The Sacramento Kings have hit the naming-rights market with a minimum asking price of $120 million to sponsor their planned $448 million downtown arena.
According to a team source, the Kings are in talks with companies for a 20-year deal ranging between $6 million and $8 million annually.
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The Kings plan to open a new arena in 2016.
Photo by: AECOM |
The team hired Front Row Marketing Services to conduct a valuation study for naming rights for the proposed new arena, which would open in late 2016.
To date, the Kings have no plans to hire an agency to help sell a deal, though that strategy could change, a team source said.
Kings officials declined to comment on the naming-rights talks, which one source said includes “solid discussions” from companies in the health care, technology, and financial services sectors.
The most recent naming-rights deal in the NBA came this summer, when Moda Health agreed to a 10-year, $40 million deal to rename the Portland Trail Blazers’ Rose Garden as the Moda Center.
Though the Kings’ proposed arena will not open for three years, team executives are aggressively shopping a package to brand the building. Terms of the arena deal call for the city to pay $258 million toward the cost of the $448 million facility and the team to pay the remainder.
In addition, the Kings on Nov. 22 filed with the city a plan calling for a 1.5 million-square-foot mixed-use development to be built around the downtown arena site.
“There are a lot of variables, but all things being equal, the price seems to be on the high side,” said Randy Bernstein, chief executive officer of Premier Partnerships, which brokered the Moda Center naming-rights deal. “Sacramento is a reinvigorated market. The big question is how much business is going along with the [naming-rights] purchase compared to a pure branding marketing platform. It’s an aggressive price.”
In addition to naming rights for the new arena, the Kings also plan to sell between eight and 12 founding partnerships in the new facility.
