The independent St. Paul Saints Monday announced that the team "had sold the naming rights" for its city-owned, $65M ballpark to Twin Cities-based CHS Inc., the nation’s "largest farmer-owned cooperative," according to Kevin Duchschere of the Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE. Financials details were unavailable, but officials said that the deal "will run 13 years." Revenue from the naming rights "will be tied to attendance," meaning the "more fans who show up at the ballpark, the more CHS will pay." It "wasn’t clear how that might be structured, and the Saints weren’t talking." Under terms of the lease that the city and the Saints signed last year, anything the team gets "over $500,000 from naming rights would go to the city" to pay down the $1.2M balance on the $6M loan that St. Paul "made to itself last year to close a last-minute funding gap." Once that loan is paid off, naming-rights revenue "would revert to the Saints." CHS President & CEO Carl Casale said that the company’s decision to buy the naming rights was "driven by its desire to make the corporate name better known to the public and potential employees." Despite CHS being a Fortune 100 company, with revenue last year of $44.5B, Casale said that more people "recognize its products -- Cenex gasoline, Marie’s salad dressings, Dean’s Dairy Dip -- than its name" (Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE, 9/9). In St. Paul, Frederick Melo noted the ballpark -- set to open in '15 -- is still "little more than a cement foundation and broken gravel." Saint co-Owner Mike Veeck said negotiations for naming rights took "a couple of months." Meanwhile, Saints co-Owner Marvin Goldklang said that while the money "played a large role, it wasn't the bottom line in going with CHS." He said CHS has built its reputation around "fun, family, farms," which is close to the team's philosophy. Melo noted CHS' "business territory is a near-perfect match with the Saints' baseball region." The Saints "regularly play teams from the Midwest and Great Plains, including Sioux Falls, Wichita, Fargo-Moorhead, Lincoln and Winnipeg." CHS will "gain access to the ballfield in the off-season for promotional outreach to its member-owners and employee use, such as kick-offs for United Way campaigns" (ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS, 9/9).
