Featured image credit: Cambridge United
English League One football club Cambridge United has signed a stadium naming rights deal with SaaS (Software as a Service) subscription management platform Cledara – an agreement that is set to aid the redevelopment of Abbey Stadium.
The five-year contract announced today (Wednesday) will rename the venue as Cledara Abbey Stadium through to January 2029. The naming rights deal comes after United last month appointed Holmes Miller as architects of the proposed redevelopment of Abbey Stadium, as well as naming Wrenbridge Sport as project managers.
United in October reached an agreement with its fans that paved the way for the redevelopment of Abbey Stadium, its home since 1932. The club pledged to spend £1.5m (€1.73m/$1.89m) on a new Supporters Club building, allowing the existing one to be demolished.
In return, the club is due to be gifted an area of land owned by the Supporters Club to allow redevelopment work to go ahead. In last month’s announcement, United CEO Alex Tunbridge said the Supporters Club pact had yet to be fully signed off, adding United hopes to be in a position to publish initial plans for Abbey Stadium in early 2024.
Tunbridge said today: “We are embarking on an exciting journey to develop the stadium and welcoming organisations such as Cledara is an important part of that. We are very grateful to have their support as we start out on the redevelopment project and I would like to thank them for ensuring that the Abbey Stadium remains a part of the stadium’s new name.
“We are ambitious for the club. We want to modernise, progress and take advantage of new potential opportunities as the professional football club based in the world leading city of Cambridge, home to the rules of the game.
“At the same time, we want to do this with appropriate acknowledgement of the DNA of our club. Keeping ‘The Abbey’ as a central part of the new name was important both for us and Cledara.”
Cledara is based in London, with offices in Barcelona and New York. Cristina Vila Vives, Cledara founder and CEO, said: “We are delighted to be able to help Cambridge United with its ambitions to grow the fanbase, engage younger fans, encourage families, build the visibility of the women’s team and support the Cambridge community. We are fully supportive of all these plans.
“We are a people business, as is Cambridge United. The club is a central part of the community and it’s great to be a part of that. And Cambridge itself is a leading tech hub and a hotbed for startups. This is a market which Cledara serves and we look forward to expanding our network throughout the city and surrounding areas.
“This agreement, which lasts for five years, reflects that we’re building for the future. Our customers trust us with their core software infrastructure and planning for the long term is important. There also is a personal connection for me, which means a lot, as I studied for my masters in Cambridge at the Anglia Ruskin University. It’s great to have a new connection both with the city and wider community.”
Share this