The deal
Spanish soccer giants Atletico Madrid and nascent Saudi Arabian flag carrier Riyadh Air recently unveiled a significant extension of their deal, through which the brand becomes the new naming rights partner for the club’s Metropolitano stadium.
The long-term deal will run through the end of the 2032-33 season and will see the 70,460-capacity stadium renamed the Riyadh Air Metropolitano. Civitas, a real estate developer, has been the club’s stadium naming rights partner for the past two seasons.
Atletico have now referred to Riyadh Air, which has been the team’s front-of-shirt sponsor since August 2023, as the most lucrative sponsor in the club’s history.
Why it matters
Reports from Spain value the Riyadh Air deal at between €250 million and €300 million ($274 million to $328.8 million) in total, or €27.7 million-€33.3 million a year.
This annual value figure puts the deal in a similar ballpark to some of the most lucrative stadium partnerships in world sport - such as SoFi’s reported 20-year, $30 million-per-season deal to cover the Los Angeles Rams’ American football stadium, and Scotiabank’s 20-year deal to cover the home of the Toronto Maple Leafs ice hockey team and Toronto Raptors basketball franchise.
However, the agreement’s financial worth is still some way short of the global leader, rival Spanish side FC Barcelona, which receives a reported $76.8 million per year from music streaming service Spotify, although that deal is only for four years, making the overall value similar.
In terms of its significance, it has also been reported in recent weeks that the Saudi state’s Public Investment Fund sovereign wealth group - which wholly funds Riyadh Air - is interested in the purchase of Atletico Madrid.
Overall, Saudi Arabia and Spanish soccer have been growing closer together over the last few years.
Earlier this month, the top league announced a three-season partnership with the Riyadh Season sporting, cultural, and entertainment brand.
The deal makes Riyadh Season an official LaLiga commercial sponsor for the 2024-25, 2025-26, and 2026-27 seasons.
The last three editions of the Spanish Super Cup have also taken place in Saudi Arabia, and a deal is reportedly in place for that four-team mini-competition to stay in the Kingdom through the 2029 edition.
In addition, last season the Visit Saudi brand was a LaLiga sponsor, in a deal valued by GlobalData at around $22 million for the year.
Commenting on the overall trend of Saudi Arabia becoming more prominent across top-tier soccer, GlobalData Sport head of analysis and consulting Conrad Wiacek has said: “Riyadh Air's naming rights deal in Spain highlights again the financial might that Saudi Arabia possesses in its continued quest to buy influence in the world of sport, specifically in soccer.
“As clubs look for ever more creative ways of raising revenue, Saudi brands present a unique opportunity for clubs to take Saudi money without having to sell part of the club to the PIF. As high-value revenue streams such as gambling sponsorships become off limits, clubs will be forced into associating with brands who may have links back to despotic regimes to maintain a strong balance sheet.”
The detail
For its part, the outgoing Civitas will remain a sponsor of Atletico Madrid for at least the next five campaigns (through 2028-29) and will continue to collaborate with the club on activations.
Before Civitas put its name to the venue, the naming rights partner was Wanda Group.
Riyadh Air, meanwhile, is a “digitally native” airline that as yet has no planes, though it intends to launch in the middle of 2025.
Other club commercial partners include Mahou, CaixaBank, EA Sports, Hyundai, Kraken, Coca-Cola, and Sorare.
Riyadh Air, meanwhile, became the official airline partner of Concacaf (the governing body for soccer across North and Central America and the Caribbean) in mid-August, as part of a wider tie-up between that body and the PIF.
