Menu
Download the app

SBJ subscribers – Enhance your experience with the revamped iOS app

Facilities

Giants' Ballpark Now Named Oracle Park After Split With AT&T

This change marks the fourth name for the ballpark since it opened as Pacific Bell Park in '00 GETTY IMAGES

AT&T Park will be renamed Oracle Park, effective immediately, as the MLB Giants today will "announce a 20-year agreement" with the California-based tech company to "affix its name to their waterfront ballpark," according to a front-page piece by Henry Schulman of the S.F. CHRONICLE. Terms of the deal are "not being disclosed." But Giants President & CEO Larry Baer said it is "very much in line with other recent naming-rights deals for top-tier facilities." That could make the deal worth $300-350M, a "significant increase" over the roughly $100M the Giants "received over 23 years in the original naming-rights and marketing deal" that they signed in '96 with Pacific Bell. The AT&T signs installed in '06 are "being removed," to be replaced today with "temporary Oracle Park banners." Oracle gets to "place its name on another Bay Area sports venue now that the Warriors are moving to the new Chase Center" in S.F., and Oracle Arena in Oakland "will be renamed." This change marks the "fourth name for the ballpark since it opened" in '00. AT&T's naming rights "were to end" after the '19 season. But Baer said that during AT&T's exclusive window to renegotiate in late '18, they "told the Giants they were going in a different strategic direction." AT&T gave the Giants the "option of ending their deal a year early if the team could find a new partner in short order." Baer said that the team "called about a half-dozen of their marketing partners to gauge interest," and Oracle "jumped in." Oracle CEO Mark Hurd said that this investment was a "no-brainer, given a long-standing partnership with the Giants and the visibility it gained by the Warriors' three NBA championships over the past four years" (S.F. CHRONICLE, 1/10).

LONG-STANDING RELATIONSHIP: In S.F., Ron Leuty noted Oracle has been a "long-term sponsor of the Giants, first signing a deal" in '03 that then "evolved to sponsoring the ballpark's suite level for the past decade." The Oracle OpenWorld conference "wraps up each year with a top-tier musical performance at the ballpark, and the company holds several smaller, low-profile events there throughout the year." Baer: "It's been a comprehensive relationship. There's just an amazing amount of trust, and they're local -- they're not going anywhere. They know this building well." Leuty noted Oracle, founded by Larry Ellison, has a "long history of sports marketing, including the America's Cup and Oracle Arena." The deal "does not include the Giants' Mission Rock residential-office-retail development" (BIZJOURNALS.com, 1/9).

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2019/01/10/Facilities/Oracle-Park.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2019/01/10/Facilities/Oracle-Park.aspx

CLOSE