Bird's Nest in 'strategic partnership' with Hanergy
- By Chen Boyuan
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E-mail China.org.cn, August 14, 2014
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A night view of the Bird's Nest. [Chen Boyuan / China.org.cn] |
China's National Stadium, also known as the Bird's Nest, officially entered into a five-year strategic partnership with Hanergy, a leading clean energy maker, on Aug. 13.
Under the deal, Hanergy will be a "strategic partner" and the exclusive provider of clean energy to the Bird's Nest.
Neither party revealed how much the strategic partnership would cost Hanergy, nor what rights and benefits Hanergy would receive under the "strategic partnership," although informed sources suspected it would include naming rights for the National Stadium.
If the speculation proves to be true, the Bird's Nest will possibly also renamed the "Hanergy Center," just as the Wukesong Basketball Center, also a venue for the 2008 Olympics, became the MasterCard Center in January 2011.
The Bird's Nest, along with the National Aquatics Center, also known as the Water Cube, has become a new landmark in the Chinese capital, after it hosted the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The significance of the Bird's Nest has transcended the steel structure itself, meaning that changing its name may be "emotionally unacceptable" to many, although selling the naming rights to a sports venue is common international practice.
This may explain why both the Bird's Nest and Hanergy seemed to purposefully avoid elaborating on the naming rights issue at the signing ceremony of the cooperation on Wednesday.
Hanergy's founder and chairman Li Hejun confirmed the reservation on the Bird Nest's side. He said that the Bird Nest has been "careful in choosing partners, since it is a national representative landmark."
Li said the partnership is a result of a mutual decision, after "a year of negotiation" with the Bird's Nest. He is optimistic about how the deal will benefit Hanergy as Beijing and neighboring city Zhangjiakou are jointly bidding for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games.
Wu Jingjun, general manager of the National Stadium, shared his optimism, saying that the "partnership will boost the Bird's Nest's commercial value," and it will continue to conform to the "green Olympics" idea.
In the post-Olympics era, the Bird's Nest has been searching for a lucrative profitable mode that can sustain the vast stadium's daily operations, including the staff and the venue itself. According to authorities at the Bird's Nest, tourism, sports activities and concerts are its three main sources of revenue.
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