\nArrowhead Point of Anaheim<\/td>\n
\nNHL Hockey<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\nPhillips Arena<\/td>\n
\nNHL Hockey<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Gillette Stadium<\/td>\n
\nNHL Hockey
\nNFL Football<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\nRich Stadium<\/td>\n
\nNFL Football<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\nWrigley Field
\nUS Cellular Field<\/td>\n
\nMLB Baseball (Cubs)
\nMLB Baseball (White Sox)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\nPepsi Center<\/td>\n
\nNHL Hockey<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\nMinute Maid Field (formerly ENRON)
\nReliant Stadium<\/td>\n
\nMLB Baseball
\nNFL Football<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\nRCA Dome<\/td>\n
\nNFL Football<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\nNHL Hockey<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\nPro Player Stadium<\/td>\n
\nMLB Baseball<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\nExcel Energy Center<\/td>\n
\nNHL Hockey<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\nCitizens Bank Park<\/td>\n
\nMLB Baseball<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\nSavvis Center
\nEdward Jones Dome<\/td>\n
\nNHL Hockey
\nNFL Football<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\nForum<\/td>\n
\nFedEx Field<\/td>\n
\nNFL Football<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
Updated list found here<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Also: Naming Rights Online<\/a><\/p>\n Our anger started when the name of the Ballpark at Arlington changed to Ameriquest Field in Arlington. Well, it didn’t start there, but it was the last straw. We’re bombarded with corporate-logo info every day. It’s ubiquitous. And, of course, it’s hardly new. Here are key moments in the history of American corporate sponsorship, naming rights (which is not exactly the same as mere corporate sponsorship), product placements and celebrity endorsements. This is hardly comprehensive, but it was enough to make us want a stiff drink (we won’t say which brand).<\/p>\n The biggest shills<\/p>\n Tiger Woods: His golf earnings are a mere $6.67 million. Total earnings are more than $75 million.<\/p>\n LeBron James: The Cleveland Cavaliers star’s basketball earnings are a relatively low $4 million. But his $35 million in endorsements makes him the third highest-paid working American athlete, according to Sports Illustrated.<\/p>\n Andre Agassi: Nearly $25 million in endorsements for the charismatic tennis pro. You’d think the dude could ‘buy’ some hair.<\/p>\n Venus and Serena Williams: The only women on Sports Illustrated’s list of the 50 highest-paid American athletes, thanks largely to a combined $29 million in endorsements and appearance fees.<\/p>\n The sellout timeline, brought to you by the Star-Telegram.<\/p>\n Some key individual endorsements:<\/p>\n Adolph “Ad” Toepperwein: Unless you’re a firearms historian, you’re probably asking, “Who?” He was a young sharpshooter that Winchester approached in 1901, offering him an unlimited supply of bullets and a now-unknown sum of money to endorse the company’s products at shooting exhibitions. It’s believed to be the first such deal between a sportsman and a sporting-goods company.<\/p>\n Honus Wagner: The Pittsburgh baseball legend was one of the first pro athletes to endorse a commercial product. In 1905, he signed with bat-maker J.F. Hillerich & Son, allowing the company to stamp his autograph on their bats.<\/p>\n Red Grange: The “Gray Ghost,” a Chicago Bears running back, signed a deal in 1925 to endorse various products. He earned $250,000 that year from playing and endorsements. He was also one of the first athletes to have a personal agent.<\/p>\n Lou Gehrig: In 1934, the New York Yankees star becomes the first athlete to appear on a Wheaties box. But it wasn’t until 1958 that a jock (decathlon gold medalist Bob Richards) appeared on the front of a box.<\/p>\n Mary Lou Retton: In 1984, the chipper gymnast becomes the first female athlete to appear on the front of a Wheaties box (note to anal-retentive wiseguys: aviator Elinor Smith appeared on the ‘back’ of a Wheaties box in 1934).<\/p>\n By the numbers<\/p>\n 11: Pro-sports naming-rights deals completed so far in 2004. 16: Major-league baseball teams playing in a corporately named venue, now that the Texas Rangers are playing at Ameriquest Field. 18: Number of times Michael Jordan has appeared on a Wheaties box, the most by an athlete. Three of those were with his Chicago Bulls teammates. 26: NHL teams (out of 30) playing in corporately named venues. 