The White Sox' new ballpark naming-rights deal with mortgage lender Guaranteed Rate is "worth a fraction of the team's previous contract with U.S. Cellular," according to Danny Ecker of CRAIN'S CHICAGO BUSINESS. Illinois Sports Facilities Authority records show under the 13-year agreement announced last week that renames the South Side ballpark Guaranteed Rate Field, the White Sox will get $20.4M "over the next 10 years for naming rights, or about" $2M per year. Ecker noted that compares to the $3.4M that U.S. Cellular "paid the team on average per year since it bought naming rights to the park" in '03 for a 20-year term. It is also "substantially less than the average fee for naming rights to MLB venues." But naming rights alone "may not paint the full picture of the value the Sox get from the Guaranteed Rate deal." The Chicago-based company also "signed a second, separate sponsorship agreement with the Sox." Guaranteed Rate said that deal includes "various branding, promotional and hospitality benefits, along with joint marketing opportunities." That means the team could "still be pulling in as much or more overall from Guaranteed Rate than it did from U.S. Cellular" (CHICAGOBUSINESS.com, 9/1). In Chicago, Peter Matuszak notes the deal to change the facility's name to Guaranteed Rate Field "runs through" '29, and if the agreement is "extended for a year, the authority would receive" $6.4M in all. The amount of money the contract could give to the White Sox was "limited by the terms of the team's stadium lease, which state that any additional money received for naming rights after the U.S. Cellular deal 'shall be used in the stadium in a manner agreed upon between the team and the authority'" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 9/2).
