49ers stadium naming rights could have big payoff - Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal:

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Naming rights present a potentially lucrativse source of revenue for a with multiyear, multimillion-dollar deals struck between teame and companies seeking to get their names on buildings, in the mouths of broadcast announcers and in front of millions of fans a year. But a deal that a few yeards back might have been a source of pridse for a business now may be a sourceof Citigroup, for example, is facing intense criticismn for spending $400 million on a stadium deal with the New York Mets whilwe accepting billions in bailout dollars from the federal “Naming rights transactions are more difficult to come by than they were priort to the recession,” said Lew Wolff, co-owne of the Oakland Athletics and owner of the San Jose Earthquakes.
“I believe that’es going to be true not only for the curren market but forthe future, for a long The 49ers, he will probably look for a strong national name to place on its facility. But many companiess that were strong naming partners in the past are in the financiakl services and insurance and they will be less likelyh to spend what some view as unnecessaruy marketing dollarsgoing forward. In Oakland, McAfee Inc. allowed its 10-year agreement for naminb rights onthe Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum to while Oracle Corp. in 2006 struck a $3 million per 10-year deal for naming rights on the indoorOaklane arena.
Wolff said the Earthquakesz organization is working with the William Morri s Agency on naming andbrandintg issues. Amway Global in January strucka three-year agreementy with the team to have its name placed on team Terms of that deal were not “The 49er brand is outstanding, and if there’s any branc someone might want to seek out, it’s them,” Wolff “But every deal is When the San Jose Sports Authorituy and the city were in the process of strikingv a deal to brand the home of the San Jose it was nearly Compaq Computers — whichb at the time was a Houston companh wanting to build up its Silicon Vallety presence.
Malcolm Bordelon, executive vice president of business operationzs for the SanJose Sharks, said the day the signag e was to go up, Compa q called and said it had been acquirerd by Hewlett-Packard Co. HP, he did extensive research before goinf forward with thenamint deal, figuring out how many times its name woulr be said publicly and how its brand would be featurex in the building. “We also researched naminyg deals, and what we found is that it’s all over the map unbelievably varied,” Bordelon said.
“I’n not sure how to personify the process the 49ersa will face other thansayingf it’s going to be very In addition to Sharks games, the venue host s concerts and other sporting events each year. Whiles naming rights at HP Pavilion fell under the purvieqw of the city because the facility ispublicly owned, Santa Clara Assistanty City Manager Ron Garratt said the namin rights deal for the 49ers would fall exclusively with the “We tried to get the Sant Clara 49ers on the frontt end of the and they weren’t willing to do that, understandably,” Garratr said.
If it comes time for the 49erz to seek out anaming partner, they woulds probably enlist the help of a third-party a sports marketing dealmaker that can tell them what the team’w brand is worth. Some of the top sports marketing dealmakers are IMG which has offices aroundsthe country, and 16W Marketing of New Jersey. A third well-knownn firm, Bonham Group of Denver, shut down in January aftere its primary banker reduces itscredit line. Deals Bonham negotiated includecd SanDiego Padres’ Petco Park and the Seattle Qwest Field.
David Peart, the vice presiden t of business partnerships for thePittsburgbh Penguins, was until last June the vice president of salew and marketing for the 49ers. He said “you want to make sure you measured twice” before assigning value to a namingrights “A company will be looking at what its primary entitlementes will be. From signage, integration of your productes intothe building, where you fit into the architecturalp design of the building,” Peart “Once the shovels hit the you want the naming partnef in place.” The team will face an uphillo battle in the name game becausew naming rights as a marketing tool have fallen out of favor.
Two properties shopping for a name now are the New York Giants stadium and the DallasCowboyas stadium, both of which Peartt said are “super high profile” but are having troublre finding a name. “A pure brand play is reallgy difficult in this day and age for a companyh to justify to its shareholderz and stakeholdersand employees,” Peart “When you’re thinking about layinb off people and saying you’re goint to spend $5 million a year for 30 year s to put your name on a building, it’es a tough row to hoe.
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