Insurance company WWK Versicherungen has extended its stadium naming rights and main sponsor agreement with FC Augsburg, a deal the German Bundesliga football club claims is the biggest in its history.
WWK has signed an early 10-year extension to its contract, which will now run through to 2030, having been in partnership with the club for the past three years. The WWK Arena holds 30,660 fans and WWK, which also holds Augsburg’s front-of-shirt sponsorship rights, has invested significantly in the stadium.
WWK paid around €4.5m (£4m/$5.1m) to introduce new cladding for the stadium featuring LED lighting and steel tubes. It also invested more than €1m to introduce LED lighting in the south end of the facility.
Jürgen Schrameier, WWK chief executive, told the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper: “Of course, we did not build the façade out of pure charity, but because we wanted it to be a pleasure to have the WWK logo on top of it.”
Augsburg claims the deal is unique in nature for the Bundesliga. WWK will also provide the finance for Augsburg’s boarding school development, an €8m project the club says is pioneering for youth football.
WWK will receive naming rights to the new facility, on which construction will commence in the summer. Around 20 Augsburg youth team players, aged between 15 and 18, will live at the development when it opens in 2020.
“The four pillars of shirt sponsorship, naming rights to the arena, the construction of the façade and now of the boarding school show the sustainability that we see in this commitment,” Schrameier added.
Augsburg’s chief financial officer, Michael Ströll, said in a statement: “The partnership with WWK, and especially the premature and long-term commitment, are of enormous importance for FC Augsburg. We are given an ability to plan that will form the basis for our aspired growth in the coming years.
“The additional advertising contract for the naming rights of the FCA boarding school allows us to tackle this project, which is of fundamental importance for our development in the junior sector.”
Image: FC Augsburg
