The Bills on Thursday made official their deal with New Era Cap for naming rights for the team's stadium. The stadium will now be known as New Era Field. Bills Owner Terry Pegula said, "It was important to the Bills organization that a stadium naming rights agreement made sense. ... We have a partner that makes sense on so many levels." Under the seven-year deal between the Bills and New Era, an exclusive cap collection will be launched, available only at the stadium. The signage transformation to New Era Field will be completed over the next 12 months. The Bills and New Era have been partners for 15 years (BUFFALOBILLS.com, 8/18). In Buffalo, James Fink noted the deal brings a corporate moniker to the stadium for the "first time in 18 years." It was in '98 that late Bills Owner and Founder Ralph Wilson "opted to put his own name on the venue after the expiration of the 25-year-old naming rights package with Rich Products Corp." New Era CEO Chris Koch said, "It's hard not to be emotional. This is an honor and privilege we don't take lightly. For me, this partnership is personal on so many levels." Fink noted New Era will pay the Bills slightly more than $5M annually for the naming rights and, along with other packages, the deal may be worth close to $40M. Pegula said that the deal is "about the present and the future." Pegula: "We look down the road and we look to the future. Ralph Wilson would have been proud to turn this page with us" (BIZJOURNALS.com, 8/18).
MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL: In Buffalo, Tim O'Shei in a front-page piece notes before this, New Era's venue advertising has been "limited to signage in baseball dugouts and stadium walls." As the Bills worked out their '12 stadium lease with Erie County and New York State, one of team's goals was to "provide a way for a company -- like New Era -- to buy the naming rights." That "influx of cash would be an attractive selling point to a new owner." Last month was when the Pegulas "officially offered Koch and New Era." Koch's wife Lindsey, who is VP/Strategic Branding at New Era, said, "It's not just sports. It's beyond that. This is about our community, our home, our making a stamp" (BUFFALO NEWS, 8/19). The AP's John Wawrow noted for the Bills, the deal "generates revenue to a small-market franchise that has at times struggled to remain competitive, and forced to regionalize east into Rochester and north into Toronto to broaden its base." For New Era, the agreement "marks a coming-out party" for a company that has become a "world leader in sports-related headwear" (AP, 8/18).
