Professional Baseball Naming Rights

By Bill Miller

Editor's Note: The following is part II in an ongoing series that will examine the sale of naming rights in various segments of the sports industry. Our first installment was Major League Baseball which you can view by clicking on the News & Analysis page on the left navigation bar...

With the announcement of the First Horizon Park agreement in Greensboro, there are now 59 naming rights deals in place in professional baseball. For the purposes of this analysis, this industry segment includes Minor League Baseball and the various independent professional baseball leagues. (Major League Baseball is not included in this analysis.)

Of the 59 facilities, five (Clearwater, Dunedin, Jupiter, St. Lucie & Tucson) are also the home of a major league team for spring training purposes. Another item to note is that two additional spring training facilities (Cracker Jack Stadium [Atlanta] & Progress Energy Park [Tampa Bay]) are not included in this analysis because they do not have teams playing there during the traditional baseball season.

The breakdown of naming rights agreements by classification is as follows:

• Class-AAA (13)

• Class-AA (9)

• Class-A (20)

• Rookie (1)

• Independent Leagues (16)

The league with the most corporately-named facilities is the Pacific Coast League with ten. Several leagues are tied for second place with five corporately-named facilities each.

In contrast to MLB, automobile-related entities and energy companies have been strong buyers of naming rights in professional baseball. Individuals are also a solid category with four facilities featuring names of people who acquired that right.

Perhaps one of the most important items to note is that most of the naming sponsors appear to have a solid connection to the market that they are buying naming rights for. This is not too surprising in light of the fact that professional baseball teams traditionally cannot generate massive national media opportunities for potential sponsors. Instead, they have to sell business opportunities and create a return on investment through a deeper connection with the local market.

Also, as was the case with MLB, financial institutions are also a strong buyer of naming rights at the lower levels of the game.

For contract length, ten-year terms appear common with some deals running on a year-to-year basis while others go for the life of the facility. In terms of arrangements with finite life spans, Memphis has a 25-year agreement which is the longest.

The largest naming rights agreement is in Sacramento where the Class-AAA River Cats have a reported 20-year, $15 million agreement in place with Raley's Supermarkets.

Looking forward, it is likely that we will continue to see more naming rights agreements signed in professional baseball in the near term. The ability to generate revenue either for the bottom line or for creating the capital necessary to construct a new stadium has become a virtual necessity. The continuing new stadium cycle that is now filtering through to the lower levels of professional baseball will also help fuel this trend.

Updated 12/10/2004.

Bill Miller is Executive Vice President at The Leib Group, LLC in Mequon, Wisconsin. He is a regular contributor to Naming Rights Online and can be reached at bmiller@namingrightsonline.com.