70: Amount, in millions, that Tiger Woods makes in endorsements and appearance fees<\/p>\n The product placement hall of shame<\/p>\n Directors began including real products, rather than fake or generic ones, into their TV shows and movies to increase verisimilitude. Now companies pay for the privilege.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Pro football: The first pro-stadium naming-rights deal appears to have taken place in 1972, when Rich Products Corp., a Buffalo-based food-products manufacturer, acquired the naming rights for Buffalo’s new NFL stadium. Under the deal, the company paid $1.5 million for 25 years.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n You might ask, “What about Wrigley Field?” Well, Wrigley was named for William Wrigley Jr., who owned the Chicago Cubs at the time. So he didn’t, of course, pay for the naming rights, and neither did the chewing-gum company that bears his name.<\/p>\n NASCAR: Professional stock-car racing was struggling in 1971 when R.J. Reynolds, looking for new ways to get its message out after Congress banned cigarette ads on TV, gave the series an infusion of cash. The result: The Winston Cup – and a three-decade-long relationship between NASCAR and R.J. Reynolds that only ended last year, when Nextel took over RJR’s sponsorship of the series.<\/p>\n College: The first college-venue naming-rights deal happened in 1979, when Carrier Corp., a Syracuse-based air-conditioning manufacturer, paid a one-time $2.75 million fee for naming rights to the Carrier Dome.<\/p>\n College bowl game: The first, apparently, was El Paso’s John Hancock Sun Bowl in 1986, and if you’ve ever been to El Paso, a financial-service company and a Revolutionary War figure aren’t the first things that come to mind. This year’s game will be sponsored by Helen of Troy, an El Paso-based maker of personal-care products, which plans to call it the Vitalis Sun Bowl, after a hair product.<\/p>\n But well before the naming-rights era, there were bowl sponsorships: Coca-Cola and Anheuser-Busch sponsored the Orange Blossom Classic football game at Florida A&M in the 1950s. It’s thought to be the first such corporate sponsorship of a postseason game.<\/p>\n Pro basketball: In 1986, Atlantic Richfield Co. paid a reported $7.5 million for naming rights to the Sacramento Kings’ Arco Arena, the fist such deal in the NBA.<\/p>\n Entertainment: In 1990, Hardee’s acquires the right to rename the Walnut Creek (N.C.) Amphitheatre to the more cheesy — and more burgery — Hardee’s Pavilion at Walnut Creek. It’s believed to be the first naming rights agreement for an entertainment venue.<\/p>\n Baseball: The first deal takes place in 1990, when Coors Brewing Co. announces its bid for naming rights for a new Denver baseball stadium. Coors also is a part owner of the Colorado Rockies baseball team, which began playing when the stadium opened in 1995.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Naming-rights extremes<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 3Com Park, San Francisco, formerly the much more romantically named Candlestick Park. Now SBC Park, which is almost as bad.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Things you forget are named after corporations:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Times Square, New York, named for The New York Times Company<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sources: ESPN Sports Business<\/p>\n (espn.go.com\/sportsbusiness\/s\/stadiumnames.html<\/a> ); Naming Rights Online (www.namingrightsonline.com<\/a> ); Arizona Republic; El Paso Times; Business Week; Brand Strategy; Los Angeles Times; Sports Illustrated and Sports Illustrated for Kids; Wheaties official Web site (www.breakfast-of-champions.com<\/a> )<\/p>\n At (Your Name Here) Arena, Money Talks<\/p>\n May 30, 2004 GET your scorecard. You will need one to traverse a To paraphrase the sportscaster Al Michaels, do you believe And, really, who had ever heard of “naming rights” until a “In 1988, there were only three naming-rights deals with a That means that more than half the arenas and stadiums in The Staples Center, for instance, is not a distribution “I hope there’s no Viagra Stadium,” said Jeff Knapple, the STILL, people can become attached to the most mundane name, “There was some derision, but in the end, we were able to SBC, like other companies, is a serial namer. It also paid And Bank of America, after recently supplanting Ericsson, The market for naming rights reflects the undulations of CMGI Field, we hardly knew ye – and the New England Remember the CoreStates Center in Philadelphia, home of the How about that nice, retro Enron Field in Houston, the Well before Adelphia