Naming rights
For properties such as multi-purpose arenas, performing arts venues, or sports fields, the term ranges from three to 20 years.
On 17 November 2021, a 20-year, US$700 million sponsorship deal was reached between Anschutz Entertainment Group and Singapore-based Crypto.com to rename Los Angeles's Staples Center (the Staples office supply store chain was the previous naming rights holder to the arena, having held them since the venue's opening in 1999).
[7] Naming rights in United States may have been traced back to 1912 with the opening of Fenway Park in Boston.
[9] When this idea was rejected by Ford Frick, the Commissioner of Baseball at that time, Anheuser-Busch then proposed the title "Busch Stadium" after one of the company's founders.
The general public (and some media outlets) continued to call the facility what it had been known as for over three decades – i.e. Candlestick Park.
San Francisco voters responded by passing an initiative (Proposition H)[10] in the November 2004 elections that essentially stipulated the name must revert to Candlestick Park once the contract with Monster expired in 2008.
The initiative proved largely ceremonial, however, and it was overturned by the passage of Proposition C in 2009 in response to desperate economic times.
[23] Some newer bowl games have only ever had sponsored names; the Sunshine Football Classic in Miami was first played in 1990 as the Blockbuster Bowl, and has gone through multiple sponsorships since, including Carquest, MicronPC, Mazda, Champs Sports, Russell Athletic, Camping World, Cheez-It, and Pop-Tarts.
IndyCar follows suit, with most races embracing title sponsorship; the Indianapolis 500 was an exception until 2016, when it added a presenting sponsor for the first time.
[29] Television and radio series, especially in the early days of each medium in the early-mid 20th century, frequently sold the naming rights to their programs to sponsors, most of whom bankrolled the program; examples include The Fleischmann's Yeast Hour,[30] Texaco Star Theatre and The Philco Television Playhouse.
This form of sponsorship fell out of favor in the late 1950s, although later examples include Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, which originally aired from 1963 to 1988.
The naming services are limited to an entry in a book, and carry no scientific or official authenticity according to professional astronomers.
[31][32][33][34] In some places, and especially in the UK and United States, the naming or renaming of arenas or events is usually met with disapproval from the general public.
[40] Some major events—particularly the Olympic and Paralympic Games, as well as FIFA tournaments—prohibit the use of corporately-sponsored names on venues, construing the practice as a form of ambush marketing; affected venues are given a generic name for the duration of the event (e.g., General Motors Place was referred to as "Canada Hockey Place" during the 2010 Winter Olympics), and all sponsored signage is obscured or removed.
[43][44] Regina, Saskatchewan's REAL District was formerly named "Evraz Place"; when discussing its March 2022 rebranding, its owner Regina Exhibition Association Limited (REAL) stated that it had sometimes received shipments and communications meant for the Evraz steel company–mistakenly believing that the company's North American division was based there.
[45][46] A nonprofit organization has the option to recognize a major gift from a donor by bestowing naming rights to a property in recognition of the financial support.
For example, in honor of the more than $60 million donated over the years by one donor to the National Air and Space Museum properties, the directors of the Smithsonian Institution chose to name its satellite facility in Loudoun County, Virginia, after the donor, calling it the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.
