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November 5

Question about stadium names on Wikipedia

I'm not sure if this question belongs here, on the help desk, or on WikiProject Sports talkpage, but for a number of years I've been wondering: how come in articles about American and Canadian arenas and stadiums, the article title is moved every time the name of the stadium changes, while for stadiums in the rest of the world (particularly in Europe or Australia), the article title is generally at whatever the "traditional" name of the stadium is, regardless of any naming rights deals (i.e. City of Manchester Stadium rather than Etihad Stadium, Westfalenstadion rather than Signal Iduna Park, etc.)? I had been looking for the relevant Manual of Style or discussion pages but I couldn't seem to find anything relevant. Narutolovehinata5 ^tccsdnew 10:01, 5 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Does it matter as long as the redirects end up at the page the article is at? -- SGBailey (talk) 10:55, 5 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

WP:COMMONNAME is the relevant policy, although each article will be decided on a case-by-case basis. The starting point is the name used by reliable sources - the current policy wording is "If the sources written after the change is announced routinely use the new name, Wikipedia should follow suit and change relevant titles to match." However, consensus for a particular article may be to stay with the "traditional" name - the article talk page is the place for such discussion. Tevildo (talk) 11:47, 5 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for that explanation, Tevildo. You pre-empted precisely the answer I came here give. Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 12:59, 5 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Once a venue no longer exists, the name will tend to revert to the most common name during its timespan. One example is Sportsman's Park in St. Louis, which for its last dozen years of existence was "Busch Stadium", but is now generally referred to by its traditional name. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 13:45, 5 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Generally in my observations, it seems that both the American and Canadian sports media are quick to use the most up-to-date stadium name as soon as it is changed, while the sports media in Europe and Australia seem slower or are more hesitant. Hence, the primary reasons for those page moves. Zzyzx11 (talk) 21:41, 5 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

How many European venues are "sponsored" names? A lot of the American stadiums are sponsored, and that could be a factor - especially among the newer ones which haven't really been around long enough to have a "traditional" name. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 22:20, 5 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Naming rights suggest it's quite common for stadiums to have naming rights deals in various places outside the US including "Germany, where 8 of the 10 largest football stadiums have their naming rights sold to corporate sponsors"; whether or not these stadiums are commonly referred to by these names.

It's possible the practice is more recent outside the US but no info on the history outside the US is given.

As also mentioned there, quite a lot of major sporting events require stadiums are sponsorship free which generally also means the stadium can't be referred to without any corporate sponsor name (although if the sponsor also sponsors the event I guess they may be able to make part of it keeping the sponsored stadium name). While this applies to the US as well, the olympics are perhaps the only such events which are a big deal there so it potentially arises less often. (And in the recent past at least, it's generally been expected that many of the stadiums for the olympics are new or at least majorly renovated even in developed countries. ^{[citation needed]})

Note the article provides some details of opposition to naming rights of stadiums in the US. One factor mentioned is it tends to be more successful with newer stadiums particularly when they've had the rights from the beginning. I don't believe this is restricted to the US. So it may also be there are more such venues in the US perhaps because of sports demands and government subsidies [1]. (This does happen outside the US as well, although this tends to be for the aforementioned major sporting events. I don't think many of the ads or practices highlighted in the earlier video would work very well in many places outside the US.) ^{[citation needed]}

Nil Einne (talk) 16:02, 7 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

OP: Here's a requested move for the City of Manchester Stadium from a couple of years ago. Lugnuts ^{Fire Walk with Me} 12:40, 7 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]