Communications crashed into Then there is the tale of Pro Player Stadium. Once, Pro You never know what will happen in a world where a team Thirty, 40 or 50 years ago, when fans sat in Tiger Stadium, Those days are gone. Players earn millions of dollars a “A lot of these make perfect sense, and others you look at, What do companies get for their money? There is no easy way In Houston, the Toyota Center has a showroom and a truck For Ameriquest Mortgage, of Orange, Calif., naming a Name recognition they get, but do companies log “We aren’t near the point that these deals are totally Bank of America is uncertain of the returns it will reap She acknowledged that the bank’s measurement of “customer But maybe there is some measurement, especially if you are “It’s a highly competitive market,” said William Mabee, “In the first four months, we went from zero recognition to PETCO PARK, said Shawn Underwood, a company spokesman for “Continually seeing our name,” Mr. Underwood said, “we Still, the notion of public companies spending millions on “Are they about pride?” she said. “Ego? Are they about
\nOur souls For Sale or Rent<\/h1>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.frankwbaker.com\/spacer.gif\"){kind=spacer}
\nBy Robert Philpot
\n
\nStar-Telegram Staff Writer
\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
\n
\n
\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\nBy RICHARD SANDOMIR<\/p>\n
\npeculiar, fast-growing marketplace in which companies
\ncraving public recognition and customers vie for the rights
\nto name arenas and stadiums after themselves.<\/p>\n
\nin Petco Park? Or Heinz Field? Or the Edward Jones Dome?
\n(Who knew that nice Eddie from the cul-de-sac even owned a
\ndome?)<\/p>\n
\ndecade or so ago? But they have become an indelible part of
\nsports marketing, a natural extension of corporations’
\nsponsoring of golf tournaments or buying of stadium
\nadvertising. This month, almost out of the blue, came word
\nthat the home of the Texas Rangers – with a nearly
\nincognito name, the Ballpark in Arlington – was being
\nrenamed Ameriquest Field. In return, the Ameriquest
\nMortgage Company is paying the Rangers $75 million over 30
\nyears.<\/p>\n
\ntotal contract value of $25 million,” said Dean Bonham,
\nthe chairman and chief executive of the Bonham Group, a
\nsports marketing company based in Denver that has
\nnegotiated many naming agreements. “Today, there are 66
\ndeals worth $3.6 billion.”<\/p>\n
\nprofessional baseball, football, basketball and hockey now
\nbear corporate names, creating new cultural touchpoints
\nthat may be difficult for fans accustomed to the sound of a
\nFenway Park or a Yankee Stadium.<\/p>\n
\npoint for paper clips and laser printers but the retailer’s
\ngigantic Los Angeles marketing tool, where the Lakers and
\nClippers play basketball and the Kings play hockey. And
\nMiller Park is not a giant kegger for beer drinkers but
\nhome to the Milwaukee Brewers, who get $2 million a year
\nfrom Miller Brewing.<\/p>\n
\npresident of Envision, a sports marketing company that has
\nmade many deals for naming rights. “Most owners would have
\na difficult time saying, ‘We took $10 million from Viagra.’
\n”<\/p>\n
\neven that of a telephone company. In San Francisco, Giants
\nfans accepted Pacific Bell as a civic link to the success
\nand beauty of what became known as PacBell Park. Before
\nthis season, though, it became SBC Park, reflecting a
\ndecision by SBC Communications to rename all its divisions,
\nincluding Pacific Bell and Ameritech.<\/p>\n
\nsell it as the same company,” said Larry Baer, executive
\nvice president of the Giants. “Pacific Bell had departed
\nfrom the language.” To soften the impact, season-ticket
\nholders got $100 ballpark replicas and SBC sponsored
\nopening-week giveaways.<\/p>\n
\nto name the SBC Center in San Antonio. There is also the
\nAmerican Airlines Center in Dallas and the American
\nAirlines Arena in Miami, as well as the overnight-delivery
\ndaily double: FedEx Field, the home of the Washington
\nRedskins, in Landover, Md., and the FedEx Forum, under
\nconstruction in Memphis, where the Grizzlies will play
\ntheir N.B.A. games.<\/p>\n
\nthe cellphone maker, at the Carolina Panthers’ stadium, is
\nnegotiating to replace the name of its new acquisition,
\nFleet Financial, on the Boston arena where the Celtics and
\nBruins play.<\/p>\n
\nAmerican business. Bankruptcies, mergers, the stock market
\ntumble and accounting scandals have resulted in a fair
\ndegree of discombobulation. Some stadiums and arenas
\nchanged their names, some lost their corporate identities
\naltogether and some were not around long enough to get one.
