Dodgers remain above the crowd on naming rights
BC-BBN-DODGER-STADIUM-MCCOURT Dodgers Won’t Sell Stadium Naming Rights, Team President Says c.2007 Bloomberg News By Danielle Sessa March 21 (Bloomberg) – The Los Angeles Dodgers won’t sell the name of Dodger Stadium because it would compromise one of the most well-known brands in Major League Baseball, club President Jamie McCourt said.
“I can’t even imagine it,” McCourt, 53, said in an interview today at Bloomberg News offices in New York. “I don’t think you will ever see Dodger Stadium have any other name but Dodger Stadium.” Half of baseball’s 30 teams play in stadiums with naming- rights agreements. The Dodgers might be able to match the record $20 million a year that the New York Mets will get from Citigroup Inc. to call their new ballpark “CitiField” when it opens in 2009, said Marc Ganis, president of the Chicago-based marketing firm SportsCorp Ltd.
“They are a bridge to Latin America and the Pacific and they have one of the great brands in baseball,” Ganis said.
The Mets’ $20 million-a-year record may soon be surpassed by the New York Giants and Jets of the National Football League, who plan to sell the rights to their new East Rutherford, New Jersey, stadium that’s scheduled to open in 2010. Ganis estimated that sale may fetch $25 million a year.
McCourt said the Dodgers would sell naming-rights sponsorships to portions of the stadium, such as parts of the grandstand.
Yankees The New York Yankees, who also are opening a new stadium in 2009, have said they don’t plan to sell naming rights – only “affiliation rights,” such as Yankee Stadium at “X” Plaza.
“I think that there’s really nothing like it,” McCourt said. “It’s the Yankees and the Dodgers, it really comes down to that in terms of Americana and baseball.” The Dodgers have played at 56,000-seat Dodger Stadium since 1962, four years after the team moved to Los Angeles from Brooklyn, New York. Five of the franchise’s six world championships were won since the club moved west.
McCourt and her husband, Frank McCourt, purchased the Dodgers for $430 million in 2004.
“Dodger Stadium and the team are two of the most storied, well-thought-of and revered sports entities in the industry,” said Dean Bonham of the Bonham Group, a Denver-based company which has worked on 11 stadium naming-rights deals. “There would be a significantly higher interest than what we would normally see.” -Editor: Sillup To contact the reporter on this story: Danielle Sessa in New York at +1-212-617-2301 or dsessa@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Sillup at +1-212-617-1262 or msillup@bloomberg.net.
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