Naming rights

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Naming rights are the right to name a piece of property, either tangible property or an event, usually granted in exchange for financial considerations. Institutions like schools, places of worship and hospitals have a tradition of granting donors the right to name facilities in exchange for contributions, with the general rule being that the larger the contribution, the larger the facility named.

Early examples include Herald Square and Times Square in New York, named for city newspapers, and Wrigley Field in Chicago, named for the family that owned the Wrigley Company.

The modern era of stadium naming rights in North America may have begun when the Anheuser-Busch company in 1966 proposed naming the then-new ballpark occupied by the St. Louis Cardinals, a franchise owned at the time by Anheuser-Busch, "Budweiser Stadium." When this idea was nixed by the Commissioner of Baseball, they then proposed the title "Busch Memorial Stadium" after one of the company's founders. The name was readily approved; Anheuser-Busch then immediately afterward released a product called "Busch Bavarian Beer" (now known as Busch Beer). The name would later be shortened to Busch Stadium and remained the stadium's name until it closed in 2005. By that time, Major League Baseball's policy had changed, and Anheuser-Busch (who retained the naming rights after selling the team) was able to use the same name for the Cardinals' new stadium which opened in April 4, 2006.

Another early example is when the New England Patriots of the National Football League sold the rights to name the stadium that they had constructed in Foxboro, Massachusetts in 1970-1971 to the Schaefer brewery.

The public reaction to this practice is mixed. Naming rights sold to new venues have largely been accepted, especially if the buyer has strong local connections to the area, such as the case of Coors Field in Denver. Selling the naming rights to an already-existing venue has been somewhat less successful, as in the attempt to rename Candlestick Park in San Francisco to 3Com Park. The general public, and some media outlets, continued to call the facility what it had been known as for over three decades, and the attempt was soon abandoned, although the venue has now been renamed Monster Park in another attempt to overcome its legacy as "Candlestick." San Francisco voters had the final say; they passed an initiative in the November 2004 elections that stipulates that the facility's name will revert to Candlestick Park once the current naming rights contract expires in 2008.

Naming rights for sports stadia also occurs in Great Britain. It is happening a lot with new stadia, e.g. the current stadium of Bolton Wanderers is the Reebok Stadium and Arsenal Football Club's new stadium for the 2006/2007 season is the Emirates Stadium, their previous ground being Highbury. In cricket the most famous example is The Oval, home of Surrey County Cricket Club. It has had several sponsors over the years, and is currently known as "The Brit Oval", having originally been known as the "Kennington Oval", the district of London in which it is.

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Examples of termination

In a few cases, naming rights contracts have been terminated prematurely. Such terminations may be the result of contractual options, sponsor bankruptcy, or scandals. Some examples:

