What's in a name? If you're the Los Angeles Dodgers and you rename your ballpark for a corporate sponsor, probably more than $100 million over 20 years, naming-rights experts say.
The Dodgers will consider renaming Dodger Stadium only if current efforts to raise ballpark revenue fail, President Bob Graziano said. In-stadium signage was increased this year, and new luxury boxes — leasing for $375,000 a year — are being sold for next.
"You have to look at everything," Graziano said. "We're not going to rule anything out, but at the same time, you have to be respectful of the history of not making this too commercial of a park."
Asked what form a deal might take, Graziano said: "We haven't gotten that far."
Sponsorship experts say two factors would make a Dodgers naming-rights deal the most lucrative ever for a baseball venue: Los Angeles' status as the nation's second-largest media market and parent News Corp.'s vast broadcast and entertainment empire.
Enron Corp.'s $100 million deal to dub the Houston Astros' new ballpark for 30 years ranks as baseball's largest naming-rights agreement to date.
"It has to be worth $120 million [over 30 years] on a comparative basis alone," said Simon Wardle, vice president of Sponsorship Research International, which tracks the media value of sponsorships. "But add to that all the media coverage and [News Corp.'s] reach, and I've got to believe it's worth a lot more."
But there might be some diminution in potential value of the sponsorship because of "missed opportunities," Wardle said.
"Some people will continue to call it Dodger Stadium instead of the sponsor's name," he said. "New venues get a 100 percent hit rate because there's nothing else to call it."
Another sponsorship-valuation agency, Joyce Julius and Associates Inc., was a little more cautious. Its research found that a top-15 market generates about $100 million to $120 million worth of exposure for a naming sponsor over 10 years, and that corporations typically seek a 3-to-1 or 4-to-1 return on their investment.
By that measure, a Dodgers deal would be worth $50 million to $80 million over 20 years. But Julius Senior Executive Vice President Cindy Shevrovich said a Los Angeles deal would be worth considerably more simply because of market size.
"The value of the marquee alone, with all those people walking by it, would be astronomical," Shevrovich said.
Ballpark naming deals have not been as lucrative as those for arenas, mostly because arenas are in use two to three times as often as baseball stadiums. That's where News Corp.'s other holdings come in.
News Corp. owns Fox Entertainment Group Inc., which includes movie and television studios, broadcast, cable and regional sports networks. It also owns a satellite broadcasting system, TV Guide, 40 percent of the New York Knicks, the New York Rangers and the Los Angeles Staples Center, which opens in October.
Dodger Stadium has already been used as a pay-per-view concert venue, and, theoretically, concerts and games could one day be broadcast nationally and internationally.
The only recent naming-rights deal involving a venue owned by a traditional media company was Time Warner Inc.'s 20-year agreement with Philips Electronics, worth as much as $185 million, to name the new Atlanta arena for the electronics company.
