Viva Sorte lands naming rights to Santos stadium

Viva Sorte, which markets capitalisation bonds, has acquired naming rights to the home stadium of Brazilian football club Santos.

As part of the agreement, the Campeonato Brasileiro Série B club’s home stadium, Vila Belmiro, will be known as Vila Viva Sorte.

Santos said the stadium will retain this name until construction work begins on its new home venue, but it is unclear when this will be.

The deal also provides Viva Sorte with brand exposure on the front and back of Santos’ kits, and on the front of shirts worn by coaching staff. This aspect of the deal will reportedly run for 10 seasons.

Santos had been due to hold a press conference last week to announce the deal, but this was postponed. According to reports in Brazil, this was because WTorre, which is overseeing the construction of the club’s new stadium, did not provide a response to the proposed deal with Viva Sorte.

In September, Santos signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the construction of its new stadium with WTorre. The agreement marked another stage in what is a developing partnership and allowed for the beginning of processes to regulate the project and raise funds for the works.

The signing of the MoU signalled the start of the approval phase with public bodies, as well as the raising of funds through pre-sales of memberships and sponsorships. Once started, construction is expected to take between 24 and 30 months.

Santos’ new stadium, Arena Vila Belmiro, will have a capacity of 30,108 and will be built on the site of the club’s current home, which is also known as the Estádio Urbano Caldeira.

Santos will need to find a temporary home in São Paulo whilst work is taking place on the new stadium.