By Patrick Pearse`
With baseball opening day not too far away, teams are wrapping up sponsorship agreements and plans for the season. As the sport has evolved, stadium naming rights are one of the biggest sponsorship opportunities ensuring regular mention of a specific company or brand throughout all media surrounding the team.
The biggest stadium name changes of the year are coming from Seattle and San Francisco. With a heavy population of technology based businesses in the area it should come as no surprise that those tech companies are making their mark on the local teams.
In Seattle Safeco Field has become T-Mobile Park, making it the second major naming rights package the brand has bought into in the last several years. The 25-year naming rights agreement sold for $87.5 million dollars. Based in Bellevue Washington, T-Mobile’s choice to sponsor the stadium is a demonstration of commitment to the community and will likely include access to T-Mobile Park Suites for their top executives.
At just 19 years old, T-Mobile Park operations have been lobbying for the public owned stadium to invest in infrastructure updates including improvements to the roof system and the upgraded furniture in the T-Mobile Park Luxury Suites. At this time it is unclear how the T-Mobile naming right profits will be spent, but fans will likely see more than just magenta signage over the next coming months.
A bit further down the west coast AT&T Park has been renamed Oracle Park. This is the second Oracle named sports building in the bay area, solidifying the San Francisco based businesses prominent presence in the area.
The 20 year naming rights took over the agreement previously held by AT&T a year early. Over the next five years the company will partner with the Giants to invest in improvements throughout the stadium including a new state-of-the-art scoreboard and developing innovative technology specifically for the ballpark.
Oracle’s existing presence as suite level partner in the stadium made the naming transition a natural fit. Oracle Park suites feature a variety of game day options, including one suite that pays tribute to the long time San Francisco resident Tony Bennett. While exact improvements to the suites have not been formally announced we expect that the technology enhancements Oracle is known for will roll out through the premium seating sections.
No matter what you call your neighborhood ballpark we can’t wait to get out to one of the first games this season. Play ball!