New naming rights sponsor for Stadium Australia

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A year after reverting to its original name of 'Stadium Australia', Sydney's former Olympic Stadium will now be known as 'Accor Stadium' after a new sponsorship deal was announced on Friday.

The venue, which opened in 1999, first held a naming rights sponsor when telco giant Telstra took over in 2002. Known as 'Telstra Stadium' until the end of 2007, ANZ Bank took over the rights in 2008 and retained them until the end of 2020, when 'ANZ Stadium' reverted to 'Stadium Australia' in the absence of a naming rights sponsor.

On Friday, it was confirmed that global hotel company Accor - which runs hotel brands such as Novotel, Sofitel, Mercure, Pullman, Mantra and ibis - would take over the naming rights immediately. The brand is already integrated with the NRL as one of the competition's official partners.

The venue is scheduled to host 14 regular season NRL games involving home teams Canterbury and South Sydney in 2022, and will host any finals series matches those clubs may be eligible to host in September next year. It is currently the contracted venue for the NRL Grand Final, which was not played at the venue for the first time since its opening in 2021 due to COVID-19 outbreaks in Sydney. It is also scheduled to host the first State of Origin game in June 2022.

View the full 2022 NRL draw here.