I have been living in Dubai for four years now, so for me, saying "let's meet at Mashreq" or "I will pick you up at Onpassive" would sound completely normal. And you would probably understand me too — with one catch: only if you haven't just arrived in this shape-shifting city. Because if you had, surprise! Neither Mashreq nor Onpassive exist anymore. Mashreq became InsuranceMarket.ae in 2024, and just last week, Onpassive became Garmin. And if you think those are just two particularly restless stations, they aren't. Dubai's Metro map has been changing names for years.

Which brings us to the obvious question: how does this keep happening? But why did Dubai introduce this system in the first place? What does it take to get your name on a station? And — of course — how much does it cost? Let’s dig in.

If you head to the RTA website hoping for a neat little price list — Business Bay: this much, Sobha Realty: that much — you will be disappointed. There isn't one. The metro, it turns out, doesn't do transparency the way it does timetables.

But if you push me for a number, I will drag you back to 2008, when the naming-rights programme first launched — and to one of the only figures that has ever slipped into public view. Back then, station names went for roughly 70–90 million AED, depending on things like location and expected footfall. Translation: the more a station could do for a brand's visibility, the higher its price tag climbed.

And clearly, there was real money in a name. According to the World Bank, Dubai Metro naming rights pulled in around 2 billion AED between 2010 and 2020 alone. Not bad for a bit of signage.

Because, rather conveniently, it is what we like to call a triple win: one for the business, one for the government, and one for the people caught in between. Let me explain.

For businesses, it is advertising taken to a rather different level. Your name doesn't sit on yet another billboard, ignored on the way to somewhere else — it becomes part of the city's actual navigation. It shows up on maps, gets announced on trains, and slowly worms its way into how people talk: "meet me at InsuranceMarket.ae." Not bad for a brand that started life as an insurance platform, not a landmark. And the exposure is genuinely enormous — in 2025 alone, National Paints' newly acquired station clocked more than 47 million impressions, with over 12 million people passing the brand.

For Dubai, meanwhile, those names quietly turn into an entirely new revenue stream, funnelled straight back into the transport network. And this is not pocket change we are talking about: the 2 billion AED raised from Metro naming rights between 2010 and 2020 comes close to a fifth of what it cost Dubai to build the entire 15-km Metro extension to Expo City — seven new stations and 50 new trains, all in.

And for the people — the ones actually riding the trains — the win is quieter, but no less real. No new tax, no fare hike to plug the gap; the RTA covers 60% of its operating and maintenance costs this way, which means a smoother, better-funded network for the price of a name change every decade or so.

In practice, RTA does — but not by simply sticking a price tag on each one. Brands submit their commercial offers, and RTA evaluates what each station — and each deal — is worth.

With no official price list, you might assume it simply comes down to who is willing to pay the most. But it doesn’t quite work that way. RTA actually breaks the commercial offer down into a rather more nuanced recipe:

So picture this: Brand A waves around 100 million AED. Brand B, a little more modestly, offers 90 million AED. Does Brand A just win? Not necessarily. If Brand B pays more upfront and locks in for longer, those two smaller slices of the pie can quietly close that 10 million AED gap.

And then there are the things money alone can’t settle. Does the brand actually make sense for that station? Is its headquarters nearby? And what, besides the cheque, is it bringing to the deal? RTA takes all of that into account too.

When RTA launched the programme, 23 stations were put up for naming rights, while stations linked to historical landmarks were kept off the market. Today, there is no public menu of exactly how many are currently up for grabs: RTA decides which stations become available, and brands choose from those rather than simply pointing at their favourite stop on the map.

So, could Burj Khalifa/Dubai Mall become YourCompanyHere Station one day? I wouldn’t say never — RTA doesn’t publish a permanent “do not touch” list. But for now, it looks like a very unlikely candidate.

Not quite. First things first: you need to be a company, not a person. No metro station in Dubai will ever quietly carry someone's first name or surname — personal branding stops right at the platform edge.

Beyond that, your business needs to arrive with its paperwork in order: solid financial standing and a brand image that aligns with the city’s standards. Some categories are off the table altogether, including alcohol, tobacco, gambling and adult-content brands — regardless of budget.

Once you tick those boxes, the process is fairly simple: check which stations are available, submit your bid and commercial offer, and enter negotiations with RTA.

If the deal goes through, the station gets a new identity — from signage and maps to the name commuters will use every day.

Because selling a station name comes with one rather obvious complication: names can change. Take today’s Garmin station. In just over 16 years, the same stop has gone from Noor Bank to Al Safa to ONPASSIVE and now Garmin.

Different cities have approached that challenge differently. Boston explored keeping the geographical name alongside the sponsor — think Dunkin’ Donuts/North Station. Los Angeles briefly approved naming rights in 2016, but reversed the policy two months later amid a broader mix of legal, commercial and navigation concerns.

Dubai, meanwhile, built a model that made full commercial naming work at scale. Rather than simply adding a sponsor to an existing name, the brand can become part of how people navigate the city. And remember that 2 billion AED we mentioned earlier? That is what the model generated in its first decade alone.

Could Dubai eventually experiment with double names too — Garmin/Al Safa, anyone? Perhaps. But for now, it remains one of the most committed versions of the idea: the advertising doesn’t sit on the Metro map. It becomes part of it.

Because buying the name and actually changing it everywhere are two different things.

The deal was only announced on September 7, 2026, and the switch from ONPASSIVE to Garmin is being rolled out gradually through the end of November. That means changing everything from station signage and Metro maps to apps, digital systems and onboard announcements — not exactly an overnight job.

For a while, then, ONPASSIVE and Garmin will coexist.