49ers look to score on name of stadium
JW
49ers look to score on name of stadium
Number being kicked around is $10 million a year
Patrick Hoge, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
A key part of the 49ers' plan to finance a new football stadium
involves selling the right to name the venue.
Although team officials won't publicly say how much they expect to
earn from selling naming rights, one expert said the stadium's name
could be worth $10 million a year. Another source told The Chronicle
that the team once predicted the stadium's name was worth $150
million.
The team expects to release a financial plan next month for the Santa
Clara stadium, which could cost up to $800 million.
Executives with the 49ers said they've been approached by several
companies interested in naming rights, and the team is now looking for
a consulting company to broker a deal.
Officials have reason to expect big money from naming rights. Within
the past five months, Citigroup has promised $400 million over 20
years to name the New York Mets' new "Citi Field" stadium, and British
bank Barclays will pay the same amount to name the Nets' basketball
arena in Brooklyn.
"This is an extremely high-profile marketplace, and the 49ers are one
of the strongest and most popular brands in professional sports, so it
will be a high-profile property," said David Peart, the team's vice
president of sales and marketing. In 2000, Peart negotiated what was
then a record-setting deal with Reliant Energy, which will pay $300
million over 32 years to name the Houston Texans' football stadium.
Experts agree that the 49ers' deal could top other regional naming
rights agreements. For example, Monster Cable pays about $1.7 million
a year to keep its name on the current Candlestick Point football
stadium. And Oracle Corp.'s deal to name the Oakland Arena, home of
the Golden State Warriors, reportedly will cost the company $30
million over 10 years.
Peart said it is difficult to compare deals, which can go far beyond
which company gets its name on a marquee. Companies can negotiate
rights to advertise on products such as cups, T-shirts and tickets, as
well as opportunities to market their products directly to fans.
Banks, for example, can get a piece of stadium financing and the
exclusive right to install ATMs inside the gates. Reliant Energy got
the contract to provide electricity to the stadium in Houston. In New
York, Citigroup will get access to a fast-growing regional sports
television network of which the Mets are majority owners.
Santa Clara City Councilman Kevin Moore, an ardent booster of bringing
the 49ers to his town, predicts that the naming rights deal could set
a record.
"I think it's just going to go through the roof," he said.
Some experts speculate that a new stadium in Santa Clara could command
a more lucrative naming deal than one in San Francisco's Hunters
Point, a former shipyard where Mayor Gavin Newsom wants the stadium.
The Santa Clara site is in the center of Silicon Valley and home to
several technology titans, including Intel, Sun Microsystems, Agilent
Technologies, Applied Materials and National Semiconductor. That site
is also more visible because it's across the street from the Great
America amusement park and the Santa Clara convention center.
"I believe Santa Clara is a more acceptable location, just because of
the numbers of people," said David Wilkinson, president of the
Wilkinson Group. The company helped secure the naming deal for the
Giants' ballpark. Pacific Bell, now AT&T, agreed to pay $53 million
over 24 years.
Dennis Howard, a professor at the University of Oregon's Warsaw Sports
Marketing Center, said he did not expect that the 49ers would be able
to top the $400 million Citi Field deal.
"San Francisco is not New York City. It's not the financial center of
North America," Howard said.
Prices for naming rights on football stadiums have averaged between $5
million and $7.5 million annually, and the 49ers could be expected to
get as much as $10 million a year, Howard said. About 70 percent of
all major sports venues now bear a corporation's name, he said.
Michael Cohen of San Francisco's Office of Economic Development said
no matter where the 49ers go, the naming rights would probably have to
be substantial.
"Any financing for any new stadium anywhere is going to depend
significantly on naming rights," said Cohen, who has been trying to
keep the team from heading to the South Bay.
The deals, although costly, can amount to highly valuable advertising
and marketing opportunities.
In November, Cisco Systems agreed to pay $120 million over 30 years to
name the Athletics baseball team's proposed stadium in Fremont "Cisco
Field."
At the ballpark, the company will be allowed to showcase new tech
products to baseball fans at a "customer solution center." The company
will also show off its technology by allowing fans to upgrade tickets
in kiosks, order food using a mobile device, and save replays to a
personal Web page, among other things.
"Our naming rights deal is really much more than the naming rights.
It's a business and technology partnership," said David Holland,
Cisco's treasurer.
Similarly, AT&T spokesman John Britton said his company has used its
relationship with the Giants to demonstrate and promote products, as
in 2004 when the company turned AT&T Park into the world's largest
Wi-Fi hotspot.
"We got worldwide press coverage for that," he said.
Mark Noonan, president of FocalSport, the Connecticut broker that
represented the Mets in the Citigroup deal, said there is plenty of
room for more innovative partnerships to fuel bigger naming rights
deals.
"The most interesting thing is that it (naming rights) continues to
pervade and get larger and larger," he said. "If it wasn't delivering
value, you wouldn't see the growth."
How about "INTEL STADIUM"?
"AMD PARK"?
"NVIDIA STADIUM"?
John