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One of the delightfully unique things about English football is the plethora of grounds with Very English™ sounding names. It's almost inevitable that brand new stadiums will come with a big name sponsor — see also: the Emirates — but most older grounds are holding on to their historic names along with their Grade 2 historic building designations rather than cashing in by having a corporation's name plastered all over the stadium.
It's a lovely tradition, but one that doesn't necessarily take advantage of a major potential revenue stream. Seeing the redeveloped Anfield get renamed in its entirety would likely cause fans to have a massive collective stroke, but Liverpool's solution to capitalize on at least one sponsorable property is to give up the unimaginatively named Main Stand to the highest bidder.
"Candidly, we’ve had a lot of interest in this area from third parties," said real person Mike Gordon, president of FSG. "While Anfield will always be Anfield, we are in fact in the market for a naming partner for the new Main Stand. Thus far we have had a number of very interesting conversations encompassing a wide range of partnership options. In reality, any Main Stand commercial sponsorship will ultimately depend on what potential partners are looking to achieve from such a relationship."
"I believe we at FSG have been clear all along that we intend to be creative and bold in all of our commercial activities in an effort to generate more revenue, which in turn is used to increase funding to those parts of the club that help us win football matches. The common thread to all of these options, or any other commercial activity of LFC, is that they must help to accomplish the goal of generating additional resources to invest in LFC in order to move the club forward and win trophies."
In lieu of having billionaire tycoons for owners who are happy to pump unlimited financial resources into the club, these types of commercial activities are one of the few ways of increasing club revenue without also impacting fans' wallets or the product on the pitch. Sensitivity to the club's history is paramount, of course, but FSG's hope to find the right sponsor rather than just any sponsor seems likely to take this into consideration.