In 1986, Villanova University opened a new on-campus basketball arena, du Pont Pavilion; the facility was largely financed by John du Pont, a member of the wealthy and influential du Pont family. When he was found guilty in the 1996 murder of Olympic wrestling gold medalist Dave Schultz, Villanova, with the tacit permission of the family, stripped du Pont's name from the facility, which is now known simply as The Pavilion.
The TD Banknorth Garden in Boston has carried 34 different names since its construction was announced in 1993. Originally named Shawmut Center, this was changed to FleetCenter after Fleet Bank purchased the former Shawmut Bank. This change occurred in 1995, before the arena was officially opened later in the year. After Fleet was purchased by the conglomerate Bank of America in 2004, the naming rights were purchased from Bank of America by the owner and operator of the arena, Delaware North Companies. During the search for a long-term naming rights deal, Delaware North Companies auctioned daily naming rights on internet auction site eBay. The price for one day of naming rights averaged $3000. From 10 February to 13 March 2005, the arena had a different name almost every day. (A legitimate offer to have the arena named Derek Jeter Center in honor of the Yankees shortstop in the heart of Red Sox Nation as a joke for a day was nixed, but the arena was known for two days as Yankees Suck Center.) After this period, the arena was named YourGarden. On 3 March 2005, Maine-based TD Banknorth, the U.S. subsidiary of Toronto-Dominion Bank, announced its purchase of the naming rights. They chose TD Banknorth Garden, which had already been the name of the arena for two days during the period of daily naming rights, with garden being used to evoke the memory of the former Boston Garden that once stood on Causeway Street and was the home of Boston Celtics teams that won 16 NBA Championships and Boston Bruins teams that won 5 NHL Stanley Cups. Ironically the name of the TD Banknorth Garden on 28 February 2005 during the period of daily naming rights was "Boston Garden."
Major League Baseball's Houston Astros faced a crisis in 2002 when Enron collapsed in one of the greatest business scandals in American history, as the team had signed a naming rights contract to name its new stadium Enron Field. The team hastily bought out the rest of Enron's 30-year naming rights contract and went to great extents to remove all evidence of Enron's presence in the park. For the rest of the year, the facility was known as Astros Field. The following year, the facility was rechristened Minute Maid Park after a new deal was signed with The Coca-Cola Company, whose Minute Maid division is headquartered there.
The Tennessee Titans of the National Football League faced a similar crisis in 2002 when Adelphia Communications went bankrupt in the midst of a similar financial scandal; its stadium was then known as Adelphia Coliseum. However, because Adelphia had missed a required payment in its naming rights deal, the Titans were able to exit the contract without financial penalties, although the team did have to spend money to remove Adelphia signage. The stadium is now known simply as The Coliseum.
The utility company Edison International chose in 2003 to exercise an option to exit the naming rights deal it had signed to place its name on the stadium originally known as Anaheim Stadium. The facility was then rechristened Angel Stadium of Anaheim.
In 2004, the new basketball arena at the University of Missouri was renamed almost immediately after it opened. The facility was first named Paige Sports Arena after the daughter of two major donors to the university. After allegations of academic fraud against the daughter surfaced, her parents removed her name from the arena, which is now known as Mizzou Arena.
The stadium in Miami Gardens that hosts the Miami Dolphins and the Florida Marlins was originally named Joe Robbie Stadium, after the owner of the Dolphins who built the stadium with private funds. Eventually the stadium was renamed Pro Player Stadium, because the Pro Player brand division of Fruit of the Loom bought the naming rights. In 2005, the stadium was renamed Dolphins Stadium, after the Fruit of the Loom company was purchased by Berkshire Hathaway and in 2006 to Dolphin Stadium.
The home ice of the Florida Panthers has gone through four different names in the seven years of its existence, first going by the Broward County Civic Arena for a short time before National Car Rental bought naming rights and had the arena renamed the National Car Rental Center until 2001. After this a new company stepped in and again the arena was renamed as the Office Depot Center. After a year where the arena stayed mostly vacant because of the NHL lockout, Office Depot withdrew its name, and in 2005, the arena became the BankAtlantic Center, named after a local bank.

As an extreme example of the phenomenon, the home ground of the Cronulla Sharks NRL team, originally known as Endeavour Field (to 1984) became Ronson Field (1985-86), reverted to Endeavour 1987, then Caltex Field (1988-95), then Shark Park (1996-99), now currently Toyota Park.

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Other examples

While the highest prices have traditionally been paid for stadium rights, many companies and individuals have found that selling their naming rights can be an important consideration in funding their business. In the last few years many new categories have opened up, such as the selling of the rights to name a new monkey species for $650,000.

Naming rights to public transit stations have been sold in Las Vegas [1]. Such sales have been contemplated in New York [2] and Boston, and ruled out in San Francisco. [3] A sponsorship for the MBTA's State Street station by Citizens Bank lasted from 1997 to 2000.

Now major metropolitan areas are putting their rights up for sale in schools, libraries, and just about every conceivable category. Hospitals and shopping centers have also been placed into naming rights. Although there are some that decry the increased commercialization of naming rights, the fact is that this is a concept that just keeps getting bigger each year.

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