{"id":4166,"date":"2026-07-17T00:58:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T05:58:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/capertongillett.com\/blog\/?p=4166"},"modified":"2026-07-17T01:07:32","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T06:07:32","slug":"the-best-and-a-worst-of-world-cup-venue-de-branding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/capertongillett.com\/blog\/the-best-and-a-worst-of-world-cup-venue-de-branding\/","title":{"rendered":"The best (and a worst) of World Cup venue de-branding"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The men\u2019s World Cup is coming to an end \u2014 Spain will be facing off against Argentina in the final on Sunday \u2014 and that\u2019s a special occasion for the maintenance team at MetLife Stadium, who will finally be able to uncover sponsor logos and even the name of the stadium itself that have been concealed for the past month and a half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that\u2019s because under FIFA\u2019s \u201cclean stadium\u201d policy, every men\u2019s World Cup venue has had to hide their own sponsor branding, including the name of the stadium if necessary, to create a blank branding slate for FIFA\u2019s sponsors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It sounds like a lot, but it is a FIFA event, and they get to make the rules. Sponsors pay millions of dollars for brand deals with FIFA, and they don\u2019t want their logos lost amid a sea of other brands getting that visibility for free. Grounds crews at venues have had to put in considerable work to make sure very sponsor name and logo became invisible, and now they get to put further work into undoing that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are some venues that really did the job rolling out the blank carpet for FIFA\u2019s sponsors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNew York New Jersey\u201d (MetLife) Stadium<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

MetLife Stadium in Not Actually New York did push back on one FIFA demand: covering the MetLife logo on every cupholder in the stadium. Their argument was that covering up the logo at nearly 80,000 seats using union labor would be astronomically expensive, and FIFA doesn\u2019t have an insurance brand they\u2019d be competing with, and\u2026 checks out. FIFA gave them a pass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More interesting than the cupholders is the slapfight between New York and New Jersey, which apparently didn\u2019t nail down, when they decided to go halvsies on bringing the men\u2019s World Cup to the Meadowlands, whose name would go first on the stadium<\/a>. FIFA defaulted to New York New Jersey<\/em>, but New Jersey\u2019s governor insisted that one of the two signs outside the stadium declare it New Jersey New York<\/em>, and both governors have been super passive-aggressive about the whole thing the whole time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSan Francisco Bay Area\u201d (Levi\u2019s) Stadium<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When Levi\u2019s rebranded its stadium to the rolls-off-the-tongue San Francisco Bay Area Stadium, they went so far as to cover the brand name on the ketchup bottles in the press box to make sure no accidental branding snuck through. But it was their to-the-letter obedience of FIFA\u2019s policy that drew attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They absolutely, 100% covered up the name of the stadium as instructed. And if a certain iconic shape might have remained wholly apparent?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A post shared by Levi's (@levis)<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n