City are said to have sold naiming rights to ComS

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-07/manchester-city-said-to-have-sold-stadium-name-to-abu-dhabi-s-etihad-air.html

Manchester City, the English soccer
club owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi,
will sign the richest sponsorship agreement in its history with
Etihad Airways, the Gulf state’s government-owned airline,
according to two people familiar with the transaction.
Etihad, which pays 2.3 million pounds ($3.7 million) a year
as the team’s shirt sponsor, will get naming rights for the City
of Manchester Stadium, said the people, who declined to be
identified because the deal hasn’t been publicly announced. They
declined to reveal the terms of the contract, which will be
announced soon. Etihad and City declined to comment.
Mansour has spent almost $1 billion since acquiring City in
September 2008. He’s bought international players including
Carlos Tevez and David Silva in an effort to win trophies and
outpace rival cross-town rival Manchester United, which last
season won a record 19th English championship. City qualified
for the Champions League and won the F.A. Cup last season, its
first major trophy since 1976.
City has been trying to increase its revenue in an effort
to meet new criteria on fiscal responsibility established by
European soccer’s governing body, UEFA. Under those rules, clubs
that can’t keep costs and income at an acceptable level face
being banned from the Champions League, Europe’s elite
competition. City’s accounts for the year ended May 31, 2010,
show it lost 121.3 million pounds, 31 percent more than a year
earlier.
‘Financial Fair Play’


“There’s a sense, but UEFA will say it’s not the case of
course, that financial fair play is aimed at clubs like
Manchester City and Chelsea who have wealthy benefactors,” said
Stefan Szymanski, a professor of sports business at London’s
Cass Business School. “If this sponsorship deal were not to be
a fair value deal Manchester City would be caught out, but I
don’t believe that’s the case.”
UEFA will allow teams to incur losses for infrastructure
and youth development. Its General Secretary Gianni Infantino
said the Nyon, Switzerland-based organization will monitor
sponsorship deals to ensure agreements are based on fair value.
Infantino was responding to concerns that wealthy
benefactors could use sponsorship deals to inflate the balance
sheets of teams they own. Mansour is a member of the Abu Dhabi
royal family.
Szymanksi said Premier League teams’ sponsorship revenue is
less than that of teams playing in Germany’s Bundesliga because
they receive millions of euros from domestic corporations.
“If there’s a questions of fair value in relation to an
Abu Dhabi client sponsoring Manchester City, I see no reason to
see why the same questions can’t be raised about corporate
Germany sponsoring German football,” he said.
In last year’s results Manchester City said revenue from
sponsors and partners grew 400 percent to 32.4 million pounds
because of agreements with Abu Dhabi-based companies including
telecommunication company Etisalat, Aaabar Investments PJSC, the
Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority and Etihad. The Daily Mail reported
the current shirt deal is worth 2.3 million pounds.
City moved to the City of Manchester stadium from its Maine
Road ground in 2003. In October it re-negotiated with Manchester
City Council to allow it to sell naming rights.

This has got to be worth £10M a year.

Good on you Sheik Mansour!