\nHere are some examples:<\/p>\n
\nPatriots never played in you. CMGI, an Internet marketing
\nand holding company, with its business floundering, bailed
\nout of its naming deal just weeks before the 2002 season
\nbegan, replaced quickly by Gillette, whose name has long
\nbeen synonymous with sports.<\/p>\n
\n76ers in basketball and the Flyers in hockey? It became the
\nFirst Union Center when the First Union Corporation bought
\nCoreStates Financial. Then First Union acquired Wachovia,
\nassumed that name and redubbed the arena the Wachovia
\nCenter. The bank kept paying for new arena stationery. “We
\ndidn’t particularly like changing the name,” said Peter A.
\nLuukko, president of Comcast Spectacor Ventures, which owns
\nthe arena. “But people found us. If I could do one thing
\nover, I’d have negotiated one name change, then we’d have
\nto open it up and negotiate a better fee.”<\/p>\n
\nhitters’ mecca? The Astros played there for nearly two
\nseasons as accounting tricks made Enron look as solid as
\nWal-Mart, but the discovery in 2001 of financial finagling
\nand its subsequent filing for bankruptcy protection led to
\nthe disappearance of Enron’s notorious name from the
\nballpark. The Astros made a wholesome switch to a juice
\nmaker a year later, and now they play in Minute Maid Park.<\/p>\n
\nbankruptcy protection in 2002 amid accusations that it was
\nlooted by its founding family, the Rigases, it agreed to
\npay $30 million over 15 years to the Tennessee Titans
\nfootball team to put its name on a new stadium. Today, what
\nwas once Adelphia Coliseum is simply the Coliseum, feeling
\na little unloved by the corporate world. After all, the
\nnearby Gaylord Entertainment Center, where the Predators
\nplay hockey, still has its name.<\/p>\n
\nPlayer was a highflying sports apparel maker with deals to
\noutfit National Football League teams. Its name seemed
\nperfect for the home of the Miami Dolphins and the Florida
\nMarlins. They’re all pro players, right? Fruit of the Loom,
\nwhich owned Pro Player, filed for bankruptcy protection and
\nshelved the Pro Player brand. The stadium still bears the
\nname ( Perry Ellis International bought the brand in 2001
\nand licenses it to makers of athletic wear) and Fruit now
\nbelongs to Warren E. Buffett.<\/p>\n
\ncan’t make a corporate sponsor do 500 sit-ups when
\nsomething goes awry. The Houston Texans started play in the
\nNational Football League in 2002 at Reliant Stadium, named
\nfor the utility Reliant Energy, which is paying $300
\nmillion over 30 years for the connection. Last month, a
\nfederal grand jury indicted several Reliant employees on
\ncharges of manipulating prices during the California energy
\ncrisis.<\/p>\n
\nBoston Garden or Crosley Field, sports facilities were
\nnamed, free, for a team, a city, an owner – or a coach,
\npolitician or soldier. It was as simple as Ebbets Field
\n(for Charles Hercules Ebbets, who owned the Brooklyn
\nDodgers) or as convoluted as the Polo Grounds. That
\nhorseshoe-shaped ballpark in upper Manhattan was a
\nsuccessor to polo grounds just north of Central Park where
\nthe New York Giants first played baseball. The Giants moved
\nnorth, but the name stuck despite its irrelevance to
\nbaseball.<\/p>\n
\nyear. Stadiums cost hundreds of millions to build. Teams
\ncan’t subsist on attendance of a million fans a year.
