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Naming Rights Gone Bad

We've seen numerous examples over the years of stadium and arena naming rights deals sold to corporations that for one reason or another a team wishes had never happened. Who can forget Enron Park (now, the memorable? Minute Maid Park) or the three names that the Baltimore Ravens stadium has had, only to wind up the eminently forgettable M&T Bank Stadium. There is the TD Banknorth Garden, which has had 34 names since construction was announced in 1993. Two other examples of the effect of corporate bankruptcies on naming rights can be found in Washington DC and Nashville. In Washington, the home of the Wizards and Capitals was originally known as the MCI Center, however that name was changed to the Verizon Center, when Verizon acquired the assets of MCI Worldcom in the wake of the Worldcom scandal. In Nashville, the Titans home stadium was originally known as Adelphia Coliseum. When the bankrupt Adelphia Communications missed a payment, the Titans terminated the contract and later sold naming rights to Louisiana-Pacific and it is now known as LP Field.

The latest example of problems with naming rights demonstrates the danger of naming a stadium after a living person. A minor league baseball stadium in Troy, New York, the home of the Tri-City ValleyCats of the New York-Penn League has been named the Joseph L. Bruno Stadium. Who is Mr. Bruno? He is the former majority leader of the New York State Senate and was instrumental in obtaining the $14 million needed to finance the stadium, which is owned by the local community college. That is all well and good and seems like a nice way to recognize a politician who has been good to the region and who is a fan of the team. The problem? Bruno is under indictment for allegedly pocketing $3.2 million for influencing peddling. He faces 20 years in jail if convicted on all counts.

The folks at the ValleyCats should have known the axiom about naming stadiums after people still living. There are several examples of those going bad, the most prominent of which is the University of Missouri's new basketball arena which opened in 2004. Benefactors Bill and Nancy Laurie (she is a daughter of Wal-Mart co-founder Bud Walton) wanted the arena named after their daughter Paige. However, almost immediately after it opened, Paige Sports Arena had to be renamed following allegations of academic fraud surfaced against Paige Laurie.

The moral of this story is two fold: 1) There is more than money at stake in any naming rights deal; it is a branding transaction and it is important to treat it as such since the public will associate that brand with you and you need to be doubly sure you wish to be associated with it, financially and with its image, and 2) never, I repeat, never name a building after a living individual regardless of the price that individual is willing to pay.

Full post as published by Sports Biz on March 18, 2009 (boomark / email).