Cambridge to rename Abbey Stadium

Cambridge United have announced plans to rename the Abbey Stadium as The Trade Recruitment Stadium from 1 May in a five-year sponsorship deal.

United's next home game is the Blue Square Premier play-off semi-final first leg against Burton next Tuesday.

U's chief executive Norman Gautrey said: "The board deliberated long and hard about the stadium-naming deal.

"The deal will help considerably towards paying the rent and [will] underpin the finances of the club."

Trade Recruitment are a Cambridge-based recruitment agency.

The club have struggled to stay on top of rent payments for the stadium, which is owned by property developers Bideawhile 445 Ltd.

"Sadly this is the way that football is moving these days"
Cambridge United chief executive Norman Gautrey

Gautrey said: "The circumstances in which the club finds itself, relating to the ground ownership and the level of the rent payable, meant that the board could not turn it down.

"Sadly this is the way that football is moving these days."

"[Directors] Paul Barry and Adrian Hanauer have committed large sums of money to the football club for which we are all grateful, however this will not last forever so we need to get into a situation where the club can stand on its own two feet."

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