Ticket reseller StubHub “has signed a six-year naming-rights deal with AEG for Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif.,” according to Don Muret of SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL. Starting June 1, StubHub Center “will be the new name of the multisport complex, owned and operated by AEG.” The facility will be “formally” relaunched on June 19 during the MLS Timbers-Galaxy game. StubHub and AEG officials “refused to discuss the financial terms or the length of the agreement, but sources put the deal’s length at six years.” AEG President of Global Partnerships Shervin Mirhashemi said that the “value is greater than that of the deal” Home Depot signed in ‘03 when the facility opened. The old agreement “carried a value” of $70M over 10 years. The deal “also gives StubHub exclusive marketing assets for the AEG-owned Galaxy, marking the company’s first partnership with an MLS team.” StubHub in November also replaced Home Depot as a “founding partner at Staples Center” as part of an overarching eBay/AEG global partnership. Mirhashemi said that StubHub “was the only company AEG talked to for naming rights, and the deal closed about one month after the subject was first brought up during the ticketing talks.” Mirhashemi added that the “process began in September, soon after Home Depot decided not to renew its deal.” StubHub is the “first ticketing company to put its name on a major league sports facility” (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 3/4 issue).
