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TAMPA – Yankee Stadium, Fenway and Wrigley are ball parks whose names are woven in the tradition of the American national pastime.
Petco Park and guaranteed rate field? Not really.
The tradeoff for this clumsy business clerk is usually an annual payment of millions of dollars – a certain revenue stream to play a key role in the funding puzzle for a new stadium.
In March, Stu Sternberg, senior owner of Tampa Bay Rays, said a $ 25 million naming rights agreement would allow the team to invest up to $ 400 million. dollars in a new stadium. He may have thought about the $ 20 million a year deal that the New York Mets have with Citi.
But this deal is the best in Major League Baseball, working on its most lucrative market.
ANTERIOR COVER The clock of the deadline on the market of Rays with St. Pete
For smaller market teams like the Rays, naming rights are selling for more modest amounts, like the $ 3.5 million a year deal signed by the Cleveland Indians with the insurer Progressive automobile in 2008. Target, whose head office is located in Minnesota, $ 6 million a year for the team to play at Target Field.
Estimates for a naming rights agreement for a new Rays stadium in Ybor City range from $ 3 million to $ 10 million a year, according to sport economists and a consultant contacted by the Tampa Bay Times.
The final amount counts. The annual cash flow guarantee can be used to borrow money for the construction of a new stadium, which could cost more than $ 800 million. A long term deal of $ 10 million a year could yield about $ 95 million in advance, said Vanderbilt University sports economist John Vrooman.
Anything that could soften the case that renamed the ThunderDome in St. Petersburg to Tropicana Field. The Bradenton orange juice maker pays $ 1 million a year, the cheapest in baseball.
ANTERIOR COVER Meet the 100 rays. They want to help bring the rays to Ybor City
There is no guarantee that the shelves will be able to get a rights naming partner. The Oakland A have lost theirs in 2016 and are still looking, plus there is a lot of competition for big money and good cut.
Teams from major markets such as the Washington Nationals and Los Angeles Dodgers would be interested in selling naming rights to their fields for the first time. And the new Miami Marlins general manager, Derek Jeter, is also looking for a sponsor of Marlins Park.
Several other teams have recently signed agreements.
The Texas Rangers, who will play in a new stadium in Arlington in 2020, extended their contract last year with Globe Life, an Oklahoma City-based insurer, until 2048 at a very high price of 11. millions of dollars a year. The Atlanta Braves have signed the Sun Trust Bank in a 25-year deal, worth more than $ 10 million a year for their new dealerships in Cobb County.
SunTrust CEO William "Bill" Rogers said the money was worth it. The exhibition "exceeded our expectations of many," he told Atlanta Business Chronicle in March.
Mark Conrad, Professor and Director of Sports Business Concentration at Fordham University, explained that the price to get his name on a stadium depends on the attendance, the number of viewers and the size of the metropolitan market. Teams with national fans like the Yankees, Giants or Red Sox can also trade on their stamp.
An agreement with the spokes would make more sense for companies that want to make themselves known or develop in the Florida market, said Conrad. Thus, Publix, for example, might not be interested.
The Seminole Hard Rock Casino, another successful Florida business, has already paid to have its name on the Miami Dolphins Stadium and its gaming activity would probably not be good with Major League Baseball, which tends to be more conservative of four sports leagues, said Conrad.
There are pitfalls to linking the name of a team to a company, he warned. The Houston Astros spent $ 2.1 million in 2002 to buy back the naming rights of their sponsor to Enron, following the spectacular collapse of the energy company into a financial scandal.
"You have to do due diligence," said Conrad.
About a quarter of the companies that paid for naming rights are banks and insurance companies. Some of these agreements link the team or the owner of the team to deal with the bank, said Jim Andrews, senior vice president of ESP Properties, based in Chicago, who advises teams and companies on the value of the naming rights.
Sponsoring a stadium is also a way for a bank to show its commitment to a community, which can give it a competitive advantage, he said.
"If I'm a bank and I put my name on a stadium, he says," We're the local player here, "said Andrews." It's a great way to do that. "
Municipal leaders and local elected officials have said the private sector will have to step in to help the successful relocation of the shelves. This could range from buying season tickets to a naming rights contract.
The private sector outreach efforts, led by the Tampa Bay 2020 group, are only in their infancy, but initial feedback has been encouraging, said Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan.
Still, he thought that a case to name the Ybor City baseball stadium would be somewhere between the $ 2 million a year that the A look for and the $ 11 million traded by the Texas Rangers.
The details have not yet been established, Hagan said, and they will have to be coordinated with other company contributions.
"This is only part of any corporate sponsorship initiative," he said.
The Rangers and Braves finalized their naming rights agreements approximately three years before the opening of their new stadiums. Hagan said that Tampa still has a lot of time.
"We are still at least four years old," he said.
Contact Charlie Frago at [email protected] or (727) 893 8459 Follow @CharlieFrago. Contact Christopher O Donnell at [email protected] or (813) 226-3446. To follow @codonnell_Times.
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