No More Naming Rights Deals For Stadiums?
Over the last couple of decades we've gradually become accustomed to every stadium and sports park bearing the name of a business which has paired dearly for the naming rights. That may be at an end for now because of the bad economy. If it is indeed the end of an era it went out with a bang, the new home of the New York Mets, Citifield will bear the name of the Citigroup brand in a 20-year, $400 million deal said to be the most lucrative ever (a deal they are honoring despite recent events).
Stadiums with existing contracts have to hope their sponsor company doesn't go bankrupt and become unable to pay but for those new stadiums seeking a revenue stream these are bad times. As I mentioned last October, the Cowboys have a new $1.1 billion stadium expected to be completed by next June and they are looking for a naming-rights deal that could be worth hundreds of millions. There are less and less companies now that would be interested in a deal of this magnitude. Also where once a deal could be seen as good publicity to a company, now there is the growing concern that such an arrangement might be seen as wasteful for a company, especially for companies which have cut jobs.
