Name Your Stadium, Then Leave It Alone

The Miami Dolphins recently announced a name change of their football stadium – again.

In a partnership with tropical-rock musician Jimmy Buffet, his restaurant chain and Anheuser-Busch InBev, the Dolphins now play in LandShark Stadium. The naming-rights agreement, however, will last only through the upcoming season, at which point the name will revert back to "Dolphin Stadium".

Although it’s probably a great idea for a sports team in South Florida to align itself, in any capacity, with Jimmy Buffet, I don’t quite see the point of renaming your stadium for just eight months. It defeats the whole purpose of the naming-rights practice, for both team and sponsor.

Unfortunately, during the last 20-30 years, pro and major college sports teams have veered away from naming their stadiums and ballparks in honor of the team or owner, or a prestigious member of the community, or the area the team calls home.

Gone are the days of great stadium names that adds character and personality to the team's brand like Candlestick Park, RFK Stadium, The Boston Garden and Maple Leaf Gardens.

We now live in the generic and pedestrian sports world of AT&T Park, FedEx Field, TD Banknorth Garden and Air Canada Centre.

Naming-rights deals with sponsors are very lucrative and irresistible to owners. Sponsor-named stadiums are here to stay, that’s just a fact of life that will never change.

But regardless of the lost art of great stadium and ballpark names, the absolute priority in any stadium name is consistency and longevity – it’s called branding.

A team’s stadium and stadium’s name is part of the organization’s brand and image. It’s in the same category as a team’s uniform, logo, mascot and even the team’s name.

Since leaving the Miami Orange Bowl in 1986 for a brand new stadium, the Dolphins have changed the name of their home ballpark four different times – and that’s not including the scheduled name change after the upcoming season.

What’s the point of even naming your stadium if your fans and community can’t remember the name or keep it straight?

According to a 1997 report produced by Performance Research, a marketing and sponsorship analysis company based in Newport, RI, it's imperative that sponsors consider the needs of the fans because unwanted and frequent name changes do more harm than good (click here for full report).

Okay, so frequent stadium name-changing hurts the sponsor. But why should the team care? The revenue generated via stadium naming-rights will ideally be the same whether it’s one sponsor paying on a 10-year contract or 10 sponsors paying on a single year deal.

Well, the team should absolutely care for two HUGE reasons:

1. The branding and image issues already referenced, and

2. Keeping your sponsors happy and healthy is vital to the success of your marketing and advertising efforts. The relationship with your sponsors doesn’t end the moment their check clears. It’s an ongoing process of work and communications to ensure they’re getting the most bang out of their buck. If your sponsor doesn’t see results on their money spent, they won’t be a sponsor for very long.

Interesting Fact: The first team to venture into the practice of stadium sponsored naming-rights was the St. Louis Cardinals in 1953. Anheuser-Busch, who owned the Cardinals, attempted to change the name of the team’s ballpark from “Sportsman’s Park” to “Budweiser Stadium.” But the idea was rejected by then-MLB Commissioner Ford Frick.

Anheuser-Busch countered with a proposed name of “Busch Stadium”, in honor of a company founder. That name was approved by the Commissioner’s Office and the ballpark was renamed. The beer company then cleverly released a new product called “Busch Bavarian Beer” (now known as Busch Beer) - So take that Frick!