hopefully, they are paying us a fair whack for the privilege.
While ‘Sobha Realty Training Centre’ doesn’t exactly run off the tongue, neither did ‘Arsenal Training Centre’ which is why most people refer to it by its geographical location. We suspect that tradition will continue.
In a statement that reads very much like a come-and-get-involved invitation to other companies, Chief Commercial Officer Juliet Slot said: “Our new partnership shows the strength of our commercial proposition and our ability to grow sustainably by developing commercial opportunities that can be invested back into our club. There has never been a better time to join us on our journey.”
Sporting Director Edu also weighed in, adding: “Our training centre is a big part of our people’s lives. It’s not just about working hard on the pitches, but also working in our office spaces, learning, relaxing and spending time with teammates, colleagues and their families.
“We are building a winning team and a winning culture, attention to detail is very important and it’s crucial our people have the right conditions to prepare well and perform at their best.”
Arsene Wenger was heavily involved in the design of the London Colney complex when it was (re)built in 1999 following a fire.
Using money from the sale of Nicolas Anelka to Real Madrid he oversaw the building of a state-of-the-art facility that has since been expanded and improved at regular intervals to include an indoor pitch, medical centre, a new performance centre, gym and new offices.
Still, the media room where press conferences are carried out every week carries serious hospital waiting room vibes, so if the Sobha team are looking for a project, perhaps they might lend a hand on that front.
For the record, this isn’t the first time Arsenal have sold the rights to their training facilities. In 1985, “The College” – an area behind the Clock End at Highbury which housed a small training pitch – was redeveloped as part of our shirt sponsorship deal with JVC.
The JVC Indoor Training Centre as it became known played home to training sessions as well as becoming a hub for Arsenal’s new Football in the Community department. You can read more on that here.
How much?
I might step in and call it ‘Tottenham get battered everywhere they go Training Ground’ 🫡
Cheaper and better to just pay to have “Armitage Shanks” replaced with “T*ttenh*m H*tsp*r St*dium” on all the bogs inside.
Easy. Just go to our pal and the trsining centre will be named Flamini Training Centre. 100 mil sponsorship.
This is what catching up financially is all about, hundreds of stupid companies plastered over everything. I was at least hoping it would oust “Visit Rwanda” but it seems this is only sponsoring training kit sleeves. Why on earth do we need that? We’re going to end up like the manc club, with a sponsor for everything and the players will just become walking billboards. I suppose I should be congratulating the club for bringing in more money, but it all makes me want to puke. It will always be London Colney.
Hopefully the Sobha facilities have a good influence on the youth.
I thought it said ‘Sobha Reality’ at first, which I thought was a little on the nose.
The sober reality is that it’s still in London Conley, so we can still call it that.