The New York Red Bulls, of North America’s Major League Soccer (MLS), and Sports Illustrated Tickets (SIT), the events and ticketing operator of the prestigious US sports publication, recently entered into a 13-year stadium naming rights partnership.
The deal sees the 25,000-person venue just outside New York City in Harrison, New Jersey, (previously known as Red Bull Arena) renamed Sports Illustrated Stadium – the first such tie-up in the company's history.
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As part of the deal, Sports Illustrated Tickets will be the official ticketing partner for all events at the venue from 2026.
This includes all New York Red Bulls and Gotham FC home matches, international soccer games, youth events, concerts, and watch parties held at the stadium.
The New York Red Bulls finished in the playoff spots in the MLS' 2024 Eastern Conference and indeed made the MLS Cup Final (in which they lost to the LA Galaxy) for the first time since 2008.
The first such naming rights deal in Sports Illustrated’s history “aims to set a new standard for fan engagement through blockchain ticketing,” with its blockchain partner Ava Labs, according to the club.
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By GlobalDataSports Illustrated Tickets will also serve as the official fan experience partner for the stadium and the New York Red Bulls, utilizing its Club SI hospitality service. Club SI will deliver VIP access, food, beverages, live entertainment, and packages to a maximum of 1000 attendees per event.
Sportcal (GlobalData Sport) spoke to the president of the New York Red Bulls, Marc de Grandpré, and chief executive of Sports Illustrated Tickets, David Lane, about the objectives of the partnership, the utilization of blockchain ticketing and web3 elements, and how the two entities plan to evolve the partnership over time.
What are the strategic objectives of this partnership?
de Grandpré: "It's pretty simple, the strategic objective is to enhance the fan experience and make it the best in the industry. Ultimately, we combine the power of both brands together and really elevate the fan experience and the sports and entertainment experience at the Sports Illustrated Stadium, make it one that fans will never forget when they walk through our doors.
"And that's the ultimate goal here through this partnership, it's not just slapping a name on a building. It's truly to elevate the fan experience across sports and entertainment in the New York area."
Lane: "You think about every concert or game that you've gone to, it's the team, the players and the artist. That's why you're there, right? They are the content of that event. What happens around everything that they do matters to the fan, and it matters to get you to be able to say I can't wait to come back. This was a great experience, and you can come from so many different touch points as you arrive and walk in, the concessions facilities and the experience.
"We want to create something that's authentic. We want you to leave that game or that concert and remember the parts that we helped make better. Everything is already in place. We're going to help amplify, improve, and do things for you that you've never had access to when you went to a concert or a game before."
What new features will this partnership introduce?
Lane: "We have a few different features that are coming right away. One will happen starting in the 2026 season, when we take over the ticketing. Our ticketing is on blockchain. That gives us some additional advantages and capabilities to deliver.
"One of the main ones you'll see is that the tickets, which are really useless to all of us in their current form, after we scan them they go in our trash bin, well they are going to transform into videos and pictures and highlights and content and engagement, loyalty, sponsor messages, that way we can use something that is already important, right?
"Every single event in the world starts with the ticket to get in. Yet it becomes the least important thing as soon as that five-second scan is completed. And so it's a great opportunity for us to take something that everybody possesses and improve that element so that experience that you had can be relived.
"You can go back to the ticket. You can see highlights and things, and all of that will be stored. You'll get a picture at the game that you'll be able to upload right there. You'll get your own Sports Illustrated cover customized for you. We've got a system that's being installed that's going to capture the moments that some of the greatest plays or songs or things that are happening around concerts, that captures the moment of fans’ emotional reaction.
"You'll be able to choose your section row seat and see that and capture that and put that in on a cover, or take that onto a frame, or send that to your friends, just things that are all of a sudden going to be available to every fan so that you leave there thinking that was great."
de Grandpré: "Think about the power of what Dave just spoke about, for the club and the team to engage with a family walking in the building. They scan their ticket and they have a personalized message from their favorite player. All those little touch points really change that experience and elevate it and drive engagement. So it's critical.
"And then we're going to also have physical spaces that will come to life, like Club SI, which can be a 1000 capacity club that's going to be open, pre-game, post-game, and most likely during off days, also to give a really great experience to our fans, very similar to what you've seen at the Super Bowl when you have Club SI there and at the Kentucky Derby."
Do you believe this is how web3 will finally manage to be integrated into sports?
Lane: "Our approach here focuses on the challenges that the web3 community have been facing in mass adoption into a web2 environment or experience. I can't have the average Red Bulls fan having to watch a 10-minute tutorial on what blockchain or NFT ticketing is to figure out how to get into the game, so it looks and feels like any other ticket.
"You buy it, you never see blockchain or any type of onboarding or KYC, this is a seamless front end that looks like every other event you've been to.
"But behind the scenes, it is far more capable, for all the benefits that the web3 community touts every day, and we believe all of the features, from validation and security and royalty and sharing and trend, all of the fundamental functional elements of it add to that."
How did this partnership come to fruition?
Lane: "This is very unique and around the world, you’d be hard-pressed to find a similar combination of two globally iconic brands like Red Bull and Sports Illustrated that have come together in this significant way. It's more than putting a name on the side of the building.
"There are plenty of insurance companies, banks and healthcare systems that you may or may not have ever heard of that want to be associated with an organization like New York Red Bulls and to be a part of the stadium that hosts Gotham, as well as international matches for us.
"What we're going to be doing together for the next 13 years is creating a showcase of how these two iconic sports entities can create and bring all of their history and resources and experience, but most importantly, the connection to the fan.
de Grandpré: "It's taken a while to find the right partner, and when that occurs, you know when it's the right partner. And everything that Dave has just spoken about is why this was the right time for us to partner with an iconic brand like Sports Illustrated Ticketing and their vision for the platform and the fan experience."
How do you see the partnership evolving over time?
de Grandpré: "It's really about seeing the fan experience evolve, get better, and getting more people through the doors of Sports Illustrated Stadium so they can experience this magnificent property and what it brings to life, and they can leave the building with a sense of awe regardless of the outcome of the match or concert, because of that experience we've delivered surrounding the product that's occurring. And hopefully there'll be more wins than losses and more championships.
"It's going to take some time to get to where we want to go, and we will eventually get there and deliver a magnificent experience."
Lane: "We're doing something to improve and enhance. You're there for the team. We're not as important as the players that take the field to win the game, that is why you are there. We are not here to be a distraction or to try to pivot you away from the whole night or day and have that experience for you and your friends.
"What we want to do is make sure that we're creating an environment of authenticity to the organizations, not salesy promotion, but something that really represents the legacy of these two decades-old brands."