\nSponsorship has become a sophisticated business, with
\nnaming rights a crucial element. The parade of buyers has
\nincluded banks and other financial institutions (with
\nnearly a third of all the deals), energy companies,
\ninsurers, dot-coms, airlines, telecoms, auto companies,
\nbrewers and software makers hoping that every mention,
\nevery impression made by their names – now connected, if
\ntenuously, to Shaquille O’Neal, Barry Bonds or Peyton
\nManning – will build their credibility.<\/p>\n
\nyou wonder why did they do it?” said Jim Andrews, vice
\npresident of the IEG Sponsorship Report, a newsletter based
\nin Chicago. “The big benefit is the branding opportunity,
\nbut the big ‘why’ that jumps out is the Pepsi Center in
\nDenver. Pepsi doesn’t need name awareness.”<\/p>\n
\nto calculate a return on investment.<\/p>\n
\nthat hangs out of two former luxury suites. A giant bell
\ninstalled in left field at Ameriquest Field will clang (to
\nevoke the company’s logo) when a Texas Ranger slugs a home
\nrun. At the brand-new Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia,
\n“ballpark bankers” drive fans from the parking lot in golf
\ncarts, usher people to their seats, and, yes, discuss
\nopening new accounts. Petco Animal Supplies has pet
\nadoption days during Padres baseball games at Petco Park.<\/p>\n
\nstadium and sponsoring this year’s All-Star Game voting are
\npart of a plan to raise its profile – even though it made
\nits move in the year that the Rangers’ star Alex Rodriguez
\nwas traded to the Yankees. “Match the American dream for
\nhomeownership with the American pastime,” said Adam Bass,
\nvice chairman of Ameriquest. “Baseball is a game for the
\nentire family, and homeownership is the ultimate family
\noccurrence.”<\/p>\n
\nsubstantially more new sales or customers than if they paid
\nfor more traditional advertising or sponsorships? If they
\nare correct about a need for new ways to send their
\nmessages in an era when TiVo technology can make
\ncommercials obsolete, is attaching their names to sports
\nbuildings a sure thing?<\/p>\n
\nmeasurable,” said Mr. Bonham, the marketing executive.
\n“But 16 years ago, we had no clue. We have a better idea.
\nThe only true measure is how these relationships impact the
\nbottom line.”<\/p>\n
\nfrom replacing Ericsson on the stadium in Charlotte, N.C.,
\nbeyond a general appeal to the large number of customers
\nand employees in its hometown. “It’s not an awareness ploy
\nfor us,” said Cathy Bessant, Bank of America’s chief
\nmarketing officer. “Awareness is already quite high for
\nus.”<\/p>\n
\nsatisfaction and customer delight” was, shall we say,
\nevolving. “The desire for scientific precision hasn’t quite
\ncaught up with its availability,” she added.<\/p>\n
\nseeking the type of attention that Bank of America already
\nhas. Consider M&T Bank of Buffalo. It was about as well
\nknown in Baltimore as PsiNet, the Internet company that
\npaid to put its name on the Ravens’ football stadium but
\nthen went bankrupt. M&T acquired the Allfirst bank chain,
\nbased in Baltimore, and suddenly needed to be known there.<\/p>\n
\nsenior vice president for marketing at M&T, adding that his
\nbank was competing with Bank of America, Wachovia, SunTrust
\nand Mercantile. The M&T name replaced PsiNet’s last season
\n– at a cost of $75 million over 15 years. Up went the
\nexterior signs for M&T Bank Stadium: two that were 29 feet
\nhigh and 130 feet long and two that were 20 feet high and
\n17 feet long.<\/p>\n
\nthird place among 18 banks in our survey,” Mr. Mabee said.
\nAnd its customer retention rose. “I’d like to say it’s
\ngreat advertising, but we think the naming rights are a big
\npart,” he added.<\/p>\n
\nPetco, is not intended to compel Padres fans to buy bags of
\nIams cat food every time Phil Nevin hits a home run. But
\nthe chain has stores in every Major League Baseball market,
\nand it estimates that because of Petco Park, its name was
\nseen 200 million times in the first four months this year,
\ncompared with 230 million times for all of last year,
\nbefore the stadium opened.<\/p>\n
\nhope will make our name click with people, and say, ‘I want
\nto shop here.’ ”<\/p>\n
\nsuch endeavors rankles Nell Minow, editor of the Corporate
\nLibrary, an independent research firm that specializes in
\ncorporate governance. She wonders about shareholder returns
\nfrom these deals.<\/p>\n
\nschmoozing or returning value to shareholders? I’m not sure
\nthat brand recognition, unassociated with the product or
\nservice you sell, is valuable. If Nike wanted to do it, I
\ncould see it, but why a bank would do it is beyond me.”<\/p>\n