RCD Espanyol cancel stadium naming deal

Image: Estadi Cornellà-El Prat, Arup, CC BY-SA 3.0

Spanish LaLiga club RCD Espanyol has terminated the naming rights agreement for the club’s stadium and begun legal action against sponsor Stage Front for non-payment and breach of contract.

Stage Front, a North American company with extensive experience in the field of professional sports services and ticketing technology in the United States, began an ambitious expansion project in Europe in 2023.

As part of this strategy, the company established important sponsorship alliances with renowned entities, including – besides the sponsorship deal for RCD Espanyol de Barcelona – an agreement as a regional partner for LaLiga in the United States and official sponsor of the RFEF for the 2023/24 season.

In March 2023, Espanyol signed an agreement with Stage Front for the naming rights of the RCDE Stadium for five seasons.

The 40,000-capacity RCDE Stadium, also known as Estadi Cornellà-El Prat, is an all-seater football stadium on the outskirts of Cornellà de Llobregat and El Prat de Llobregat, in the wider Barcelona urban area in Spain.

It took three years to build and cost approximately €60 million and opened on August 2^nd, 2009.

RCD Espanyol de Barcelona, commonly known as Espanyol, is a professional sports club based in Cornellá, Spain. Founded in 1900, the club plays in LaLiga, the highest division of Spanish football and play their home games at the RCDE Stadium, which holds up to 40,000 spectators.

The club said at the time the deal was signed that it went beyond football and included a strategic collaboration for Stage Front to energise and make the stadium facilities profitable, positioning it as a reference ground for shows and events on a global scale.

The club said in a statement, “Despite the club’s efforts to collaborate with Stage Front on the growth of their project, as we have done with all our sponsors for many seasons, a lack of compliance with contractual obligations on the part of Stage Front has led to the decision to terminate the agreement.

“RCD Espanyol have instructed lawyers to immediately initiate legal action before the civil jurisdiction with the filing of a civil lawsuit, requesting payment of the invoices owed and compensation for damages caused by the early termination of the contract due to non-compliance.”

The club said it had also become aware that Stage Front are withdrawing all of the personnel responsible for the activation and monitoring of the contracts they handle in Europe, as well as ceasing their activities with LaLiga.

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