Bremen stadium sponsor face fiscal music!

Article posted by Coliseum, July 5^th, 2024

Image: Weserstadion, Detlefrueter, CC BY-SA 4.0

The Bundesliga team SV Werder Bremen (Germany) naming rights partner – the real estate company Wohninvest – filed for bankruptcy during May end and all contracts with the club was terminated on June 30^th, 2024.

‘kicker’ stated that the SV Werder Bremen has once again reverted back to their old home name – the Weserstadion. The top-flight club is looking for a new naming rights partner.

The SV Werder Bremen is a German professional sports club based in the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (Germany). Founded on February 4^th, 1899, the Bremen are best known for their professional association football team who compete in the Bundesliga, the first tier of the German football league system.

The 42,100-capacity Weserstadion is a football stadium in Bremen, Germany. The Weserstadion is scenically situated on the North Bank of the Weser River and is surrounded by lush green parks (the name ‘Werder’ is a regional German word for ‘River Peninsula’). The City Center is only about a kilometer away. It is the home stadium of the German Bundesliga club SV Werder Bremen.

‘kicker’ further stated that in the Summer of 2019, the previous sponsor ‘Ewe’ sold its rights to the real estate company ‘Wohninvest’. As part of the 10-year naming rights deal, the arrangement was that the Bundesliga club would receive three million euros per year in lieu of which its stadium would be named the Wohninvest Weserstadion.

Everything was hunky-dory for the first five years but suddenly in May this year the Baden-Württemberg-based real estate investment firm Wohninvest filed for bankruptcy and everything went kaput. The SV Werder’s home stadium will bear the name Weserstadion again, as it was called from 1947 to 2019.

Hunt On

Commented Klaus Filbry, Chairman, SV Werder Management Board, “Bremen is in search of new naming rights partner. A considerable amount of money was spent in revamping the Bremen home from the period 2008 to 2010 and there is a need for that amount to be covered. The City, the SV Werder Management Board and the Bremer Weser-Stadion GmbH hold unanimous views on the issue of financials.”

Spring 2025

The Bundesliga club wants to take time till Spring 2025 to find a new naming rights partner as Filbry added, “The naming rights is a complex issue and we want to find a sustainable solution to it. We will have to ensure that the next naming rights partner’s financial health is robust so we will need enough time in hands to search for a sound naming rights partner for the stadium.”

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